I was reading "The economist" magazine and it mentioned that Fiat developed the common rail injector and licensed it to Bosh. They did not actually say who invented it but if Bosh pays to license a technology it seems like they would go to the original source. I found this interesting as it may be a good indicator of why the KJ CRD has an Italian engine. I tried looking up patents for common rail designs but got mostly recent Japanese designs. Anyone know the origin of the common rail design? Someone had to be fist and it must have been a big design jump from standard injection pumps.

Alfa had the first passenger car with it...FIAT...1997

_________________
Founder of L.O.S.T.
2006 CRD Sport
Mods: GDE Hot Tune w/ 364#@2000rpm/Air Box /3" Str8 Exhaust/ASFIR Alum Skids/245-75R-16 Cooper STT PRO/OME LIFT w/Clevis & 4 Spring Isos/AirTabs/Rigid 10" S2 LED/4xGuard Ctr Matrix Bumper
Drag Strip:Reac=.1078_60ft=2.224_1/8=10.39@64.8mph_1/4+16.46@80.8mph

It first appeared on test engines in the 60s but Denso was the first to it in production vehicles in 1995.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_rail

_________________
Manure green 2005 CRD sport4x4, GDE Hot tune, Cat Gut, OE skids, Draw tight hitch, Duramax lift pump, 160K on multiple varieties of fuel, XM radio, Escort live with Redline, fog light mod, GPS, Icom IC7000 all band radio call sign KC9QPF, Grabber AT2s on Soft 8s, FIA grill blanket.

... and when technology evolved it became reality. When I built my working mechanical variable stroke injection pump (yep the engine ran) for an independent study back in the 70's I had sketches that were my dreams of what later became the electronic common rail injection. Technology did not exist to make it happen, so it never made it off the sketch pad. I had that dream and so did others who had the resources to make it happen. Fiat just happened to make the move and put up the money. Fiat was in a position to produce cars but not produce and mass market common rail injection systems,. Bosch and others are, so Fiat made a smart move and worked out a deal and their deal was cheaper than designing around the Patent and fighting it out with Lawyers. Every one came out a winner and our CRDs are the second generation of the common rail injection.

_________________
2006 Pearl Green CRD
Magnaflow 2 1/2" Cat Back
KJ Extra Leg Room Brackets, Carter Lift Pump, V6 Airbox, ORM
Fuel cooler, Oil Separator, Progard 7
Gauges EGT Boost Trans Temp Oil Pres, Michelin LXT AT2 245 70 R16
7,000# Draw Tight hitch, PML EX Deep Trans Pan
Centrifuge, SunCoast, Transgo, RAM TCM, InMotion Stage 2
Wife's 99 TDI VW Beetle

my 84 Detroit diesel 8.2L turbo has common rail and no injector pump..so it was around before the 90's.

_________________
84 BB school bus, DD8.2L turbo ->the transmission died..too expensive to fix..it'll be heading to the scrap yard..4/11)..Bus gone to Scarp 8/23/11
06 Liberty CRD
'99 dodge ram 2500 quad cab, 4x4, 24v
all Biodiesel powered when its warm enough

The term common rail here is really referring to high pressure common rail and not unit injection which uses a low pressure fuel pump and mechanically activated injector units which run off of a dedicated cam shaft, or HEUI injection which uses a combination of a low pressure fuel pump and high pressure oil pump for injector activation. Although both of these systems use a so called common rail for fuel supply, the rail is really cast into the head and are technically called fuel galleys. The true common rail fuel system uses a single high pressure fuel pump and a fuel rail external to the block and head which supplies each injector at constant full injection pressure and did not appear in production highway vehicle use until the 90's.

_________________
Manure green 2005 CRD sport4x4, GDE Hot tune, Cat Gut, OE skids, Draw tight hitch, Duramax lift pump, 160K on multiple varieties of fuel, XM radio, Escort live with Redline, fog light mod, GPS, Icom IC7000 all band radio call sign KC9QPF, Grabber AT2s on Soft 8s, FIA grill blanket.