Fuel rail

Claim 2

A fuel rail (18) for an engine, said rail comprising an elongated body (22) having a plurality of axially spaced transversely extending fuel injector sockets (28), each of said sockets being adapted to receive a fuel injector (20) suitable for delivering fuel from its socket to the engine, said body further having an axially extending fuel passage (24) the lower portion of which intersects said sockets (28) for supplying fuel to said sockets (28), characterised in that the vertical dimension of said passage (24) substantially exceeds the horizontal dimension of said passage (24) whereby fuel vapor entrained in the fuel flowing through said passage collects in the upper portion of said passage and said lower portion of said passage supplies only liquid fuel to said fuel injector sockets (28).

Claim 3

A fuel rail (18) for an engine according to claim 1, characterised in that, said body (22) has a second axially extending fuel passage (26) adjacent said axially extending fuel passage (24), at least one end of said body (22) has a circular recess (42) intersected by and encompassing the associated ends of said fuel passages (24, 26), and a circular plug (44) received in and sealing said recess (42) to provide a closure for the associated ends of said fuel passages (24, 26),and said fuel passage (24) has an irregular configuration, one side of which is outwardly convex and substantially conforms to the outline of said circular recess and the other side of which is outwardly concave and embraces said second fuel passage (26) to thereby provide a compact fuel rail (18).

Claim 4

A fuel rail (18) for an engine according to claim 2, characterised in that said rail has a number N of said axially spaced transversely extending fuel injector sockets (28), each of said fuel passages (24, 26) has a connection (40, 62) for receiving a fuel line with said fuel line connection of said fuel passage (24) being disposed between two of said sockets (28), each end of said body (22) has said circular recess (42) intersected by and encompassing the associated ends of said fuel passages (24, 26), and said circular plug (44) received in and sealing each of said recesses (42) to provide said single closure for the associated ends of said fuel passages (24, 26), and each of said plugs (44) has a recess (48) interconnecting said passages (24, 26) whereby the amount A of fuel flowing from one of said fuel line connections is divided with an amount B of such fuel flowing toward a number S of said sockets (28) and the remaining amount A-B of such fuel flowing toward the remaining number N-S of said sockets (28), and wherein the sizes of said plug recesses (48) are calibrated to cause the quantity B/A to substantially equal the quantity S/N and to cause the quantity (A-B)/A to substantially equal the quantity (N-S)/N.