Air intake method and controller for engines performing stratified charge combustion

A combustion controller for an internal combustion engine having an air intake passage and an injector for injecting fuel, wherein lean charge combustion of mixture of the air and the fuel is executed within a combustion chamber, the controller comprising:

• ignition means for igniting the mixture within the combustion chamber;
• a swirl control valve for selectively opening and closing the air intake passage to swirl the mixture within the combustion chamber;
• an actuator for driving the swirl control valve;
• opening detecting means for detecting an opening angle of the swirl control valve;
• condition detecting means for detecting operating conditions of the engine;
• injection control means for controlling the fuel injection timing of the injector to execute the lean charge combustion in accordance with the detected operating conditions;
• ignition control means for controlling the ignition timing of the ignition means in accordance with the detected operating conditions;
• first computing means for computing a load value representing the engine load in response to the detected operating conditions;
• second computing means for computing a target opening angle of the swirl control valve in response to the computed actual engine load value;
• swirl control means for controlling the force of the swirl by controlling the opening angle of the swirl control valve through the actuator in response to the computed target opening angle;
• and
• correcting means for correcting at least one of the ignition timing and the fuel injection timing when the detected opening angle is different from the computed target opening angle.