Internal-combustion engines – Charge forming device – Auxiliary air or oxygen added to combustible mixture
Reexamination Certificate
2003-04-29
2004-02-17
Mohanty, Bibhu (Department: 3747)
Internal-combustion engines
Charge forming device
Auxiliary air or oxygen added to combustible mixture
Reexamination Certificate
active
06691688
ABSTRACT:
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to nitrous oxide fuel systems for fuel injected internal combustion engines, and, more particularly, to a nitrous oxide plate system for fuel injected engines that enables more rapid generation of more horsepower and optimizes balance of the engine cylinders.
BACKGROUND
Many automobile enthusiasts labor long and hard to ensure that their prize possession, their automobile, is able to make a respectable showing in competitive quarter mile races. To accomplish that objective, the enthusiast needs to ensure that the automobile engine is able to rapidly generate the highest horsepower possible of which the engine is capable in the shortest time.
In a conventionally fueled internal combustion engine, vaporized fuel, such as gasoline or alcohol, is introduced through a carburetor and mixes with air drawn into the engine manifold to form a combustible mix. The combustible mix is drawn through an intake runner of the manifold and, ultimately, into a cylinder of the engine in which the combustible mix is ignited by the spark produced at the spark plug in the cylinder. The resultant explosion inside the combustion chamber of the cylinder produces the mechanical force on a piston. The forced movement of the piston is ultimately mechanically transferred through the transmission to the wheels of the automobile, which propels the automobile. That combustion process repeats for each cylinder in the engine.
A fuel injected engine, on the other hand, doesn't employ a carburetor to form the combustible fuel and oxygen mix. Instead, the outside air is drawn into the engine through an air intake manifold and is individually distributed to the multiple engine cylinders by individual intake air runners. Fuel injectors are located in the runner near the intake valve of the respective cylinders. The injectors receive fuel via a fuel line. At the appropriate point in the engine cycle, the injector associated with a given cylinder injects a measured amount of fuel into the associated intake runner at a location adjacent the cylinder. That injected fuel mixes with the air drawn to that region through the runner to form the combustible mix, which is drawn through an open intake valve into the cylinder combustion chamber. During the compression cycle, that mix is ignited by the cylinder spark plug. The force of the resultant explosion in the cylinder drives the cylinder piston. Typically the multiple fuel injectors in a multi-cylinder engine are individually computer controlled, which provides much better control of combustion than available with those engines employing carburetors. It is noted that fuel is not always present in the intake runners during engine operation as is the case with engines that employ carburetors. Instead the combustible mix is present in a runner for only a short interval and in a very limited region of the runner.
In either system, the proportion of oxygen in a given volume of air relative to the other components of the air, such as nitrogen, is relatively fixed. Typically, through proper carburetion or fuel injection, the ratio of oxygen and fuel in the explosive mixture is set to the optimal ratio known to achieve the most efficient explosion. To enhance performance in automotive racing application beyond that possible with conventional fuel systems of the foregoing type, racing enthusiasts learned to inject nitrous oxide (“N
2
O”) into the cylinders along with the combustible mix introduced by the carburetor or fuel injectors and accompany the nitrous injection with an added injection of additional fuel.
Air typically contains about 15% oxygen (by volume) while Nitrous Oxide contains 33% oxygen. When heated to elevated temperatures available within the engine during combustion, the nitrous oxide decomposes into molecules of nitrogen and oxygen gases. Oxygen is thereby released and added to the oxygen in the air introduced through the runner. That additional oxygen enriches the combustible mix in the cylinder. To a limit, the greater the percentage of oxygen in the combustible mixture, the stronger the resultant explosion when the mixture is ignited. Therefore, when nitrous oxide is included as part of the combustible mixture, the power of the explosion is greatly increased, producing increased horsepower from the engine. The additional fuel accompanying the nitrous oxide prevents the combustible mixture from becoming too lean as could cause overheating and damage to the engine. As an advantage, a nitrous oxide system may be used in stock engines without requiring expensive engine modification.
Two principal techniques for introducing the nitrous oxide are currently in use. One is by injection of the nitrous oxide directly into the intake runners of the engine. The other technique is injecting the nitrous oxide into the plenum of the intake manifold.
The first, often referred to as a nitrous nozzle system, employs multiple nozzles, each containing a pair of outlets for individually expressing both nitrous oxide and fuel. Each nozzle is placed directly into a respective one of the intake runners and is connected to nitrous and fuel lines. When the nozzle system is activated during engine operation, nitrous oxide and fuel are introduced into a respective runner by the nozzle associated with that runner. The nitrous oxide is stored in a canister under high pressure and in liquid form. When the nitrous oxide is expressed from the nozzle, the nitrous changes from the liquid state to what is said to be a predominantly gaseous state. The vaporized nitrous oxide essentially impacts at high velocity the fuel simultaneously being expressed. The force of impact atomizes the expressed fuel and the nitrous oxide mixes with that fuel. That mixture merges into the combustible air/fuel mixture being drawn into the intake runner through the carburetor. The nozzle system is considered the optimal technique for delivering nitrous oxide to the engine. A recent nitrous nozzle system, as example, is presented in U.S. Pat. No. 6,520,165, granted Feb. 18, 2003 to Steele, entitled “Nozzle for Emitting Nitrous Oxide and Fuel to Engines”.
The second technique is referred to as a nitrous module or, as variously termed, a nitrous plate system. The nitrous plate system employs a generally flat rectangular or square metal plate that contains a central opening or passage through the thickness of the plate that is sized to match the plenum of the intake manifold, and at least one pair of spray conduits that extend across that central passage. The plate is sandwiched between the carburetor and the plenum of the intake manifold of the engine. The spray conduits respectively introduce the nitrous oxide and fuel into the intake manifold plenum. In operation, nitrous oxide and fuel are applied through respective passages in the plate and into the ends of the respective spray conduits, where the respective fluids are expressed through the jets or small spray holes in the side of the conduits into the central opening to merge with the combustible air/fuel mixture being drawn through the carburetor. One nitrous plate system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,839,418 to Grant entitled Dual Stage Nitrous Oxide and Fuel Injection Plate, granted Nov. 24, 1998 (the “'418 Grant patent”). A more improved plate system appears in the copending application of Chestnut, the present inventor, and Lowe, Ser. No. 10/039,839, filed Oct. 26, 2001, entitled Nitrous Oxide Plate System for Engines.
Both the nozzle and the plate system include a liquid flow restrictor or calibrator, generally referred to as a jet orifice or, simply, jet to restrict the respective nitrous oxide and fuel flow rates through the respective nozzles and the spray conduits of the plate. Those jets are installed in-line with the respective nitrous oxide and fuel lines, typically inserted in the fitting. The size of the orifice in the respective jets regulates the amount of nitrous oxide and fuel introduced through the spray conduits, and, thereby, regulates the level of horsepower attained from the engine.
Edelbrock Corporation
Goldman Ronald M.
Mohanty Bibhu
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