Internal combustion engine

Claim 1

An internal combustion engine having at least four cylinders each with one inlet valve and at least one outlet valve, an intake manifold and intake pipes leading from said intake manifold to each one of the cylinders, said intake pipes discharge in the region of the inlet openings of the inlet valves, an exhaust gas manifold and exhaust gas pipes leading from said exhaust gas manifold to each one of the cylinders, said exhaust gas pipes begin at the outlet openings of the outlet valves, and an exhaust gas recirculation apparatus to reduce toxic emissions, said exhaust gas recirculation apparatus (20) has an exhaust gas distributor (21), from which a number of end pipes (22) corresponding to the number of cylinders branches off, each end pipe (22) discharges in one of the intake pipes (15) immediately upstream of the inlet valve (12), preferably at a tangent to the inlet opening, and that an exhaust gas pipe (18) of one cylinder (10) is separated from the exhaust gas manifold (19) and connected to the exhaust gas distributor (21), a 3/2 way valve for controlling the quantity of exhaust gas delivered to the exhaust gas distributor (21) said 3/2-way valve (23) including first, second and third controlled connections and disposed between the exhaust gas pipe (18) and the exhaust gas distributor (21), said first connection (24) communicates with the exhaust gas pipe (18), the second connection (25) communicates with the exhaust gas distributor (21) and the third connection (26) communicates with the exhaust gas manifold (19), and that said 3/2-way valve (23) connects the first connection (24) to the second connection (25), in one switching position, and in another switching position connects said first connection to the third connection (26).