The study of unsteady gas exchange processes in the inlet and exhaust systems of the single-cylinder 4-stroke cycle spark ignition engine is presented in this paper. The generalized method of characteristics including friction, heat transfer, change of flow area and entropy gradients was used for solving the equations defining the gas exchange process. The path line calculation was also conducted to allow for calculation of the gas composition and entropy change along the path lines, and of the variable specific heat due to the change of temperature and composition. As the result of the simulation, the properties at each point in the inlet and exhaust pipe, pressure and temperature in the cylinder, and charging efficiency were obtained. Pumping loss and residual gas fraction were also computed. The effect of engine speed, exhaust and inlet pipe length on the pumping loss and charging efficiency were studied showing that the results were in agreement with what has been known from experiments.