The present invention relates to an outboard motor that includes an internal combustion engine as a power source, especially includes a fuel tank to retain fuel to an engine as the internal combustion engine.
For example, Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 disclose outboard motors with built in fuel tank that include a four-stroke engine, an engine cover, and a fuel tank. The four-stroke engine includes a crankshaft disposed in an approximately vertical direction, and includes a cylinder extending rearward perpendicular to the crankshaft from a side view and a cylinder head where a combustion chamber matching the cylinder is disposed. The engine cover covers a periphery of the four-stroke engine, and is dividable into an upper cover and a lower cover in a vertical direction. The fuel tank is housed in the engine cover, and includes a fuel inlet where the upper portion is covered with a fuel cap projecting above the upper cover.
In Patent Document 2, the fuel tank is disposed on a space, ahead of the engine opposite to the rear portion of the engine, where the cylinder head including an intake port is disposed. Then, a fuel pipe of the outboard motor passes through a side portion of the engine from a bottom portion of the fuel tank to be coupled to an injector disposed on the intake port of the cylinder head.
In Patent Document 1, the fuel tank is disposed on a space above the cylinder. In this configuration, a shallow depth of the fuel tank prevents a high-pressure fuel pump from being disposed in the fuel tank. Further, a vertically flat shape of the fuel tank causes the fuel in the fuel tank to easily incline to an inclining side when the outboard motor is inclined. Then, a suction port of the high-pressure fuel pump is exposed from a fuel liquid surface to suction air. This affects the engine operation.
In Patent Document 2, in the middle of the fuel pipe that passes through the side portion of the engine from the bottom portion of the fuel tank to be coupled to the injector disposed on the intake port of the cylinder head, the high-pressure fuel pump is interposed on a low portion position.
The high-pressure fuel pump requires to be disposed on a low position compared with an oil surface in the fuel tank in order to use the fuel in the fuel tank without leaving.
Further, for improving starting ability of a fuel injection engine with the injector, it is important how quickly the fuel pipe from the high-pressure fuel pump to the injector can be filled with the fuel to accurately inject the fuel. In Patent Document 2, a long pipe coupling the high-pressure fuel pump to the injector takes a long time to fill the fuel pipe with the fuel. This decreases the starting ability of the engine. Especially, a battery-less engine without a battery fails to preliminarily operate the high-pressure fuel pump to apply pressure to the fuel like an engine with a battery. Therefore, operating the high-pressure fuel pump by a recoil starter only with an electric power of an electric generator disposed on the crankshaft requires the recoil starter to be repeatedly rotated. This increases a load of a user.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems, and it is an object of the present invention to invent an effective positional relationship of a fuel tank and provide an outboard motor with built in fuel tank that achieves such as a proper and effective fuel supply.
An outboard motor with built in fuel tank of the present invention includes a four-stroke engine, an engine cover, and a fuel tank. The four-stroke engine includes a crankshaft disposed in an approximately vertical direction, a cylinder extending rearward perpendicular to the crankshaft from a side view, and a cylinder head including a combustion chamber that matches the cylinder. The engine cover covers a periphery of the four-stroke engine, and is dividable into an upper cover and a lower cover in a vertical direction. The fuel tank is housed in the engine cover, and includes a fuel inlet on an upper portion of the fuel tank, the fuel inlet being covered with a fuel cap. An axis line of the cylinder and the cylinder head of the four-stroke engine is disposed inclining to one side in a lateral direction with respect to a center line that extends in a front-rear direction of the outboard motor from a top view. The fuel tank is disposed on a side portion of the cylinder and the cylinder head in another side in the lateral direction with respect to the center line.
In the outboard motor with built in fuel tank of the present invention, while an exhaust port is disposed on an inferior surface of the cylinder head to be coupled with an exhaust passage below, an intake port is disposed on a top surface of the cylinder head such that a throttle body coupled to the intake port is disposed above the cylinder head.
In the outboard motor with built in fuel tank of the present invention, the four-stroke engine includes a fuel injector near the intake port of the cylinder head. An in-tank type high-pressure fuel pump is internally disposed on the fuel tank, and the high-pressure fuel pump and the fuel injector are coupled to one another via a fuel pipe.
In the outboard motor with built in fuel tank of the present invention, the four-stroke engine includes an OHV valve mechanism, and a camshaft of the valve mechanism is disposed in a crankcase on one side in a lateral direction where the cylinder and the cylinder head are disposed to be inclined.
