JPS60175715A - Lubricating system for engine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent oil from temperature rise in the normal running of an engine by providing an oil reservoir having stored oil amount controlled by a drain valve to increase the effective oil amount in an oil pan in the cool engine while decreasing the oil amount in the hot engine. CONSTITUTION:In the normal running of an engine 10, since a relief valve 42 and a drain valve 50 in a filter unit 28 provided integrally with an oil reservoir 44 are closed, oil introduced into the filter unit 28 from an oil inlet 32 is filtered through a filter 40 and then flows into the reservoir 44 from an inlet 48 to be stored therein. When the engine 10 is stopped under this condition, oil in the reservoir 44 is sent to an oil pan 18 by fine amount through a leak port 58. Also, in cold start of the engine since the viscosity of oil is high and oil pressure in the oil inlet 32 is increased to open the relief valve 42 and the drain valve 50, oil flowing into the reservoir 44 is not reserved, but returned to the oil pan 18.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] 〔Technical field〕 The present invention relates to an engine lubricating device.

[Prior art]

A specified amount of lubricating oil is injected into the engine's oil pan, and this lubricating oil is forced into a filter device by an oil pump, filtered, and then distributed to the moving parts of the engine (2). . The oil that lubricates various parts of the engine returns to the oil pan through a passage.

Conventional engines have the following problems because the amount of oil stored in the oil pan (that is, the oil level in the oil pan) cannot be changed in accordance with engine operating conditions.

That is, when the engine is warm, the lubricating oil is stirred by the crankshaft and air bubbles are mixed into the oil, causing the oil temperature to rise unnecessarily due to the heat loss phenomenon and causing the lubricating oil to deteriorate prematurely. If you reduce the amount of lubricant injected to solve this problem, it will take a long time for the viscous lubricant to be pumped up to the top of the engine by the oil pump and then fall back into the oil pan during a cold start. The oil level in the oil pan temporarily drops, causing the oil pump to suck in air. This phenomenon is called an oil pumping phenomenon, and causes abnormal engine noise as well as poor lubrication.

In the prior art, it is known that the oil pan (3) is divided into two chambers using a partition wall, and a thermostatic valve is installed on this partition wall to promote engine warm-up (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. No. 53-65536) does not solve the above problem because the oil level in the oil pan remains unchanged.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention was devised in view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, and the amount of oil stored in the oil pan (
The object of the present invention is to provide a lubricating device that can increase or decrease the oil level.

[Structure of the invention]

Therefore, the lubricating device of the present invention provides a small-capacity oil reservoir in the lubricating circuit located above the oil pan in an engine equipped with a lubricating circuit that filters lubricating oil in the oil pan using a filter device and then supplies the moving parts of the engine. A drain port leading to the oil pan is provided at the bottom of this reservoir, and a drain valve is provided in this drain port, which opens when the engine is cold and closes when the engine is warm (4). It is.

With this configuration, when the engine is cold, the lubricating oil in the oil reservoir returns to the oil pan, increasing the amount of oil in the oil pan and raising the oil level. Therefore, no oil pumping phenomenon occurs during startup.

After the engine warms up, the drain valve closes, so some of the lubricating oil is stored in the oil reservoir. As a result, the amount of oil in the oil pan decreases, causing the oil level to drop. Therefore,
The chances of the lubricating oil in the oil pan being agitated by the crankshaft are reduced.

In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the oil reservoir is arranged parallel to the filter device.

Conventional filter devices are equipped with a relief valve.
When oil pressure increases due to filter clogging, etc., lubricating oil bypasses the filter and flows. This embodiment of the present invention utilizes this relief valve to open and close the drain valve, and therefore the drain valve is connected to this relief valve. (5) when cold.

Due to the high viscosity of the lubricating oil, the oil pressure inside the filter device increases, similar to when the filter becomes clogged, opening the relief valve and opening the associated drain valve. As a result, the lubricating oil in the oil reservoir falls into the oil pan.
The oil level in the oil pan will rise. When the engine warms up, the viscosity of the lubricating oil decreases, so the relief valve closes and the drain valve closes accordingly. Therefore, after warming up, some of the lubricating oil is stored in the oil reservoir, so the oil level in the oil pan decreases. The oil reservoir is equipped with a small-diameter leak port in order to return lubricating oil from the oil reservoir to the oil pan when the engine is not operating for a long period of time.

