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What is V-Tec
After the sucess of DOHC VTEC engines, Honda became increasingly confident with the use of VTEC technology. It has proven to be a reliable and economical alternative to increasing displacement or using forced induction. Honda decided to apply VTEC technology to a larger segment of the market with the introduction of the SOHC VTEC system. Like its DOHC counterpart, SOHC VTEC optimizes the flow of fuel/air mixture for high RPM operation while maintaining smooth and economical low RPM operation. But due to its simpler design and humbler performance intentions, its specific output is not as high DOHC VTEC engines.
In a SOHC engine, there is a single camshaft per bank of cylinders. So both the exhaust and intake cam lobes are on the same camshaft. The figure to the right illustrates this design. The three cam lobes in the middle are the intake cam lobes. The two low RPM lobes actuate two valve rockers, which in turn pushes the intake valves open. The high RPM lobe actuates a follower, which is shaped like a valve rocker, but doesn't actuate any valves. While there are different intake cam lobes for high and low RPM operation, the same two exhaust cam lobes are used for all RPMs. The lack of cam profile changing for exhaust valves is the primary difference between DOHC VTEC and SOHC VTEC engines.
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