Coolant jackets for an internal combustion engine and method of control

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9212620-B2
Application number	US-201113020741-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Feb 3, 2011
Priority date	Feb 18, 2010
Publication date	Dec 15, 2015
Grant date	Dec 15, 2015

Abstract

An internal combustion engine is provided. The internal combustion engine includes a cylinder block having a cooling jacket and a cylinder head having two cooling jackets. In one example, the internal combustion engine may be operated so as to reduce engine friction and emissions during cold engine starts.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. An engine comprising:
a cylinder block having a coolant jacket and a bypass;
a cylinder head including exhaust and inlet cooling circuits, the exhaust cooling circuit in fluidic communication with the bypass and isolated from the inlet cooling circuit and the coolant jacket, and the inlet cooling circuit connected to the coolant jacket via bores in a cylinder head seal positioned between the cylinder block and the cylinder head;
a coolant pump configured to provide coolant to the inlet cooling circuit via the coolant jacket and to each of the cylinder block and the exhaust cooling circuit via the bypass; and
a thermostat positioned in the cylinder block and arranged between the coolant pump and the coolant jacket, the coolant jacket extending downstream of the thermostat to the bores in the cylinder head to connect to the inlet cooling circuit, and the bypass extending upstream of the thermostat to connect to the exhaust cooling circuit through one or more different bores in the cylinder head seal.

2. The engine of claim 1 , where the cylinder head includes an integrated exhaust-gas collector providing a confluence point for exhaust of at least two engine cylinders, and where an inlet of the exhaust cooling circuit is selectively coupled to an inlet of the inlet cooling circuit via the thermostat.

3. The engine of claim 2 , where the exhaust cooling circuit is configured to cool the integrated exhaust-gas collector.

4. The engine of claim 1 , where the coolant jacket is a cylinder block coolant jacket, and where the bypass is configured to flow coolant through the cylinder block and around the cylinder block coolant jacket.

5. The engine of claim 4 , further comprising a control system, the control system including instructions for, during a portion of a warm-up phase, flowing coolant through the inlet cooling circuit and inhibiting coolant flow through the cylinder block coolant jacket.

6. The engine of claim 5 , where the inlet cooling circuit is in fluidic communication with a cabin heating arrangement, and where the control system includes further instructions for, during a portion of an engine warm-up phase, flowing coolant from the inlet cooling circuit to the cabin heating arrangement.

7. The engine of claim 6 , an inlet-side cylinder head coolant jacket being in fluidic communication with the cabin heating arrangement.

8. The engine of claim 1 , where the coolant jacket is a cylinder block coolant jacket, and coolant flow from the coolant pump to the coolant jacket and then to the inlet cooling circuit in the cylinder head flows in parallel to coolant flow from the coolant pump to the exhaust cooling circuit in the cylinder head.

9. The engine of claim 8 , wherein the thermostat is integrated into the cylinder block.

10. The engine of claim 8 , wherein the thermostat is configured to adjust an amount of coolant flow into the cylinder block coolant jacket based on a coolant temperature.

11. A method for controlling coolant in an engine, comprising:
during at least a portion of an engine warm-up phase, flowing coolant from a coolant pump to an exhaust-side cylinder head coolant jacket of a cylinder head through a cylinder block, the exhaust-side cylinder head coolant jacket arranged upstream of a thermostat in the cylinder block and configured to cool an exhaust-gas collector integrated into the cylinder head;
during at least a portion of the engine warm-up phase, inhibiting coolant flow from the coolant pump to a cylinder block coolant jacket downstream of the thermostat; and
flowing coolant from the coolant pump to the thermostat, then from the thermostat to the cylinder block coolant jacket, and then from the cylinder block coolant jacket to an inlet-side cylinder head coolant jacket.

12. The method of claim 11 , where flowing coolant from the coolant pump to the exhaust-side cylinder head cooling jacket is sustained during a duration of the engine warm-up phase.

13. The method of claim 12 , further comprising during at least a portion of the engine warm-up phase, flowing coolant from the exhaust-side cylinder head coolant jacket to a cabin heating arrangement.

14. The method of claim 12 , further comprising flowing coolant from the coolant pump to the cylinder block coolant jacket after the engine warm-up phase.

15. A method for operating an internal combustion engine comprising:
during a first operating condition, flowing coolant from a coolant pump to an exhaust-side cylinder head coolant jacket included in a cylinder head upstream of a thermostat arranged in a cylinder block of the engine, flowing coolant from the exhaust-side cylinder head coolant jacket to a cabin heating arrangement, and inhibiting flow from the coolant pump to a cylinder block coolant jacket downstream of the thermostat, the exhaust-side cylinder head coolant jacket including at least one coolant passage adjacent to an exhaust-gas collector; and
during a second operating condition, flowing coolant from the coolant pump to the exhaust-side cylinder head coolant jacket upstream of the thermostat and the cylinder block coolant jacket downstream of the thermostat, and flowing coolant from the cylinder block coolant jacket through bores of a cylinder head seal positioned between the cylinder head and the cylinder block to an inlet-side cylinder head coolant jacket.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising during the first operating condition flowing coolant vapor from the cylinder block coolant jacket through bores of the cylinder head seal positioned between the cylinder head and the cylinder block to the inlet-side cylinder head coolant jacket.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein the exhaust-gas collector is integrated into the cylinder head.

Assignees

• Berkemeier Oliver
• Kuhlbach Kai Sebastian
• Lutz Martin
• Mehring Jan
• Fritsche Richard
• Ford Global Tech Llc

Inventors

• Berkemeier Oliver
• Kuhlbach Kai Sebastian
• Lutz Martin
• Mehring Jan
• Fritsche Richard

Classifications

• F02F1/243 Primary

  Cylinder heads and inlet or exhaust manifolds integrally cast together · CPC title

• F01P2060/08

  Cabin heater · CPC title

• F01P2003/028

  Cooling cylinders and cylinder heads in series · CPC title

• F01P2037/02

  starting · CPC title