Quote:
Originally Posted by polizzio
Pneumatic valve actuation is trickle down from F1 racing and development, where they rev engines up to 20,000 rpm.
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Man those V10's were awesome! I miss the days when F1 had V8's and V10's....
Anyways, getting back to the topic. With pneumatic actuation your removing one aspect from the valve train but not the cam itself. Pneumatic valve actuation only removes the valve spring and replaces it with a compressed inert gas cartridge (a gas spring), thus eliminating valve float at higher RPMs (20,000+). A cam is still required to depress the valve.
As for electronic or magnetic systems, the common problem from all the test engine (ford and bmw) articles that I've read has been from heat soak related issues. As the electronic solenoids heat up, failures start to occur.