Patent ID: 7610897

Claim:
A valve control system for an internal combustion engine comprising: a vehicle control module that generates a lift mode command signal to transition at least one of an intake valve and an exhaust valve between N open lift modes, where N is an integer greater than one; a time module that generates a response time signal that indicates a duration for performing said transition and a lift limit signal that disables said transition, wherein said time module generates said response time signal and said lift limit signal based on a current lift mode signal that indicates a current lift state of at least one of said intake valve and said exhaust valve and a status signal that indicates status of a lift control valve that actuates at least one of said intake valve and said exhaust valve; and an event module generates said current lift mode signal and said status signal based on said lift command signal, said response time signal, and said lift limit signal, wherein at least one of said time and event modules enables said transition.