Internal combustion engine and method of operating the same

Abstract

An internal combustion engine (20) has a cylinder (1) wherein a piston (2) is mounted. The piston (2) drives a crankshaft (10) which is rotatably journalled in a crankcase (11). The piston (2) delimits a combustion chamber wherein an air/fuel mixture is compressed and is ignited by an ignition device (19). The ignition time point (Z) is determined in a first operating state of the engine (20) in accordance with a first characteristic line (22) and in a second operating state of the engine (20) in accordance with a second characteristic line (23). A switching element switches over between the first characteristic line (22) and the second characteristic line (23) in dependence upon an engine characteristic variable. A method for operating the engine (20) provides that an engine characteristic variable is determined during operation of the engine (20) and that a switchover between the ignition characteristic lines (22) and (23) takes place for a pregiven change of the characteristic variable.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.