JP7164409B2 - Internal combustion engine oil filter adapter - Google Patents

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an adapter used to attach an oil filter to an engine body in an internal combustion engine.

In internal combustion engines, oil filters are used to purify the oil, but there are various locations for oil filters. If it is difficult to attach the oil filter directly to the engine body such as the cylinder block or front cover, it is necessary to use an adapter to clean the engine. It is attached to the main body.

An example thereof is disclosed in Patent Document 1. In the example of Patent Document 1, the adapter has a horizontally elongated posture orthogonal to the crankshaft, one longitudinal surface is fixed to the front wall of the engine, and one end and the other end are provided with an oil filter and an oil filter. A cooler is selectively attached. The adapter is formed with a flange overlapping the front wall of the engine, and this flange is fixed to the front wall of the engine with bolts.

JP 2005-273484 A

In Patent Document 1, the flange through which the bolt penetrates extends long in the longitudinal direction of the body. Also, although the adapter is formed with an oil passage, it should be considered to reduce the weight of the adapter by devising the arrangement of the oil passage.

The present invention has been made against the background of such a situation, and aims to provide an oil filter adapter that can be reduced in weight while ensuring strength.

The oil filter adapter of the present invention is
"At one end of an elongated body containing an oil passage, a fastening portion fixed to the engine body is formed, and the fastening portion has a flange fixed to the engine body with bolts. The other end is formed with a receiving seat for mounting the oil filter.
Further, the body incorporates an oil feed passage for sending pre-cleaned oil to the oil filter and an oil return passage for returning cleaned oil. , of the fastening portion, is opened at the overlapping surface with the engine body, and the terminal end of the oil feed passage and the beginning end of the oil return passage are opened at the receiving seat.”
It has a basic configuration.

And in the invention of claim 1, in the above basic configuration,
"A recess is formed so as to be continuous with the flange in at least one of side surfaces located on both left and right sides in a front view that is a direction view orthogonal to the overlapping surface of the fastening portion of the body, and the recess is formed so as to be continuous with the flange. A first outer rib extending parallel to the superimposed surface of the flange and a second outer rib intersecting the flat surface of the flange are formed by dividing the recess into front and rear parts in the front view.
configuration is added.

In addition, the invention of claim 2 is, in claim 1,
By arranging the oil feed passage and the oil return passage so as to overlap in the front-rear direction in the front view, it is allowed to narrow the lateral width of the portion where the recess is formed in the front view. there is
It is configured.

In the present invention, by forming a recess in the body, the amount of material used for the adapter can be suppressed, contributing to weight reduction and cost reduction. In addition, since outer ribs that are parallel to the overlapped surface of the flanges and continuous with the flanges are formed in the recesses, the flanges are in a state as if they were extended, providing high resistance to bending and twisting. and ensure high strength. Therefore, the adapter can be made lighter without sacrificing strength.

In the structure of claim 2, the oil feed passage and the oil return passage formed inside the body overlap front and rear in a front view. Further weight reduction can be achieved by omitting meat. Therefore, by forming the oil passage as in claim 2, it is possible to effectively utilize the recesses and reduce the weight.

Furthermore, in the present invention , since the recesses are reinforced by two kinds of outer ribs having different postures, it is more suitable for increasing the strength. Conversely, even if the recess is deepened, high strength can be ensured by the two types of ribs, so weight reduction can be promoted.

1 is a front view of an internal combustion engine to which an adapter of an embodiment is applied; FIG. (A) is a front view of the adapter, (B) is a side view of (A) taken along line BB, and (C) is a rear view of the adapter. (A) is a side view of IIIA-IIIA in FIG. 2(A), (B) is a cross-sectional view of IIIB-IIIB of FIG. 2(C), and (C) is a cross-sectional view of IIIC-IIIC of FIG. 2(A). is. (A) is the IVA-IVA bottom view of FIG. 2 (A), (B) is the IVB-IVB cross-sectional view of FIG. 2 (A), and (C) is the BB cross-sectional view of (C). 3B is a perspective view similar to FIG. (A) is a partially broken perspective view seen from the back direction, and (B) is a partial perspective view seen from the side direction.

Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described based on the drawings. Hereinafter, terms such as front-rear and left-right are used to specify directions, and the front-rear direction is the direction of the crank axis, and the left-right direction is the horizontal direction perpendicular to the crank axis. The vertical direction is the vertical direction.

