Patent ID: RE41860

Claim:
A cold start apparatus for vaporizing fuel before it is supplied to a cylinder of a multi-cylinder internal combustion engine having a fuel supply, and an air intake passageway having a throttle valve comprising a pivotally secured throttle plate disposed therein, said cold start apparatus comprising: a housing fluidly coupled on one end to the air intake passageway downstream of the location of the throttle; a cold start fuel injector having an outlet and disposed in said housing; an idle air conduit fluidly coupled on one end to the air intake passageway, and fluidly coupled on the other end to said housing for delivering air adjacent to the outlet of said cold start fuel injector for intermixing air with fuel ejected from said cold start fuel injector; and a heating chamber having a longitudinal lumen and disposed at the outlet of said cold start fuel injector for vaporizing the air-fuel mixture before it is delivered to the engine cylinder, wherein said heating chamber includes of a plurality of separately controlled independent heating element sections to vary the temperature across the heating chamber.