US3039449A - Automatic gasoline saver - Google Patents

Description

United States Patent 3,039,449 AUTOMATIC GASOLINE SAVER Wo clech Mokrzycki, Canadian Research & Development Foundation, 1434 Queen St. W., Toronto 3, Ontario, Canada Filed June 12, 1961, Ser. No. 116,626 4 Claims. (Cl. 123-124) This invention relates to improvements in the field of fuel economizers for gasoline engines, and more particularly to improvements in automatic economizers for use with internal combustion engines such as generally utilized in automobiles, trucks, and the like.

Auxiliary economizers of the type herein described, provide a device which will regulate the volume of secondary air supplied to the intake manifold of the vehicles engine, in proportion to the requirements of the engine under varying loads and conditions.

It is conventional practice to utilize fuel economizers consisting of simple petcocks which are usually manually regulated, or other types of air valves which may be manually regulated to meet the requirements of the engine, these conventional devices having the disadvantage that an unreasonable amount of air noise is usually attendant. Another disadvantage inherent in these conventional devices is that improper adjustment thereof usually results in a drop of overall efiiciency of the vehicles engine, thereby nullifying the value of the device. Another disadvantage of some existing conventional devices is that they are of a very complex nature, having a very limited scope of adjustment, with the result that they operate satisfactorily on only one type of internal combustion engine, at one engine speed.

-It is an object of this invention to provide an automatic gasoline saver, in the following called gasoline saver, containing primary adjustment means adapted to set up the gasoline saver to suit the particular size of engine on which it is mounted, such primary adjustment means thereafter being locked permanently until such time as the gasoline saver is removed and located on a different type of engine.

It is another object of this invention to provide a gasoline saver as described above, containing automatic adjustment means adapted to suit varying immediate requirements of air to the intake manifold of the engine to ensure peak efliciency thereof at all times.

It is a further object of this invention to provide a gasoline saver suitable to service a wide range of internal combustion engines.

It is still another object of this invention to provide a gasoline saver in the form of an auxiliary automatic air valve utilizing a ball valve retained in suspension between two balance springs, one spring having greater tension therein than the other spring, to bias the ball valve towards its seat in precalculated selective relation to the vacuum within the intake manifold of the internal combustion engine.

It is another object of this invention to provide a gasoline saver utilizing a ball valve therein, yet without the conventional disadvantage of possibility of the ball valve sticking to the valve seat.

It is still another object of this invention to provide a gasoline saver as above, wherein the spring, biasing the ball valve towards its seat, is firmly held at its opposite location thereby always accurately biasing the ball valve to a constant concentric location in regards to the seat.

These and other objects of this invention will become apparent when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation of an automatic gasoline saver embodying this invention, shown installed in a vacuum line from an engine manifold.

"Ice

FIG. 2 is a part fractional, mid-vertical sectional view of the gasoline saver shown in FIG. 1 taken on the line 2-2.

FIG. 3 is a fractional, enlarged sectional view of the valve body of the gasoline saver shown in FIG. 2 illustrating in greater detail the ball valve components in relationship to each other.

Referring to FIG. 1, the illustrated automatic gasoline saver indicated generally by arrow 10, comprises an air strainer 11 of conventional design, which is adapted to frictionally encompass a valve body 12 of substantially cylindrical configuration, threadably attached onto air inlet tube 13, to permit variance in the longitudinal relationship between valve body 12 and air inlet tube 13, any desired relationship being maintained by knurled locknut 14 or other conventional means. Manifold chamber 15 extends downwardly from air tube 13 and communicates with two tubular passageways 16 and 17 suitable to permit insertion thereof into a vacuum line 30 between an engine manifold 31 and a windscreen wiper motor 32, passageway 16 being internally spirally rifled, passageway 16 being located towards engine manifold 31.

Referring to FIG. 2, and FIG. 3, an air inlet port 20 is located axially through upper end of vertically arranged valve body 12, communicating at its lower extremity with an enlarged axial 23 ending in valve seat 21 uponwhich' a ball valve 22 will seat, upon additional air not being required by the engine. An ejector spring 24 is located in passage 23, biasing ball 22 away from seat 21, thus eliminating the possibility of ball 22 adhering to valve seat 21, when ball valve 22 is called upon to open. A frusto-conical cavity 25, having its small end at valve seat 21, ex-

tends downward from ball seat 21, terminating in an.

axial cylindrical bore 25 which extends downwardly for the length of the valve body. Primary spring 27 being substantially of :frusto-conical configuration is located with its small end within bore 25A extending downwardly from ball valve 22 through cavity 25 and cylindrical bore 26, thence downwardly through cylindrical bore 28 of air inlet tube 13, terminating at its lower end and being frictionally located and held substantially centrally by a counterbore 29 within manifold 15.