(1) Outline of Internal Combustion Engine An internal combustion engine to which the present embodiment is applied has a cylinder block 2 and a cylinder head 3 whose front surfaces are covered with a front cover 1. An oil pan 4 is fixed to the lower surface. All of these constitute the main body of the engine. In the internal combustion engine of this embodiment, the cylinder bore axis 5 is slightly inclined with respect to the vertical line 6 .

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 7 is a crankshaft, reference numeral 8 is a crank pulley, reference numeral 9 is an alternator pulley, reference numeral 10 is an air conditioner compressor pulley, reference numeral 11 is an accessory drive belt, reference numeral 12 is an auto tensioner pulley, and reference numeral 13 is a pulley. A water pump pulley is shown.

An oil filter 16 is detachably attached via an adapter 15 to a portion of the front surface of the front cover 1 opposite to the pulley 10 of the air conditioner compressor with the crank pulley 8 therebetween. Although the oil filter 16 is slightly inclined in the direction opposite to the direction of inclination of the engine body, it is generally elongated vertically. Therefore, hereinafter, the longitudinal direction is pseudo-vertically referred to as the vertical direction, and the direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction in front view is referred to as the lateral direction.

A substantially upper half portion of the adapter 15 overlaps the lower portion of the front cover 1 when viewed from the front, and is fixed to the front cover 1 by three bolts 17, 18, and 19, ie, first to third bolts. On the other hand, the lower half of the adapter 15 protrudes below the front cover 1 and has an oil filter 16 attached to its lower end surface. The oil filter 16 is arranged concentrically with the longitudinal line of the adapter 15 .

(2) Details of Adapter 15 The adapter 15 of the embodiment is an aluminum die-cast product, and as can be understood from FIG. 2, basically has a body that is almost cylindrical. Approximately the upper half of the body serves as a fastening portion 20 having a superimposed surface 20a overlapping the front cover 1. The fastening portion 20 is formed with a flange 21 protruding to one side in the left-right direction as viewed from the front.

For example, as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2C, the fastening portion 20 is formed with first to third bolt insertion holes 22, 23, and 24. As shown in FIGS. Of these, the first bolt insertion hole 22 positioned at the upper end is formed in the upper portion of the flange 21 and is positioned near the longitudinal centerline of the adapter 15 when viewed from the front. Also, the second bolt insertion hole 23 is formed in the lower portion of the flange 21 and is positioned on the left side of the longitudinal center line. On the other hand, the third bolt insertion hole 24 is located on the opposite side (right side) of the second bolt insertion hole 23 across the longitudinal center line of the body.

Of the three bolts 17 to 19 shown in FIG. 1, the first bolt 17 positioned at the upper end and the second bolt 18 positioned farther outside from the crank pulley 8 are inserted through a through hole in the front cover 1. is screwed into the cylinder block 2. Therefore, it has a fairly long length.

On the other hand, a third bolt 19 positioned closer to the crank pulley 8 is screwed into the front cover 1 . Therefore, the length of the third bolt 19 may be shorter than that of the first and second bolts 17 and 18, but it is troublesome to prepare and use bolts of different lengths. The same length as the first and second bolts 17, 18 is used. Therefore, the third bolt insertion hole 24 is formed in a boss portion 25 projecting from the body.

If a short bolt is used as the third bolt 19, the third bolt insertion hole 24 must be formed in a flange protruding outside the body, resulting in an increase in the size of the adapter 15. On the other hand, if the third bolt insertion hole 24 is formed in the boss portion 25 as in the present embodiment, the adapter 15 as a whole can be made compact because the flange protruding outside the body is unnecessary.

As described above, the adapter 15 is an aluminum die-cast product, but a pair of outer molds sandwiching the adapter 15 from the left and right are used as molds for manufacturing. Therefore, the ridges 26 formed on the mating surfaces of the outer mold appear on the front surface and the back surface.

As shown in FIGS. 2(C), 3(B) and 3(C), the overlapping surface 20a of the fastening portion 20, which overlaps the front cover 1, has an oil feed passage upper portion 27 into which oil before purification flows, An oil return passage upper portion 28 through which purified oil is discharged is vertically aligned and open. Needless to say, in the front cover 1, an oil passage communicating with the oil feed passage upper portion 27 and an oil passage communicating with the oil return passage upper portion 28 are opened. into which the oil pressure-fed from the oil pump flows.

