Helical inlet port with flat wall portion

Abstract: The present invention relates to a cylinder head for an internal combustion engine of the reciprocating piston type, and in particular to a helical inlet port 1 with a flat wall portion (2) in a section of the port (20) upstream of a bowl-shaped recess (6) about a valve stem guide (8). The flat walled section (2) meets a generally cylindrical portion of the recess (6) adjacent a cusp-shaped swirl edge (18). The orientation of the flat portion (2) with respect to a reference feature, such as the axis of the valve stem guide (8), may then be used as a measure of the accuracy of casting of the inlet port, and may also be altered if so desired to vary the swirl characteristics of the inlet port (1).

Description: The present invention relates to a method of manifacturing a cylinder head for an internal combustion engine of the reciprocating piston type, and in particular to a helical inlet port with a with a swirl edge on a generally cylindrical valve stem recess. Helical inlet ports are commonly used to generate swirl on the gasses entering the cylinder of an internal combustion engine, for example a direct injection diesel engine. The port has an inverted bowl-shaped chamber the rim of which terminates in an annular valve seat. A generally cylindrical valve guide, for the stem of a poppet valve, depends from the roof of the bowl. The bowl is defined by an annular space which extends around the valve guide and which is intercepted, usually tangentially, by the inlet port, in order to generate swirl in the intake gasses as these are admitted to the cylinder. The junction between the upstream inlet port and the annular space about the cylindrical valve guide is smooth along an outer wall of the port, and has a cusp shape along an opposite inner wall. The cusp has an edge with a radius of more than 1 mm and typically about 3 mm. The cusp acts as a swirl edge, with most of the edge being directed parallel, or within 10° of parallel, to the axis of the valve guide. It has been found experimentally that the shape and angle of the inner wall with respect to the valve stem axis has a significant effect on the degree of swirl. Ideally, this shape and angle should be constant for each cylinder head produced in a production run, in order to ensure the same swirl in each cylinder head. For example, fuel injection equipment is set to deliver a fuel at a certain pressure and droplet size, and for convenience and economy this setting is the same for each engine produced. If the swirl characteristics vary between different cylinder heads, or between different inlet ports in the same cylinder head, then fuel may not be dispersed correctly with the inlet gasses or may settle on surfaces inside the cylinder, such as the combustion bowl piston. This will result in non-optimal combustion and increased emissions. Therefore, swirl ratio is best at a particular nominal value for a particular fuel injection setting. However, in practice it is difficult to maintain uniformity of the inlet port features in production of a cast cylinder head because the tools, or "boxes" as they are sometimes called, tend to be abraded by sand blown into the tools. The shape of the inner wall of the inlet port can therefore change over time. As a consequence, in order to optimise fully emission performance, it would necessary, particularly with direct injection diesel or gasoline engines, either to tune each engine individually to meet performance targets, or to attempt to measure the shape and angle of the inlet port inner wall, and to reject cylinder heads that were out of specification. Since this is time consuming and relatively expensive, it has hitherto often been necessary to settle for lower performance on at least some of the engines produced, and hence higher certifiable emissions. According to the invention, there is provided a method of manufacturing a cylinder head for an internal combustion engine of the reciprocating piston type, the cylinder head comprising a helical inlet port with a chamber that terminates in an annular valve seat and encompasses an annular space about a generally cylindrical valve stem guide for a poppet valve stem, a surface of the chamber meeting one wall of an inlet passage of the inlet port along a swirl edge, the chamber presenting a bowl-shaped surface having a rim that terminates in the valve seat, an upstream portion of the wall of the inlet passage being curved in a plane at right angles to the direction of the inlet passage, and the upstream portion being blended along a transition into a planar portion of the said wall extending to the said swirl edge; characterised in that: the wall of the inlet passage has a said curved surface over substantially all of its length, the swirl edge is substantially straight over its length and the planar portion extends along substantially the full extent of the swirl edge; and in that the method comprises the steps of: (i) casting the cylinder head in a metal; and (ii) measuring the orientation of the planar portion relative to a reference feature to ensure that the planar portion is correctly oriented relative to the reference feature. The reference feature is preferably the axis of the valve stem guide. A downstream portion of the swirl edge is preferably cast with excess material and is subsequently machined to sharpen the swirl edge. The planar portion