It will be noted, there is illustrated in the foregoing figures, an air strainer 11, not shown in detail, because it does not form a part of the present invention, but may be secured to the device embodying the invention, by any means common to the art.

Spring 17 is seated at its lower end and held frictionally within the counterbore 29, thereby causing ball valve 22 to be held in axial alignment with valve seat 21.

In operation it will be understood that the present device is inserted in vacuum line 30 leading to engine manifold 31 by, for instance, severing vacuum line 30 leading from engine manifold 31 to windshield wiper motor 32 and loeating the two severed ends of the line onto the two extending lines protruding from the lower end of the device, the one end 16 containing a spiral rifling being attached to the portion of the line 30 leading towards engine manifold 31 thereby providing a swirling action of the air as this progresses through the spiral rifling, to provide better mixing of the secondary air with fumes already in engine manifold 31.

Vacuum within manifold 31 is transferred through vacuum line 30 and the body 12 of the device 10 to the ball valve 22, tending to unseat this, the unseating action being proportional to the speed of the engine and differential biasing force of the 'frusto-conical spring 27 and the secondary spring 24 in combination. The frusto-conical shape of the valve chamber 25 with the ball valve 22 having a valve seat 21 at the small end of the valve chamber 25, permits the air suction within the passage area to determine the axial disposition of the ball valve 22 within the frusto-conical chamber 25 at anyphase in the operation of the engine due to the vacuum present at any time.

High speed of the engine will provide high vacuum, thereby sucking the ball valve 22 further down toward the larger end of the frusto-conical chamber 25 and thereby permitting a comparatively larger volume of air than would be the case at lower speeds, this bringing about the increased economy in running of the engine and also providing for greater efiiciency in engine performance.

A particular feature of this invention resides in the utilization of the two springs 24 and 27 one on each side of the ball valve 22, the secondary spring 24 providing that the ball valve 22 always is suspended between two compression springs, thereby preventing chattering of the ball 22 against the valve seat 21 as could be the case upon utilizing only one spring biasing the valve towards its seat, due to hysteresis in the spring preventing the spring from following the ball valve in fast movement towards the seat thereby at certain times permitting the ball to float freely in air and chatter against the valve seat.

A further particular feature in this invention resides in the fact that the lower end of the frusto-conical spring 27 is held firmly in the device, thereby providing that the upper end or larger end of the frusto-conical spring 27 always cradles the ball valve 22 axially towards the valve seat 21 without toppling action sideways of the frusto-. conical spring 27 permitting the ball valve 22 to hit one side of the valve seat 21 before seating fully.

It will be understood that the device may be attached to any part of the intake manifold or its connection with carburetor and that the design of the present device may bealtered as required by manufacturing processes and the like while still remaining within the spirit and scope of this invention without prejudicing the novelty thereof. The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows: 1. A gasoline saving device for an internal combustion engine having an intake manifold, said device comprising a valve body having an axial passage therethrough terminating in end openings, one of said end openings forming an airingress port communicating with the ambient atmosphere for admission of air tosaid device, said other opening formig a egress for the admitted air whereby it ment towards said valve seat, said chamber being characterized in that the small end thereof meets said seat and is dimensioned to only provide clearance about said valve element for the seating of said valve element, and the large end of said chamber being dimensioned to provide an air passage area around proportionate to' the sum of of the cross-sectional area of said valveelement and the area of said axial passage, whereby the position to which the valve element recedes within the confines of said chamber determines the air flow passage therearound, and a secondary coaxially located chamber situated between said valve seat and said ingress port, said secondary chamber containing secondary spring means biasing said valve element away from said valve seat.

2. A device as set forth in claim 1 in which said frustoconical spring is a compression spring with tension biasing said valve element towards said valve heat being of a greater order than tension in said secondary spring biasing said valve element of said valve seat.

3. A device as set forth in claim 1 in which said egress end of said valve body is adjustably connected to a conduit to selectively vary tension in said frusto-conical spring, said conduit having T-shaped outlet ports for connection to two severed ends of a vacuum line attached to said manifold of said internal combustion engine.

4. A device as set forth in claim 3 in which said T is supplied with internal spiral riflings in the port located downstream towards said manifold of said combustion engine.

liteferences Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

Images