In another embodiment of the invention, the oil reservoir comprises a container mounted within a rad cover to the cylinder, and the drain valve comprises a temperature sensitive shut-off valve, such as a thermostatic valve.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the attached drawings (6). I will clarify.

FIG. 1 is a schematic cross-sectional view of an engine equipped with a lubricating device according to a first embodiment of the present invention. As is well known, the engine 10 includes a cylinder block 12, a cylinder head 14, a cylinder head 16, and a cylinder block 10. An oil pan 18 is fixed to 12. A strainer 20 is suspended in the oil pan 18 by a stay 22, and the filtered lubricating oil 24 is pumped into an oil pump (not shown) built in the cylinder block and driven by the crankshaft.
is sucked up from the suction pipe by the filter device 2.
After being sent to the oil pan 18 and filtered, the oil is distributed to the crankshaft journal and valve mechanism through oil passages similar to conventional oil passages, and then returned to the oil pan 18. Filter device 2
8 is removably attached to the cylinder block 12 via a bracket 30.

FIG. 2 shows an enlarged cross-section of filter device 28. FIG.

The oil inlet 32 of this filter device 28 is connected to the inlet 34 of the bracket 30, and the oil outlet 36(7) is connected to the supply port 38 of the bracket 30.

Lubricating oil is supplied to the inlet 34 from an oil pump, and the supply port 38 communicates with an oil passage inside the engine. The oil that has entered the oil inlet 32 is filtered by a filter 40 as shown by the arrow, and is sent to each part of the engine through an oil outlet 36 and a supply port 38. A spring-loaded relief valve 42 is provided between the oil inlet 32 and the oil outlet 36, and is used to remove lubricating oil from the filter 40 when the oil pressure at the oil inlet 32 becomes high due to clogging of the filter 40 or other causes. The oil is bypassed and flows out to the oil outlet 36.

The oil reservoir 4 of the present invention is located on the side of the filter device 28.
4 is placed. The oil reservoir 44 is preferably integrally formed within the housing 46 of the filter device 28 as shown. The oil reservoir 44 communicates with the inside of the filter device 28 through an inlet 48, and a drain port 1.52 that is opened and closed by a drain valve 50 is provided at the bottom. Drain valve 50 and relief valve 42
and is connected by a rod 54. The drain port (8) 52 passes through the drain hole 56 of the bracket 30 to the oil pan 1B (FIG. 1). oil reservoir 4
A small diameter leak port 58 is provided near the bottom of 4.
The oil in the oil reservoir 44 flows out little by little toward the oil pan.

During normal engine operation (when the engine is warmed up and the filter 40 is not clogged), the relief valve 42 and drain valve 5 are
0 is closed. The oil in the filter device 28 thus flows into the oil reservoir 44 through the inlet 48 and is stored there.

Therefore, the amount of oil stored in the oil pan 18 is reduced by that amount, and the oil level is lowered.

When the engine is stopped, the oil in the oil reservoir 44 leaks into the oil pan 18 little by little through the leak port 58.
After a long period of time, the oil reservoir 44 becomes empty and almost all of the oil remains in the oil pan. For this reason,
As time passes after the engine stops, the oil level in the oil pan increases (9).

As shown in FIG. 3, during a cold start, the viscosity of the oil increases, resulting in the same condition as if the filter 40 were clogged, the pressure at the oil inlet 32 increases, and the relief valve 42 opens. As the drain valve 50 opens in conjunction with this,
The lubricating oil that has flowed into the oil reservoir 44 immediately returns to the oil pan without being stored there. Therefore,
Since the oil level in the oil pan does not drop, the above-mentioned oil pumping phenomenon of the oil pump does not occur.

Figures 4 to 6 show a second embodiment of the invention, in which components common to the first embodiment are designated by the same reference numerals. Second
In the embodiment, the oil reservoir 44 is provided within the rad cage 16 to the cylinder. The drain port 52 of the oil reservoir 44 is opened and closed by a drain valve 50 comprising a temperature sensitive element such as a bimetal or shape memory alloy.

As shown in FIG. 5, the drain valve 50 is closed after the engine is warmed up, and a portion of the (10) melt oil scattered from the valve train is stored in the oil reservoir 44.

