Patent ID: 8170773

Claim:
A method for direct re-entry in a Controlled Auto Ignition (CAI) operating mode of an internal combustion engine following a pull fuel cut off phase in which a CAI specific valve lift for gas exhaust valves of the cylinders of the internal combustion engine during the pull fuel cut off phase of said engine is maintained, the method comprising the steps of: upon a request signal for re-entry in the CAI operating mode after a closing time of one or several gas exhaust valves of a particular cylinder which happens to be at the end of the respective pull fuel cut off phase in an exhaust stroke of its combustion cycle, injecting in a combustion chamber of the particular cylinder an advance fuel injection quantity as auxiliary fuel injection to create an ignitable air-fuel mixture, externally igniting through an ignition device the air-fuel mixture created in advance which is combusted in a following CAI interim compression phase of the exhaust stroke of that cylinder, as a result of which hot exhaust gas is formed in the combustion chamber of that cylinder, in a following intake stroke of that cylinder, drawing fresh air into the combustion chamber of that cylinder via one or several gas inlet valves, injecting in a following compression stroke of that cylinder a main fuel injection quantity in the combustion chamber of that cylinder in a main compression phase, and mixing an exhaust gas content of that cylinder brought about from the earlier auxiliary fuel injection with the air-fuel mixture newly introduced for the main injection to form a CAI self ignitable homogenous fresh air-exhaust gas-fuel mixture such that the next sequential combustion following the externally ignited combustion of the advance fuel injection quantity is self-ignited without external ignition.