On the other hand, a circular receiving seat 29 is formed at the lower end of the body, and as shown in FIGS. An inner cylinder 31 forming a lower part 30 is arranged. The tip of the inner cylinder 31 is a male threaded portion into which the oil filter 16 is screwed, and this male threaded portion is exposed below the receiving seat 29 .

For example, as clearly shown in FIG. 4(C), the body is formed with an oil reservoir 32 so as to surround the inner cylinder 31, and a portion of the bottom of the oil reservoir 32 positioned in front of the inner cylinder 31 is formed. In addition, the lower part 33 of the oil feed passage is formed in a long posture in the longitudinal direction of the body.

As shown in FIGS. 3B and 3C, the oil return passage lower portion 30 communicates with the oil return passage upper portion 28, and the oil feed passage lower portion 33 communicates with the oil feed passage upper portion. 27. The upper portion 27 of the oil feed passage and the upper portion 28 of the oil return passage are slanted so as to shift forward toward the bottom in a side view. For this reason, an inclined ridgeline portion 34 rising from the flange 21 is formed on the upper portion of the body. The inclined portion 34 is located above the boss portion 25 .

As shown in FIGS. 3(B), 3(C) and 4(C), the oil reservoir 32 has a depth substantially equal to the outer diameter of the receiving seat 29 and has a considerable capacity. Therefore, it can function as an auxiliary tank for the oil pan 4 . Thus, in order to allow the oil reservoir 32 to hold a large capacity, the portion of the body where the oil reservoir 32 is provided is the large diameter portion 35 .

4, the body has a plate-like inner rib 36 extending in the longitudinal direction of the inner cylinder 31, connecting the lower end surface of the inner cylinder 31 and the inner peripheral surface of the oil reservoir 32. It is Accordingly, the oil reservoir 32 is partitioned forward and backward by the inner rib 36 at its lower portion. That is, the oil reservoir portion 32 is formed in a non-loop shape. The inner rib 36, the outer rib 41 and the flange 21 are formed in parallel.

For example, as shown in FIGS. 2(A) and 2(C), the inner part of the oil reservoir 32 has a tapered shape when viewed from the front. It is tapered. The narrowed portion is indicated by reference numeral 37, and the portion above the narrowed portion 37 is a narrow portion 39 having flat portions 38 on the left and right sides. The slanted ridgeline 34 described above is formed. It is also possible to connect the narrow width portion 39 to the large diameter portion 35 without forming the narrowed portion 37 .

The reason why the narrow portion 39 is formed is that the oil passages 27, 28, 30, 33 exist in the portion above the tapered portion 37 in the body in a state of being overlapped in the front-rear direction. This is because there is no problem even if it is slimmed down.

The outer diameter of the receiving seat 29 is determined by the size of the oil filter 16, but in principle, the size of the rest of the seat 29 may be sufficient to form an oil passage. In this embodiment, due to the presence of the oil pool 32, the volume of the portion of the body close to the receiving seat 29 cannot be reduced, but the portion above the oil pool 32 should be slimmed down with priority given to weight reduction. is possible.

Since the oil feed passages 27, 33 and the oil return passages 28, 30 overlap in the longitudinal direction, a narrow width portion 39 is formed above the oil reservoir portion 32, as clearly shown in FIG. Moreover, by forming the recess 40 on one side surface of the narrow portion 39, the weight of the adapter 15 can be reduced.

In order to prevent a reduction in strength due to the formation of the recess 40, a first outer rib 41 extending in the axial direction of the body and a second outer rib 42 inclined parallel to the ridge line of the inclined portion 34 are formed. is doing. The first outer rib 41 is continuous with the flange 21 at approximately the same height as the front surface of the flange 21, and has a overlapping surface of the flange 21 (synonymous with the overlapping surface 20a of the fastening portion 20) and a front surface of the flange 21 ( flat surface on the outside).

The recesses 40 are divided in the front-rear direction by the first outer ribs 41 . Therefore, a space 43 opening toward the front cover 1 is provided behind the first outer rib 41 (on the side closer to the front cover 1).

(3) Summary In the above configuration, the oil filter 16 is attached to the lower end of the adapter 15 in a vertically elongated position, so that the oil reservoir 32 is always filled with oil both during operation and after the engine is stopped. ing. Therefore, when the capacity of the oil pan is small, the oil reservoir 32 can be used as an auxiliary tank for the oil pan 4 . As a result, the necessary amount of oil can be secured without increasing the number of parts.