Therefore, the oil level in the oil pan is decreasing.

When the engine cools down after the engine has stopped, the drain valve 50 opens as shown in FIG.
The lubricating oil inside returns to the oil pan.

As a result, the effective amount of oil stored in the oil pan increases.

The drain valve 50 remains open even during a cold start, and the oil reservoir 44 remains open until the engine is sufficiently warmed up.
Lubricating oil will not accumulate on the

The inventor of the present invention conducted a comparative experiment between a conventional lubricating device and the Junnan device of the present invention. The same engine was used in the experiment and was operated at about 400 rpm after the engine was warmed up. In an engine using a conventional lubricating system, the specified amount (51) /l! I
Experiments were conducted in two cases: when lubricating oil was injected into the oil pan and when excessive Iβ was injected (total of 67 oils). The measured changes in lubricating oil temperature and oil pressure are shown in Figures 7 and 8, respectively. As can be seen from these graphs, according to the lubricating device of the present invention, air bubbles are not mixed into the lubricating oil, so heberlock (11) does not occur, and therefore there is little drop in oil pressure.

Therefore, the oil temperature is maintained approximately constant.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the lubricating device of the present invention is provided with an oil reservoir whose oil storage amount is controlled by a drain valve, so that the effective oil storage amount (oil level) in the oil pan increases when the engine is cold and decreases when it is warm. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the oil temperature from rising due to the heat loss during normal operation while avoiding the phenomenon of oil pumping up during a cold start. Therefore, each part of the engine can be well lubricated, and early deterioration of the lubricating oil can be prevented.

Furthermore, since it is possible to reduce the amount of oil stored in the oil pan, it is possible to downsize the oil pan and reduce the overall height of the engine.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of an engine equipped with a /II sliding device according to a first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an enlarged cross-sectional view of a combination of an oil reservoir and a filter device, and FIG. Similar figures show the drain valve opened (12), Figure 4 is a sectional view of the engine equipped with the lubricating system of the second embodiment, and Figures 5 and 6 are enlarged sectional views of the cylinder head. Figure 5 shows the state in which the drain valve is closed, Figure 6 shows the state in which it is open, Figures 7 and 8 are graphs showing the results of comparative experiments, and the graph in Figure 7 shows the operating time. The graph in FIG. 8 shows the change in oil pressure. 10...Engine, 12...Cylinder block,
14...Cylinder head, 16...Cylinder rad cover, 18...Oil pan, 24...Lubricating oil, 28...
- Filter device, 30... Filter device bracket, 42... Relief valve, 44... Oil reservoir, 46... Housing, 50... Drain valve,
52...Drain boat, 54...Rondo, 58...Small diameter leak boat. (13) Fig. 1・20 Fig. 2 Fig. 4 L Fig. 7 8 Fig. 7-1'? ,! , f', R1n47b--4 Conventional (excess oil 1) ---Conventional (specified amount of oil) --=Phantom embodiment (specified amount of oil) 1 tono

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. In an engine equipped with a lubrication circuit that filters lubricant oil in an oil pan using a filter device and then supplies it to moving parts of the engine, a small-capacity oil reservoir is provided in the lubrication circuit above the oil pan. A drain port is provided at the bottom of the reservoir to connect to the oil pan, and the drain port is provided with a drain valve that opens when the engine is cold and closes when the engine is warm, so that when the engine is cold, the lubricating oil in the reservoir is The lubricating oil is returned to the oil pan to increase the amount of oil in the oil pan, and when the temperature is warm, a part of the lubricating oil is stored in the reservoir to reduce the amount of oil in the oil pan. Device. 2. The oil reservoir is arranged in parallel with the filter device, and the filter device is provided with a relief valve (1) that bypasses the filter depending on the oil pressure, and the drain valve is interlocked with the relief valve. The drain valve opens when the relief valve opens and closes when the relief valve closes, and there is a small diameter leak boat at the bottom of the oil reservoir that leads to the oil pan. The engine lubricating device according to claim 1, characterized in that the engine lubricating device is provided with:. 3. The engine according to claim 1, wherein the oil reservoir is a container provided in a rad cover for the cylinder, and the drain valve is a temperature-sensitive on-off valve that opens when the engine is cold and closes when the engine is warm. m slip device.