Patent ID: 8050846

Claim:
A controller of an engine comprising a fuel injection valve that directly injects fuel into a combustion chamber partitioned on the upside of a piston; an ignition plug for igniting and combusting the fuel in the combustion chamber; an intake valve and an exhaust valve that can respectively control their lifts and/or their opening periods; and a control unit that controls fuel injection by the fuel injection valve, spark ignition by the ignition plug, the lifts and/or the opening periods of the intake valve and the exhaust valve and others, wherein the control unit selectively sets a non-throttling spark ignition combustion mode in which an airflow rate flowing into the combustion chamber is adjusted by mainly controlling the lift and/or the opening period of the intake valve and the fuel in the combustion chamber is ignited and combusted by the ignition plug and a compression self ignition combustion mode in which the fuel is combusted utilizing the rise of pressure in the combustion chamber according to the rise of the piston as a combustion mode according to operational status of the engine and is instructed to switch the modes; and wherein, in switching the non-throttling spark ignition combustion mode and the compression self ignition combustion mode, the lift and/or the opening period of the intake valve are/is made smaller than set valves in the compression self ignition combustion mode.