The engine combustion is one of the most important process affecting performance and emissions. One effective way to improve the engine combustion is to control motion of the charge inside a cylinder by means of optimum induction system design, because the flame speed is mainly determined by the turbulence in a gasoline engine. This paper describes the measurement and characterization of mean velocity and turbulence intensity inside the cylinder of a 4-valve gasoline engine using laser Doppler velocimeter(LDV) under motoring(non-firing) conditions. Since the measured LDV data in each cycle show small cycle variation during compression stroke in the tested engine, the mean velocity and turbulence intensity are calculated by ensemble averaging method neglecting cycle variation effects. In the ensemble averaging method, the effects of the calculation window, in which velocities are assumed as the same crank angle, on mean velocity and turbulence intensity are fully investigated. In addition, the effects of measuring point on the flow characteristics are studied. With large calculation window, the mean velocity is shown to be less sensitive with respect to crank angle and turbulence intensity decrease in its absolute amplitude. When the piston approch to the top dead center of compression, the turbulence intensity is found to be homogeneous in the cylinder.