I found this vid on TiVCT and it answered my questions on how it actually works. This is interesting technology so I'd be interested in everyones opinions on it. Or not.
YouTube - car engine ford Ti-VCT 3d
YouTube - car engine ford Ti-VCT 3d
Hmmm, they must not be too worried about oil cleanliness if the recommended oil change service interval is 10,000 miles. It does have an 8 qt capacity though.
Interesting video, but a few comments:
One poster mentioned about a large number of O-rings - I don't see so. The plunger looks like a finely machined control valve, like what an automatic tranmission uses to for the gear selection. You move the car into drive, and that moves a control valve that looks similar to this, which puts oil pressure into certain passages. This control valve system has proven very reliable for decades already.
The main mod of failure that I can see is the solenoid which controls the control valve burning out, which shouldn't be a horribly expensive or difficult fix.
BMWs have been using a system that uses engine oil to adjust the cam timing for some time now, and they only change the oil every 15k-18k miles! With folks regularly running BMWs over 150k miles, I've got to imagine this setup should also be able to work until something else on the engine breaks first.