Separator for fuel-air induction system

Claim 1

In the fuel-air induction system for an internal combustion engine in which a metered fuel-air mixture from a standard carburetor is introduced into a separator operable to centrifugally separate a major portion of the liquid fuel from the air, the liquid fuel being spray-atomized into a retort heat exchanger disposed within an exhaust manifold in heat exchange relation with exhaust gases conducted from the engine cylinder exhaust ports to an exhaust outlet, thereby dry-vaporizing said atomized fuel, the dry fuel vapor from the heat exchanger and the separated air from the separator being subsequently remixed in a venturi mixing chamber and then conducted to the engine cylinder intake ports, the improvement in said separator comprising: a housing having a vertically disposed separating chamber, said separating chamber having a cylindrical upper portion and an enlarged hemispherical lower portion with its arcuate surface on the bottom, and an annular flange on the upper edge of said hemispherical portion inwardly extending and adjoined to the lower end of the cylindrical upper portion to provide a baffle for the entrapment of separated fuel which after separating flows downwardly in the hemispherical lower portion; an air outlet axially disposed at the upper end of said separating chamber and adapted for connection with said mixing chamber; a fuel outlet axially disposed at the lower end of said hemispherical lower portion and adapted for connection with said heat exchanger; and a fuel-air mixture inlet disposed in the side of said cylindrical upper portion intermediate said air and fuel outlets and adapted for connection with a carburetor outlet laterally of said housing, said fuel-air mixture inlet comprising a conduit extending laterally through the sidewall of said cylindrical upper portion and terminating within said separating chamber at a downwardly directed inlet opening, said conduit inlet opening being disposed substantially below a lateral plane containing said flange.