Patent ID: 7257993

Claim:
A method of operating a single cylinder two-stroke engine, the two-stroke engine including: a cylinder; a piston mounted in said cylinder to undergo a reciprocating movement along a stroke path between top dead center and bottom dead center during the operation of said engine; said cylinder and said piston conjointly delimiting a combustion chamber; a crankcase connected to said cylinder; a crankshaft rotatably mounted in said crankcase; said piston being connected to said crankshaft for imparting rotational movement to said crankshaft; and, said cylinder having an outlet through which exhaust gases can flow; the method comprising the steps of: metering fuel and supplying combustion air to said engine to form an air/fuel mixture in said combustion chamber; igniting said air/fuel mixture thereby generating exhaust gases which are discharged from said combustion chamber through said outlet; at idle, interrupting the supply of said fuel over a crankshaft angle (α) of at least 700°; at idle, metering fuel to said engine every second to every sixth crankshaft revolution; and, varying the time interval between successive meterings of fuel and varying the quantity of fuel metered.