Patent ID: 7165528

Claim:
An internal combustion (IC) engine for igniting, combusting, and expanding a burnt air-fuel mixture and producing work by means of a movable piston within a cylinder that has a cylinder head with intake and exhaust valve openings with the combustion chamber located mainly in the head, and further including squish lands for producing high squish-flow and turbulence as the piston nears top center (TC) at the engine compression stroke, the system constructed and arranged to have two or more spark plugs positioned and oriented such that as the piston approaches top center, intense air flow passes through the spark gap to move and spread the spark towards the center of the combustion chamber, the improvement comprising control means for improving the lean burn capability of the engine under light load conditions and the knock rating under high loads wherein the said at least two spark plugs have flexibility relative to each other in terms of ignition firing the said and timing such that the two spark plugs at or near the edge of a high squish region are controlled such that at light loads both plugs are fired, and at selected high load condition the plugs are fired independently, including situations wherein only one plug is fired at a high load where the burn may be too fast with two plugs and cause engine harshness or knocking, so that by firing one spark plug instead of two the harshness may be reduced.