There are four strokes on a gasoline engine. The first stroke is the intake stroke. This is where the intake valves are open, and the piston is moving downward. The downward motion lowers the pressure in the cylinder, creating suction. It pulls gas and air in until the piston reaches the bottom of the stoke. Then the intake valve closes and the piston starts to move upward. This increases the pressure in the cylinders and compresses the air and gas into a dense intake charge. This is called the compression stroke. Once the piston reaches the top of the cylinder, and the gas and air mixture is compresses, the spark plug ignites the fuel. This creates an explosion forcing the piston back down. This stroke is the ignition stroke. Once the piston reaches the bottom of the stroke, the exhaust valve opens. The piston then begins to move upward, pushing the exhaust and leftover gas out of the cylinder.

This is called the exhaust stroke. As the piston reaches the top of this stroke, the intake stroke begins and the cycle continues. The canmshaft controls the valve movement to open and close the valves, and the crankshaft if connected to the camshaft to keep everything in sequence. Think of your engine as breathing. It can't inhale and exhale at the same time, so the flow of air in and out must be properly regulated to prevent hyperventilation (too much air) or bogging down (not getting enough air).

Understanding the strokes of a motor can help you diagnose problems and tune it to get better fuel economy or performance. We know that to get more horsepower, we need a bigger explosion in the cylinders. You can get that by focusing on the air and fuel coming in and out of the combustion chamber. Adding an air intake, a turbo or a supercharger, or performance exhaust all contribute to maximizing the air/fuel in the engine. If you have more air coming in, you need to fee up the exhaust to allow more air out. This will keep pressures equalized (or more in favor of the intake) so it can easily pull air into the cylinders. To increase fuel economy, we need to get the most bang for the fuel, which means less air in and out, and more pressure in the cylinders to keep the fuel from escaping before being burned. Most cars are set up from the factory to have a good balance of power and fuel economy by taking these factors into account.

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