Patent ID: 7308880

Claim:
An internal combustion engine with a starting system comprising: a fuel pump that is driven by an output of the engine; an injector to directly inject fuel supplied from the fuel pump into a combustion chamber of the engine; an ignition to ignite the fuel in the combustion chamber; a fuel pressure sensor to detect the fuel pressure supplied to the injector; an engine position sensor to detect a cylinder position; a starter motor that can crank the engine when the engine is stopped; and a control unit that is applied to control the injector, the ignition and the starter motor; wherein the fuel pressure sensor detects the time elapsed from the previous stop of the engine as a value correlated to the fuel pressure; the control unit identifies the cylinder at the expansion stroke from the engine position sensor when the engine is stopped, the control unit starts the engine when the detected fuel pressure is equal to or greater than a predetermined pressure, by injecting the fuel into the combustion chamber of the cylinder at the expansion stroke and igniting the fuel, and the control unit drives the starter motor to start the engine when the detected fuel pressure is lower than the predetermined pressure, by cranking with the starter motor.