Priority oil system
AssigneeFord Global Technologies, LLC
InventorsEva Barber, Chip Hartinger, John Edmund Brune
Life of this patent
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Abstract
The present invention comprises an oil system for supplying and controlling oil flow in an internal combustion engine having a variable camshaft timing (VCT) device, comprising a pressurized oil supply providing lubricating oil to the engine and the variable cam timing device and an oil circuit connecting the oil pump with the VCT and a main oil gallery of the engine via a valve apparatus. The valve apparatus responds to oil pressure near the outlet of the oil pump so that oil flows to the main oil gallery when oil pressure is above a predetermined pressure. When the VCT requests oil flow, oil pressure in the system drops. If the pressure drops below the predetermined pressure, the valve apparatus causes a reduction in flow to the main gallery.
Claims20
An oil system for supplying and controlling oil flow in an internal combustion engine having a camshaft timing device, comprising:
- an oil pump for supplying pressurized lubricating oil to the engine and the variable cam timing device:
- an oil circuit connecting said oil pump with the variable camshaft timing device and a main oil gallery of the engine via a valve apparatus, said valve apparatus responding to oil pressure near the outlet of said oil pump wherein said valve apparatus causes oil to flow to said main oil gallery when oil pressure is above a predetermined pressure and substantially shuts off oil flow through said valve apparatus to said main gallery when oil pressure is below said predetermined pressure
- a solenoid valve in an oil passage between said oil pump and the variable camshaft timing device;
- and
- a controller operably connected to the engine and the solenoid valve, said controller allowing oil to flow to said variable camshaft timing device when an adjustment of the variable camshaft timing device is desired.
A method for supplying oil to a main oil gallery of an internal combustion engine and a variable camshaft timing device coupled to a camshaft of the engine, comprising:
- providing an oil pump coupled to the engine;
- providing piping to conduct oil between said oil pump and the variable camshaft timing device and between said oil pump and the main oil gallery;
- and
- providing a valve apparatus in said oil piping between said oil pump and the main gallery, wherein flow through said valve apparatus to the main oil gallery is stopped when a pressure on the oil pump side of said valve apparatus is less than a predetermined pressure.
A valve apparatus for directing oil flow though oil circuitry in an internal combustion engine having an oil actuated variable camshaft timing device, comprising:
- an inlet port coupled to an oil pump;
- an outlet port coupled to a main oil gallery in the engine;
- a spring disposed within said valve apparatus;
- and
- a member disposed within the valve apparatus upon which outlet pressure of said oil pump acts in a first direction and a spring force of said spring acts in an opposite direction to said first direction wherein said member assumes a first position when said pressure is less than a predetermined pressure and said member assumes a second position when said pressure is greater than a predetermined pressure, said first position is such that said member occludes at least one of said outlet ports.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.