may then serve as a measurement surface which may be measured to ensure that the wall upstream and adjacent the swirl edge has the correct angle and orientation with respect to reference features in the cylinder head such as the bowl-shaped chamber, valve seat or valve stem. Preferably, there is no curved section of inlet port wall immediately adjacent the swirl edge (apart from any radius on the swirl edge itself). The planar portion extends to meet the swirl edge along substantially all of swirl edge. This will help to ensure that if the casting tool changes in the vicinity of the swirl edge, or is worn through use, these changes may be detected by measuring the angle of the planar surface with respect to a reference feature. In general a line along most of the swirl edge will be substantially straight, and may be directed within about 10° of parallel to the axis of the poppet valve stem guide. The planar portion will define a first plane and a first line which lies both in the first plane as well as in a second plane, the second plane being at right angles to the axis of the poppet valve stem guide. The first line may then make an angle of between about 0° and about 20° to a second line, the second line being defined by lying also in the second plane and passing through the axis of the poppet valve stem guide and intersecting the upstream transition between the planar portion and the inlet port wall. The swirl edge may have an edge with a radius of up to 3 mm. However, it is preferred if the swirl edge has a radius of under 0.5 mm. In a preferred embodiment, the swirl edge is a sharp cusp, for example with a radius of under 0.1 mm. This is because the amount or degree of swirl has been found experimentally to be strongly dependent on the radius of the swirl edge, and in general it is preferred for a given engine if the degree of swirl is constant for each cylinder head produced. It has been found experimentally that, in a typical casting line production process, a sharp edge formed by machining the side of the swirl edge not having the planar portion results in a more reproducible degree of swirl compared with the more rounded edge common with a cast feature. Preferably, the reference feature is the axis of the valve stem guide or, equivalently, a surface parallel with this axis. Optionally, the surface of the swirl edge away from the side having the planar portion, i.e. the downstream portion, may be machined in order to sharpen the edge of the swirl edge, and to this end the downstream side of the swirl edge may be cast with excess material that is later machined away. The invention will now be described in more detail, by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which: Figure 1 is a perspective view of the internal surfaces of a helical inlet port in a cylinder head made by the method according to the invention, the port having an inverted bowl-shaped chamber around a generally cylindrical valve stem guide above an inlet valve seat; Figure 2 is a cross section through the cylinder head of Figure 1, at right angles to the valve stem looking down on the inlet valve seat and showing a wall of the bowl meeting a planar surface in an inlet passage at a swirl edge; Figure 3 is a side view of the helical inlet port of Figure 1, showing the location and dimensions of the planar surface; and Figure 4 is a plot showing the degree of swirl versus the angle of the planar surface relative to the axis of the valve stem guide. Figures 1 and 2 show the internal surfaces of a helical inlet port 1 in a cylinder head. The inlet port 1 has been cast with a planar portion 2 (shown in hashed outline in Figure 1) in a wall 4 of the inlet port 1. The inlet port 1 has a valve stem recess with an inverted bowl-shaped surface 6 that extends about a valve stem guide 8 which is directed downwardly towards an inlet valve seat 10 in a lower surface 12 of the cylinder head. An annular space 14 extends around most of the valve stem guide 8, broken by an inlet passage 20 which meets the bowl 6 essentially tangentially. For clarity in the drawings, no poppet valve is shown, and no outlet port is shown leading from the cylinder's outlet valve seat 16. With reference to Figure 3, the dimensions of the planar portion 2 in this example are 15 mm in the y-direction parallel to the base of the cylinder head and at right angles to the engine axis, and a maximum of 20 mm in the z-direction parallel to the cylinder axis. The planar portion 2 meets a generally cylindrical portion of the bowl-shaped surface 6 at a cusp-shaped swirl edge 18. The swirl edge 18 is therefore straight over most of its length, shown as a dashed line in Figure 1. The straight portion of the swirl edge is directed about 5° from parallel with an axis 22 of the valve stem guide, tapering outwardly slightly towards the lower end of the swirl edge 18. The upstream end of the planar portion 2 blends into the wall of the inlet passage along a transition which generally has a small angle. Because the wall is curved in a plane at right angles to the direction of the passage, this small angle varies between about 0° up to about 20° across the transition. It has been found empirically that such small angles do not affect the swirl performance of the helical inlet port. In a preferred embodiment, the swirl edge 18 has a sharp cusp, as drawn in Figure 2. Using conventional casting techniques, it is