Patent 7451748 was granted and assigned to Toyota on November, 2008 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
An EGR cooler system according to the invention includes an EGR cooler cooling device that is provided in a coolant path which is separate from the path provided with an engine cooling system which cools coolant. The EGR cooler cooling devices cools the coolant to be supplied to a water-cooled EGR cooler. The EGR cooler system also includes a water pump that circulates the coolant within the coolant path; a bypass passage through which the coolant may bypass the EGR cooler cooling device or the water-cooled EGR cooler; and a flow control valve that regulates the amount of coolant flowing into the bypass based on the temperature of the coolant flowing through the coolant path.