Fuel injection system for multiple cylinder internal combustion engine

Claim 1

A fuel injection system for supplying fuel to the respective cylinders of a multiple cylinder internal combustion engine comprising: a pump housing, a plurality of fuel injection pumping means corresponding to the number of cylinders of the multi cylinder engine disposed within said housing, each of said pumping means being operatively connected to a cylinder of said engine for controlling fuel delivery thereto, said plurality of fuel injection pumping means being divided into a first group and a second group of pumping means, each of said pumping means of said respective groups including a pump cylinder having a spill port formed therein, and a plunger having a helical groove formed therein, said plunger being rotatably mounted within its respective pump cylinder whereby said groove formed therein is relatively disposed with respect to the spill port of the corresponding pump cylinder, the relative position between the ports and helical grooves of the respective pump cylinder and corresponding plunger being normally uniform, with the spill ports formed in the pump cylinders of said first group being disposed in 180* out of phase relationship with respect to the spill ports formed in the pump cylinders of said second group, a gear connected to the plunger of the respective pumping means, a first rack disposed in meshing relationship with each of the gears only of said first group of pumping means, and a second rack disposed in meshing relationship with each of the gears only of said second group of pumping means, said first and second racks being oppositely disposed to one another, and a control means operatively connected to each of the respective racks whereby each of said racks can be actuated completely independently of one another to render the delivery of fuel to one group of engine cylinders independent of the delivery of fuel to the other group of engine cylinders, and whereby displacement of the respective racks in the same direction and equal linear extent will effect uniform displacement of the respective pumps to result in balanced fuel delivery to the respective engine cylinders accordingly throughout the operating range of the engine.