impractical to form a cusp having an edge with a radius shaper than about 1 mm, because the granularity and strength of the sand used in the casting process will not consistently support thin-walled sections. Therefore, in general, swirl edges conventionally have a radius of about 3 mm. The present invention is applicable to such conventional swirl edges. Because the swirl edge will usually be parallel to the valve stem guide axis to within about 10°, the orientation of the planar portion may be characterised by an angle α defined by a line 24 from the valve stem guide axis 22 to the swirl edge 18, in a plane at right angles to the valve stem guide axis 22, which is here the plane of the drawing. In Figure 2 this angle is drawn exaggerated in size for clarity, and in general a will be between about 0° and 20°. The angle α may be varied in order to change the degree of swirl. In Figure 2, a second orientation of a planar portion 102 is shown in dashed outline, with an angle labeled α'. Figure 4 shows quantitatively in terms of a swirl ratio the effect of varying the angle α over the range from about 0° to about 14°. The data presented consists of four sets data points at each of four angles of flat. The spread within each set of data points can be attributed to experimental error. Swirl ratio here is measured using a well-known technique on a test rig, in which air is sucked into an empty cylinder inside of which a vane anemometer is mounted. The vane is designed to detect the swirl of air about the cylinder axis and so rotates on pivots about this axis. The swirl ratio is calculated as the ratio of the rotation rate of the vane divided by a notional engine rotation rate being that consistent with the volume of air entering the cylinder. Therefore, the greater the swirl ratio, the greater the swirl imparted to air drawn into the cylinder by the helical inlet port. However, because the combustion characteristics of an engine depend on a number of factors, such as fuel delivery parameters and, for a petrol engine, spark timing, that may need to be same across a range of engines of the same type, it is preferred if each inlet port produces a nominal degree of swirl that does not vary unexpectedly between engines. The orientation of the planar portion is easier to measure than a complex curved shape. The planar portion therefore permits convenient inspection of the shape of the inlet port upstream of the swirl edge to help ensure that the production process is not affected by changes in the tooling used in the casting process.

Claims: A method of manufacturing a cylinder head for an internal combustion engine of the reciprocating piston type, the cylinder head comprising a helical inlet port (1) with a chamber (6) that terminates in an annular valve seat (10) and encompasses an annular space (14) about a generally cylindrical valve stem guide (8) for a poppet valve stem, a surface of the chamber (6) meeting a wall (4) of an inlet passage (20) of the inlet port (1) along a swirl edge (18), the chamber (6) presenting a bowl-shaped surface having a rim that terminates in the valve seat (10), an upstream portion of the wall of the inlet passage (20) being curved in a plane at right angles to the direction of the inlet passage (20), and the upstream portion being blended along a transition into a planar portion (2) of the said wall extending to the said swirl edge (18); characterised in that : the wall (4) of the inlet passage (20) has a said curved surface over substantially all of its length; the swirl edge (18) is substantially straight over its length and the planar portion (2) extends along substantially the full extent of the swirl edge (18); and in that the method comprises the steps of: (i) casting the cylinder head in a metal; and (ii) measuring the orientation of the planar portion (2) relative to a reference feature to ensure that the planar portion (2) is correctly oriented relative to the reference feature, whereby to ensure that the swirl edge (18) is correctly oriented. A method as claimed in claim 1, wherein the reference feature is the axis (22) of the valve stem guide (8). A method as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2, wherein a downstream portion of the swirl edge (18) is cast with excess material and is subsequently machined to sharpen the swirl edge (18). A method as claimed in claim 1, 2, or 3, wherein the swirl edge (18) is directed within about 10° of parallel to the axis (22) of the valve stem guide (8). A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the planar portion (2) defines a first plane and a first line which lies both in the first plane and a second plane at right angles to the axis (22) of the valve stem guide (8), the first line making an angle of between 0° and about 20° to a second line lying also in the second plane and passing through the axis (22) of the valve stem guide (8) and intersecting the said upstream transition, A method as claimed in any one of the preceding claims, wherein the swirl edge (18) has an edge with a radius of up to about 3mm. A method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 6, wherein the swirl edge (18) has a radius of under 0.5mm.

Inventors: BRIGNALL ALLAN, CAPON GEOFFREY CHARLES, BRIGNALL, ALLAN, CAPON, GEOFFREY CHARLES
Applicants: FORD GLOBAL TECH LLC, FORD GLOBAL TECHNOLOGIES, LLC
Application year: 1998
Main classification: F02F1
IPC codes: F02F1