Internal combustion engine with two or more inlet valves per engine cylinder

An internal combustion engine which includes a plurality of cylinders having axes which are aligned in a symmetry plane;

• a cylinder head which defines a combustion chamber at an end of one of said cylinders, said cylinder head defining roof-shaped boundary surfaces and providing first and second intake passages which open into said combustion chamber at mouths located on opposite sides of a plane which extends through the axis of said one cylinder and extends perpendicularly to said symmetry plane, and first and second inlet valves which, when closed against the respective mouths of said first and second intake passages, are at an equivalent distance from a plane perpendicular to the axis of said one cylinder, such that (1) a first partial fluid stream moving in a downstream flow direction past said first inlet valve mainly flows towards said symmetry plane at a first acute angle, (2) a second partial fluid stream passing in a downstream flow direction past said second inlet valve mainly flows towards said symmetry plane at a second acute angle, and (3) wherein said second acute angle is larger than said first acute angle by 10.degree. to 40.degree..