Will camshafts soon be obsolete?

[noob5,000,000]

I find this to be pretty damn fascinating.


TL,DW: They have developed a system that gives each engine valve its own pneumatic actuator, allowing valve timing to be optimized for each cylinder at any given RPM.

[theholycow]

I've been expecting this. Actually I thought there were already a few such systems in production (probably wrong on that) and they were going to become the norm with camshafts becoming uncommon.

[Shadow]

I remember discussing that more than 20 years ago when I was in Auto Tech school. At the time, the belief was that cars would eventually use electrically powered actuators to control the valves. A big problem was the limitations of a 12-volt electrical system. The belief was that it would take more than 12 volts to reliably control the valves.

Actually, I'm kinda surprised that we're still usung 12-volt systems on new cars, considering the huge amount of electronics today. My Audi has a HUGE battery in the trunk, probably out of necessity....but it certainly isn't needed to crank the 2.0L engine.

[bk7794]

This engine intrigues me

[AHTOXA]

The first thing that stood out to me in the vid right above was the increased rotating mass inside the VCR engine.

[tankinbeans]

And here I was just getting used to variable cam timing.