While the fastening portion 20 requires a certain amount of lateral width and length (area) in order to secure the fixing strength to the front cover 1, in the present embodiment, the oil feed passages 27, 33 and the oil return passages 27, 33 By arranging the passages 28 and 30 in the front-to-rear direction, a narrow width portion 39 with a narrow lateral interval is formed in the body. Since the flange 21 and the narrowed portion 37 are connected, the flange 21 and the body are firmly connected, and the resistance to bending and twisting of the adapter 15 can be significantly improved.

Therefore, it is possible to reduce the weight of the adapter 15 while ensuring high fastening strength to the front cover 1 . Forming the second outer ribs 42 in an inclined posture further increases the section modulus, so that the rigidity of the adapter 15 can be further improved.

In fixing the adapter 15 to the front cover 1 with the three bolts 17 to 19, in the embodiment, since the second bolt 18 and the third bolt 19 are arranged on both sides of the axis of the adapter 15, Sealability between the front cover 1 and the front cover 1 can be improved with a small number of bolts.

Since the recess 40 is formed at the boss portion 25 where the third bolt 19 is arranged, the boss portion 25 plays a role of reinforcement and suppresses a decrease in strength due to the formation of the recess 40. can. Therefore, in the present embodiment, the boss portion 25 and the first outer rib 41 have a reinforcing effect on the recess 40, so that the narrow portion 39 can be slimmed down as much as possible and high strength can be ensured.

The present embodiment is applied to an internal combustion engine for an automobile, and the internal combustion engine is mounted in the engine room in a lateral orientation with the crankshaft oriented in the vehicle width direction. Therefore, when the automobile runs, the running wind flows in the left and right directions in the state shown in FIG. 1, and the front part of the front cover 1 serves as a path for the running wind, so the adapter 1 is exposed to the running wind over its entire height. . Since the adapter 1 is made of die-cast aluminum and has a high thermal conductivity, the oil inside can be efficiently cooled by running wind. Therefore, the adapter 1 functions as an air-cooled oil cooler. As a result, deterioration of the oil can be suppressed. This point is one of the advantages of the present embodiment.

The present invention can be embodied in many other ways. For example, the arrangement posture of the adapter 15 does not necessarily have to be vertically long. It is also possible to form flanges on both left and right sides of the narrow portion and to form recesses and ribs on both left and right sides. Moreover, the present invention can also be applied to an adapter that does not have an oil reservoir. The adapter can also be attached to a cylinder block, an oil pan, or the like.

The present invention can be embodied in an oil filter adapter for an internal combustion engine. Therefore, it can be used industrially.

1 Front cover that constitutes the engine body 4 Oil pan 7 Crankshaft 8 Crank pulley 15 Adapter 16 Oil filter 17, 18, 19 Bolt 20 Fastening part 20a Overlapping surface that adheres to the front cover 21 Flange 22 to 24 Bolt insertion hole 27, 33 Oil feed passage 28, 30 Oil return passage 29 Receiving seat 34 Inclined portion 35 Large diameter portion 36 Inner rib 38 Flat portion 39 Narrow width portion 40 Recess 41 First outer rib 42 Second outer rib

Claims (2)

A fastening portion fixed to the engine main body is formed at one end of an elongated body containing an oil passage, and the fastening portion has a flange fixed to the engine main body with bolts. A receiving seat is formed at the end to attach the oil filter.
Further, the body incorporates an oil feed passage for sending pre-cleaned oil to the oil filter and an oil return passage for returning cleaned oil. is a structure in which the fastening portion is open at the overlapping surface with the engine body, and the terminal end of the oil feed passage and the start end of the oil return passage are open at the receiving seat,
A recess is formed so as to be continuous with the flange in at least one of side surfaces of the body located on both left and right sides in a front view that is a direction view perpendicular to the superimposed surface of the fastening portion, and the recess is formed. a first outer rib extending parallel to the overlapping surface of the flange and a second outer rib intersecting the flat surface of the flange are formed by dividing the recess into the front and rear in the front view,
Adapter for internal combustion engine oil filter. By arranging the oil feed passage and the oil return passage so as to overlap in the front-rear direction in the front view, it is allowed to narrow the lateral width of the portion where the recess is formed in the front view. ,
An oil filter adapter for an internal combustion engine according to claim 1.

Images