Intake air pre-cleaner with aspirator port chamber for collecting and holding particles for later aspiration

A pre-cleaner for aspirating particles from a flow of air to an intake of an internal combustion engine, comprising:

• a housing enclosing an upper chamber and an aspirator port chamber;
• the upper chamber containing a plurality of particulate separator tubes arranged in an array, each of the tubes including an air inlet in communication with atmosphere for receiving a portion of the flow of air containing the particles, at least one element within the tube for separating the particles from the air, a clean air outlet for passage of the air from the tube en route to the intake, and a particulate outlet for passage of the separated particles from the tube into the upper chamber, at least a substantial portion of the particulate outlets being located within a predetermined area in the upper chamber having a predetermined horizontal extent, the aspirator port chamber being located directly beneath and upwardly open to the upper chamber, the aspirator port chamber containing an upwardly facing particle collecting surface located substantially directly beneath the predetermined area in position such that the particles passing from the particulate outlets can fall thereon and collect and settle thereon, a generally horizontally facing aspirator port located beyond the horizontal extent of the predetermined area adjacent to and facing the particle collecting surface, and an element for connecting the aspirator port to an exhaust tract of the engine such that exhaust flow through the exhaust tract will create suction in the upper and aspirator port chambers toward the aspirator port;
• wherein the aspirator port has a predetermined vertical extent, and the particle collecting surface has a predetermined horizontal extent in a direction directly facing or substantially aligned with the aspirator port sufficiently greater than the vertical extent of the aspirator port such that when the suction is too weak to aspirate the particles through the aspirator port and into the exhaust tract the particles can fall onto and collect and settle on the particle collecting surface so as to form an upwardly facing particle surface which is generally oriented at an angle of from about zero to about thirty degrees to horizontal in the direction aligned with the aspirator port, and such that later when the exhaust created suction is stronger the stronger suction can aspirate the collected particles through the aspirator port and into the exhaust tract.

A pre-cleaner for an air induction system of an internal combustion engine, comprising:

• a housing enclosing an upper chamber and an aspirator port chamber located beneath and upwardly open to the upper chamber, the housing including a generally horizontally facing aspirator port in the aspirator port chamber and an element for connecting the aspirator port to an exhaust tract of an engine such that exhaust flow through the exhaust tract alone can generate suction conditions in the aspirator port for aspirating contents of the aspirator port chamber through the aspirator port and into the exhaust tract, the aspirator port having a predetermined vertical extent;
• the upper chamber containing a plurality of particulate separator tubes arranged in a predetermined array, each of the tubes including a particulate outlet through which particles removed from air flowing through the tubes en route to the engine are discharged into the upper chamber, substantially all of the particulate outlets being located directly over the aspirator port chamber such that the particles can flow or drop downwardly directly into the aspirator port chamber for aspiration through the aspirator port into the exhaust tract the suction conditions;
• wherein an upwardly facing surface in the aspirator port chamber defines a trough located adjacent to the aspirator port having a horizontal extent in a direction substantially directly facing the aspirator port equal to at least about one and one-half times the vertical extent of the aspirator port.