Fuel injection control device for diesel engine

1. A fuel injection control device for a diesel engine having a plurality of cylinders, comprising:

a high-pressure pump;

a common rail for accumulating fuel pressurized and delivered by the high-pressure pump;

a plurality of injectors attached to the respective cylinders of the diesel engine so as to inject the fuel supplied from the common rail into respective combustion chambers in the respective cylinders;

a starter for cranking the diesel engine by use of electric power of a battery, wherein the starter starts the cranking by turning on an engine starting switch;

a setting means for setting a non-fuel injection time;

an air heater disposed at an inlet of an intake manifold of the diesel engine so as to warm an intake air introduced into the inlet; and

a control means that controls the high-pressure pump, the injectors and the starter so as to continue the cranking without fuel injection until lapse of the non-fuel injection time, and so as to command one of the injectors to perform an earliest fuel injection after the lapse of the non-fuel injection time,

wherein, when the air heater is operated to warm the intake air, the injector commanded to perform the earliest fuel injection is an injector attached to the cylinder which is closer to the air heater than any other cylinder so as to have a highest intake air temperature of intake air temperatures of all the cylinders.

2. The fuel injection control device for the diesel engine as set forth in claim 1 , further comprising:

a detecting means for detecting an engine temperature,

wherein the setting means sets the non-fuel injection time based on the detected engine temperature.

3. The fuel injection control device for the diesel engine as set forth in claim 2 , wherein the detecting means detects a coolant temperature and calculates an engine temperature based on the detected coolant water temperature so that the calculated engine temperature serves as the detected engine temperature.

4. The fuel injection control device for the diesel engine as set forth in claim 1 , wherein a continuous cranking available time is preset for limiting the continuous cranking, wherein, in case that the set non-fuel injection time is not longer than the continuous cranking available time, the control means controls the starter and the injectors so as to continue the cranking without fuel injection until the lapse of the non-fuel injection time, and

wherein, in case that the non-fuel injection time is longer than the continuous cranking available time, the control means controls the starter and the injectors so as to continue the cranking fuel injection until lapse of the continuous cranking available time and the setting means newly sets a new non-fuel injection time after the cranking is stopped at the lapse of the continuous cranking available time.

5. The fuel injection control device for the diesel engine as set forth in claim 4 , wherein the starter automatically starts re-cranking to be performed during the new non-fuel injection time.

6. The fuel injection control device for the diesel engine as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the quantity of the fuel pressurized and delivered by the high-pressure pump per unit time is controlled so that the time from the start of cranking until the earliest fuel injection approximately coincides with a time from the start of cranking until a rail pressure of the common rail reaches a target pressure.

7. The fuel injection control device for the diesel engine as set forth in claim 1 , wherein the setting means and the control means are set so as not to perform the cranking without fuel injection based on the setting of the non-fuel injection time when a voltage of the battery is not higher than a predetermined value.