| 主权项 |
1. An internal combustion engine comprising:
a frame assembly having eight crankshaft connected piston and cylinder assemblies therein, said frame assembly including (1) a lower pan component, (2) a central block component and (3) an upper head component, said pan component having two transversely spaced series of longitudinally spaced upwardly facing concave upper surfaces, said central block component being fixedly supported on said pan component and having two corresponding transversely spaced series of longitudinally spaced downwardly facing concave lower surfaces, said eight crankshaft connected piston and cylinder assemblies including (1) two transversely spaced drivingly interconnected crankshafts bearingly supported between the upper and lower surfaces of said pan and central block components, respectively, (2) eight cylinders in said central block component in two banks, each bank containing four cylinders disposed with the longitudinal axes thereof in a common bank plane and with the common bank planes converging equally angularly upwardly on opposite sides of a bisecting vertical plane, (3) eight pistons slidably mounted in said eight cylinders, (4) eight connecting rods pivotally mounted at one end to the eight pistons, and (5) eight computer controlled fuel injectors; the connecting rods connected to the pistons in the cylinders of each bank of assemblies being connected to a different one of the two crankshafts so as to establish four pairs of assemblies in which the pistons of each pair are moved simultaneously through successive cycles each including simultaneous compression strokes followed immediately by simultaneous power drive strokes, said cylinders being mounted in said central block component so that open upper ends thereof are disposed within upwardly facing upper planar surfaces of said central block component, said head component including downwardly facing lower planar surfaces and being fixedly supported on said central block component with portions thereof covering the open upper ends of said cylinders and with the lower planar surfaces thereof in sealing engagement with the upper planar surfaces of said central block component, one of said head and central block components having four spaced recesses formed therein in communicating relation to the associated planar surfaces disposed in positions transversely between the four pairs of cylinder open ends, an insert of heat-resistant material fixedly mounted in each recess and having a passage extending therethrough having spaced open ends communicating respectively to the open upper ends of the associated pair of cylinders, the fuel injectors being computer controlled so that each pair of assemblies can be selectively operated either in a mode (1) wherein both cylinders of the pair receive a charge of fuel and the associated pistons undergo simultaneous directly fired power drive strokes or in a mode (2) wherein only one cylinder of the pair receives a charge of fuel and the other cylinder is skipped of fuel charge and the associated piston of the charge receiving cylinder undergoes a directly fired power drive stroke while the other piston undergoes a shared power drive stroke by virtue of the communicating passage between the pair of cylinders. |
