Variable camshaft timing, Ti-VCT. The majority of new Ford engines including those in the Mustang, and the performance hot hatches Focus, and Fiesta ST, all feature this technology. While most enthusiasts loosely understand that this system directly affects engine performance, and that it does so by varying the camshaft position, few understand how or what this system actually does.

This appoximately decade old video from Ford demonstrates exactly how Ti-VCT works, using a 1.6 liter engine to do so. The 3D animation is dull like those old high school science class films. However, the curiosity of how things work is why many enthusiasts became interested in modifying cars to begin with making this worth watching.

We learn through the video that Ti-VCT is a fairly slick setup, and obviously the result of advanced engineering. The system utilizes a computer controlled oil control valve on each camshaft. Via a plunger, this valve directs pressurized oil flow into specific passages for advance or retard of the timing on each camshaft. Oil flows into a rotor vane assembly that is attached to the camshaft. Chambers are manufactured into the camshaft gear housing for the oil to flow into, and this causes the camshaft to either advance, retard, or int the presence of no pressurized oil in the chambers to remain locked in neutral. When the camshaft timing is changed, it can rotate between 45 and 50 degrees of crankshaft angle.

The powertrain control module monitors and controls the entire process. Camshaft and crankshaft sensors provide data to the PCM and changes can be made from full advance to full retard on a camshaft in just 0.2 seconds.

Ti-VCT is just one of the technologies that makes the current Coyote 5.0 such an astute performer. The technology is here for the long run, and hopefully you now have a better understanding of how it works.