I am very interested in this topic actually. How does the other companies' system work?
- Do the valves still open/close when the cylinder is deactivated? I remember to have read that the intake/exhaust valves stay close on the deactivated cylinders to minimize pumping lost but how is it implemented in an overhead cam design?
- Is it always the same cylinder that get deactivated? Seems to be but wouldn't this cause uneven wear on the engine in the long run?
Our cars (and most modern cars) already sorta have a cylinder management system in that if you lift off the gas while cruising, the ecm will cut all fuel injection until the engine is near idle. How hard is it or if it's possible to elaborate on this a little bit and have the computer just 'skip' a beat when not all the power is needed? I would imagine this would be a smoother transition between on and off and also no uneven wear on the engine either and should help gas consumption. Other posters have mention something about pumping lost negating the benefit though.
