So should it miss during this transition? Yes or no?......or maybe? Perhaps Dave is only noticing an inherent trait of this design. I had a 1981 Fleetwood Cad with the 8-6-4 (modular displacement) V8. During transition between cylinders there was no stumbling or miss. The deactivated cylinders maintained air to cushion the effects of their own shutdown. Of course this was accomplished through ECM (electronic control module) controlled solenoids which modified valve function. Primary inputs were vacuum, throttle position, rpm, egr activity, and exhaust 02. Cruising down the highway at 60 mph it was running on 4 cylinders and producing nearly 30 mpg.......out of a 368 cubic inch engine, a downsized 425/500 of previous years. When it worked, it worked well, when it began to act up, many shops started to just cut wires and deactivate the system. Some level of ignorance was involved, giving the system a bad reputation, much like OMC VRO's. In the case of VRO's, however, ethanol played a key role.