The invention is intended to provide improved emission-cleaning performance by use of a three-way catalyst alone, without the need for a lean
NOx catalyst, while ensuring a fuel economy improvement effect of
lean burn operation. A multicylinder spark-ignition engine is constructed such that, in a pair of preceding and following cylinders whose exhaust and intake strokes overlap each other, burned gas discharged from the preceding cylinder (2A, 2D) which is currently in the exhaust
stroke is introduced directly into the following cylinder (2B, 2C) which is currently in the intake
stroke through an intercylinder gas channel (22) and gas discharged from only the following cylinder (2B, 2C) is led to an exhaust passage (20) provided with a three-way catalyst (24) in a low-load, low-speed operating range.
Fuel supply to the individual cylinders is controlled in such a manner that
combustion in the preceding cylinder (2A, 2D) is made under lean mixture conditions at an air-fuel ratio larger than the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio by a specific amount and
combustion in the following cylinder (2B, 2C) is made under conditions of the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio created by supplying fuel to the burned gas introduced from the preceding cylinder (2A, 2D).