four-stroke cycle, principle by which most modern automobile engines function. As illustrated by the figure, while the inlet valve is open, the piston first descends on the intake stroke. An ignitable mixture of gasoline vapour and air is drawn into the cylinder by the partial vacuum thus created. The mixture is compressed as the piston ascends on the compression stroke with both valves closed. As the end of the stroke is approached, the charge is ignited by an electric spark. The power stroke follows, with both valves still closed and the gas pressure, due to the expansion of the burned gas, pressing on the piston head or crown. During the exhaust stroke the ascending piston forces the spent products of combustion through the open exhaust valve. The cycle then repeats itself. Each cycle thus requires four strokes of the piston—intake, compression, power, and exhaust—and two revolutions of the crankshaft.
A disadvantage of the four-stroke cycle is that only half as many power strokes are completed as in the two-stroke cycle and only half as much power can be expected from an engine of a given size at a given operating speed. The four-stroke cycle, however, provides more positive clearing out of exhaust gases (scavenging) and reloading of the cylinders, reducing the loss of fresh charge to the exhaust.
The four-stroke cycle was originated by French engineer Alphonse Beau de Rochas in 1862. The four-stroke cycle is often called the Otto cycle, after the German engineer Nikolaus August Otto, who designed an engine on that principle in 1876. De Rochas held prior patents, however, and litigation in the French courts upheld him.