In the outboard motor with built in fuel tank of the present invention, the four-stroke engine employs a forced lubrication system that includes an oil pump, and an oil filter that cleans lubricating oil supplied from the oil pump is disposed on a side portion of a base end of the cylinder in one side in a lateral direction of the cylinder and the cylinder head.
The following describes preferred embodiments of an outboard motor with built in fuel tank according to the present invention based on the drawings.
In an overall configuration of the outboard motor 100, an upper unit (or power unit) 101, a middle unit 102 and a lower unit 103 are configured to be located from an upper portion to a lower portion in the order. The outboard motor 100 includes the engine 10 in the upper unit 101 so as to vertically include to support the engine 10 such that a crankshaft 11 of the engine 10 is arranged in a vertical direction as described below. For the engine 10, a single cylinder engine is typically applicable. The middle unit 102 is horizontally turnably supported around a support shaft disposed on a swivel bracket 104. The swivel bracket 104 includes a pair of clamp brackets 105 (suspension device) on both right and left sides, and both clamp brackets 105 are coupled to one another via a tilt shaft 106 disposed in a lateral direction. The clamp brackets 105 are secured to the rear plate 2 of the ship 1, and the entire outboard motor 100 is supported rotatably in the vertical direction around the tilt shaft 106 via the swivel bracket 104.
The middle unit 102, more specifically a drive shaft housing 107, includes a drive shaft penetratingly disposed in the vertical direction to be coupled to a lower end portion of the crankshaft 11. A driving force of the drive shaft is transmitted to a propeller shaft in a gear case 108 of the lower unit 103. The propeller shaft includes a propeller 109 on a rear end, and the power of the engine 10 passes through a power transmission path, which is constituted of the crankshaft, the drive shaft, the propeller shaft, and similar component, to be finally transmitted to the propeller 109. Then, the propeller 109 can be rotatably driven. A steering wheel 110 (steering gear) is configured to be appropriately turned to steer the propeller 109 in a desired angle.
In the above-described case, the upper unit 101 is covered with an exterior cover 111. The exterior cover 111 (engine cover) includes an upper cover 111A that covers around an upper portion of the upper unit 101, and a lower cover 111B that covers around a lower portion of the upper unit 101. The upper cover 111A and the lower cover 111B are integrally joined together to form an appearance form of the exterior cover 111 in such as an approximately egg shape or lemon shape as a whole.
Next, a description will be given of the engine 10 according to the present invention.
Around the engine 10, an air intake system, a fuel supply device, an exhaust system, a cooling system, a lubricating system, and further, a control system (ECU; Engine Control Unit) are disposed. The air intake system is configured to include an air cleaner box 16, and includes an intake device that supplies intake air to the engine 10. The fuel supply device is configured to include the fuel tank 17 to supply the fuel. The exhaust system discharges exhaust gas after combustion from the engine 10. The cooling system cools the engine 10. The lubricating system lubricates movable parts of the engine 10. The control system is configured to include a recoil starter 18, incidentally includes a plurality of function systems and auxiliary machines such as an engine starting device that starts the engine 10, and controls the operation of the function systems and the auxiliary machines. The control by the control system causes the plurality of the function systems to collaborate with such as the above-described auxiliary machines. This performs a smooth operation of the entire engine unit. The auxiliary machines are housed in the exterior cover 111 with the engine 10.
Here, a main body of the engine 10 will be firstly described. In this embodiment, the engine case 12 is divided into an upper engine case and a lower engine case each of which integrally includes the cylinder block 13. The crankshaft 11 is rotatably supported in a crank chamber by bearings disposed in the upper engine case and the lower engine case. The bearings include such as sliding bearings. With referring to
In the air intake system and the exhaust system of the engine 10, the cylinder head 14 includes a combustion chamber (not illustrated in detail), and as illustrated in
As illustrated in
In a valve operating device, between the combustion chamber, and the intake port 22 and the exhaust port 24 are respectively opened and closed by an intake valve and an exhaust valve at a predetermined timing. That is, the intake valve and the exhaust valve cause the combustion chamber to be communicated with the intake port 22 and the exhaust port, or obstruct between the combustion chamber, and the intake port 22 and the exhaust port.
