of the top dead center of the piston the opening times of the exhaust valves of the exhaust ports 9 are controlled by an engine controller 19 of the internal combustion engine 2 possible approaches for controlling the exhaust valves of the exhaust ports are described in the aforementioned publications and will therefore not be discussed here in detail because compressed gas is withdrawn from a cylinder 4 a greater drag work is performed in the cylinder 4 during the expansion stroke of the cylinder 4 following the compression stroke due to the deficiency in air mass and the reduced pressure level the internal combustion engine 2 then operates as a cooling machine while in the braking or overrun phase compressed gas is supplied from the cylinders 4 into the compressed gas store storage 18 where it is temporarily stored this in turn causes an increased braking action of the internal combustion engine 2 operating as an engine brake to maximize the quantity of the compressed gas stored in the storage vessel 17 commensurate with a maximum compressive strength defined in the design of the compressed gas storage 18 the manifold 16 arranged upstream of the compressed gas storage 18 includes a heat exchanger for cooling the compressed gas which is preferably the charge air cooler 13 if the internal combustion engine 2 includes an unillustrated exhaust gas return then exhaust gases or an exhaust gas.