Patent ID: 7899608

Claim:
A method of checking the performance of an internal combustion engine, the engine including a cylinder having a piston an associated exhaust valve and an intake valve, the engine further including a crankshaft and camshaft means, the camshaft means including an exhaust cam and an intake cam, the method including the steps of: a. replacing one of the spark plug, fuel injector or glow plug from the cylinder with a pressure transducer; b. rotating the crankshaft of the engine fast enough to build pressure within the cylinder and through at least one compression stroke where the piston is momentarily at top dead center (hereinafter TDC 0°); c. measuring the pressure changes in the cylinder while the crankshaft is being rotated fast enough to build pressure in the cylinder; d. generating a cylinder pressure waveform from the measured pressure changes in the cylinder; and e. from the cylinder pressure waveform analyzing the magnitude and timing of at least one of the pressure changes in the cylinder.