Any mechanic or automotive enthusiast can tell you that an engine is essentially a large air pump. The more an engine can suck in air to mix with fuel, the more it can create power through combustion. Thus, the more efficiently an engine removes exhaust gases from the cylinders, the better it can manage that power. The key to a strong, healthy engine is adequate air from one end to another.



Air flow is affected by many different components in the motor, but the valves in the cylinder head are what directly control the amount of air entering a cylinder, and the volume of exhaust gases leaving it. The intake valves open up just prior to combustion in order to allow air to flow in and mix with fuel, and the exhaust valves open after the ignition of this mixture in order to suck out the resulting gases. The timing of the valves is controlled by a rotating shaft called the camshaft. The camshaft has lobes which push up on the valves in order to open them and drop them back closed again.

How long these valves remain open, and at what point in the combustion cycle, can have a big impact on the drivability and power generated by an engine. For instance, if you want to have a really fast car, like a race car, you'll want the engine to produce a lot of power at high RPMs. You can adjust the camshaft to perform well at higher RPMs. This will result in poor performance at low RPMs, but that's OK with a race car. Conversely, if you want a lot of low-end torque - which is great for towing - you need to adjust the camshaft to perform well at low RPMs. This, of course, will hurt high RPM performance.

Unfortunately, street vehicles are a compromise between reliability, fuel efficiency and power. While race vehicles have engines with camshaft designs that generate large amounts of power while being used only at specific, high revolutions, your daily driver sees a wide range of RPMs that make a broader power band necessary. While it is ok for a race car to have a lumpy idle that barely runs below 1000 rpm, it would do you no good if your street car stalled out at every stoplight. Regular vehicles usually have to make do with a camshaft that provides a good amount of power in the most often used range of engine RPMs, but runs out of steam at high speeds.

The problem with compromise camshafts is that they're not all that efficient. Since everyday vehicles operate at a variety of different RPMs, the engine needs to be just as capable of accelerating from a dead stop as it is of zooming along at highway speeds, and everything in between. The result is that your engine often ends up burning too much fuel while underperforming.

Automakers have addressed this concern with something called "variable valve timing" (VVT). The Toyota Tundra's i-Force 5.7L V8, Toyota's newest VVT-i engine, has the ability to vary the timing of the valves in relation to engine speed. It does this by using engine oil pressure to move the camshaft slightly, so that more aggressive lobe designs are used when the engine is running at a higher rpm. By doing this, the i-Force V8 is able to run a camshaft profile that provides good fuel efficiency in every day driving, but is still able to churn out gobs of power when the pedal is pressed to the floor.

The dual VVT-i in the Tundra takes things a step further by allowing the exhaust and intake valves to open at the same time at very high RPMs in order to scavenge the airflow as much as possible. This all adds up to a V8 engine that produces 381 horsepower at 5600 rpm while still generating 401 lb-ft of torque at as low as 3600 rpm. Not only that, but in the 2 wheel drive models, the Tundra gets a respectable 20 miles per gallon on the highway. Perhaps most importantly, Toyota's variable valve timing system lets you have killer horsepower without getting killed at the gas pump.