The engine 10 includes a valve mechanism that drives to open and close the intake valve and the exhaust valve, and as illustrated in
Next, as illustrated in
The recoil starter 18 includes a circular-shaped reel 36 housed to be rotatably supported in the flywheel cover 34. The reel 36 is coupled to the flywheel 33 side via a one-way clutch. That is, the reel 36 transmits a torque only in a direction that biases to rotate the crankshaft 11 for the start of the engine 10. The reel 36 is wound around with a rope for biasing to rotate. One end of the rope is secured to the reel 36, and the other end of the rope is coupled to a grip 37 on an outside of the flywheel cover 34. The reel 36 is biased by a recoil spring (not illustrated) in a winding direction of the rope for biasing to rotate. Pulling the rope with the grip 37 against an elastic force of the recoil spring drives the recoil starter 18.
Next, in the lubricating system, the engine 10 includes a lubricating device that lubricates around the crankshaft 11 and the camshaft 26, around the bearings of the crankshaft 11 and the camshaft 26, and similar parts. The lubricating device of the embodiment includes an oil pump 38 that uses the crankshaft 11, directly the camshaft 26, as a driving source to operate (see
In the lubricating system, as illustrated in such as
Further, in the fuel supply device, as illustrated in
The fuel cap 42 may be disposed on an inside of the exterior cover 111 so as not to be exposed on an outside of the exterior cover 111 (see
In the engine 10 of the outboard motor 100 configured as described above, especially, the cylinder axis line z of the cylinder block 13 and the cylinder head 14 of the engine 10 is disposed inclining to one side in the lateral direction (right side, in this example) with respect to the center line C extending in the front-rear direction of the outboard motor 100 from the top view as illustrated in
Thus disposing the cylinder block 13 and the cylinder head 14 inclining to one side in the lateral direction aggregates a space to be formed between both right and left sides of the cylinder block 13 and the cylinder head 14, and the exterior cover 111 on the opposite side in the lateral direction. Then, disposing the fuel tank 17 on the aggregated space achieves a compact configuration of the outboard motor 100. Further, the fuel tank 17 can be formed in a not-flat shape in the vertical direction, that is, a vertically elongated shape in the vertical direction. This prevents an oil supply failure caused by deviation of the fuel.
As illustrated in
As illustrated in
Disposing the fuel tank 17 near the intake port 22 adjacent to which the fuel injector 44 is mounted reduces a distance between the high-pressure fuel pump 45 and the fuel injector 44 in the fuel tank 17. This shortens the length of the fuel pipe 43 that couples the fuel injector 44 to the high-pressure fuel pump 45 to achieve an immediate boost of the fuel supplied to the fuel injector 44. Then, the starting ability of the engine 10 is substantially improved.
As illustrated in
Disposing the camshaft 26 on the inclined direction side of the cylinder block 13 and the cylinder head 14 prevents the engine case 12 from projecting to the side of the space where the fuel tank 17 is disposed caused by the location of the camshaft 26. Accordingly, this effectively increases the capacity of the fuel tank 17.
As illustrated in
Disposing the oil pump 38 and the oil filter 41 included in the lubricating system on the inclined direction side of the cylinder block 13 and the cylinder head 14 largely ensures the arrangement space for the fuel tank 17 on the opposite side. This increases the capacity of the fuel tank 17. Additionally, such disposal prevents the fuel in the fuel tank 17 from being heated by radiant heat of the oil filter 41 where the temperature is increased by the lubricating oil. This reduces the generation of volatile gas of the fuel.
While the present invention has been described using various embodiments above, the present invention is not limited only to these embodiments. Changes and similar modification are possible within the scope of the present invention.
For example, the inclined direction of the cylinder block 13 and the cylinder head 14 and the arrangement space for the fuel tank 17 may be disposed in a positional relationship of left-right reversal to the above description.
While the example of the outboard motor is described as the embodiment of the present invention, the present invention is effectively applicable to a case of equipment or a device that includes a crankshaft located in the vertical direction.
According to the present invention, disposing the cylinder and the cylinder head of the engine inclining to one side in the lateral direction aggregates a space to be formed between both right and left sides of the cylinder and the cylinder head, and the exterior cover on the opposite side in the lateral direction. Disposing the fuel tank on the aggregated space achieves a compact configuration of the outboard motor. Further, the fuel tank can be formed in a vertically elongated shape, not-flat shape in the vertical direction. This prevents an oil supply failure caused by deviation of the fuel.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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2015-216920 | Nov 2015 | JP | national |
This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 15/340,009 filed Nov. 1, 2016 which claims the priority of the Japanese Patent Application No. 2015-216920 filed on Nov. 4, 2015, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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Parent | 15340009 | Nov 2016 | US |
Child | 15971172 | US |