Got my big
valves back from the coaters today and a few other goodies...
valves are now ready for installation. I sent them out
to be coated for better heat dissipation and less friction. Look like black
chrome now. Coating will disappear around seating furface
once valves are lapped/ground to the seat.
Also you can see the Titanium retainers in this pic.
Everything on left is new and right side is old (cleaned) parts. The titanium
retainers ended up weighing less than half of the stock retainers. If I
would've duplicated the stock design/mass I would've only been about 35%
lighter. But due to the lightened valve train and the Ti I chose I could make
the retainers of less mass and cross-section lightening them further. They were
then sent out with the valves and surface hardened.
I went with a new set of stock Audi valve springs. Sent them out and had them
shot-peened/stress relieved. Rate increased about 5%
from 94lbs at .500" to 98.5lbs at same compressed height and service life
will increase anywhere from 400-1200%. I then polished their upper/lower seats
so they don't gaul into the
lower seats or the Ti retainers. I had to buy 3 complete sets of Audi valve
springs in order to end up with a perfectly balanced and matched set of inner/outer
springs. Other people were waiting in line to gobble up the remaining 2 sets. I
may still take the springs back and have a surface treatment added as I was
impressed with the advantages.
You can see the valves are smaller stemmed and under-cut compared to stock.
Little harder to see each valve also has a 1mm larger diameter head. Valves
also feature a thinner profile head for additional weight savings. I'll break
out the drug dealer paraphenalia (Ohaus
triple beam) in the next day or two and let everyone know the weight
differences for each individual part as well as the overall percentages on each
stacked assembly. I'm anticipating +/- 30% weight-savings on each valve,
retainer/keeper and lifter assembly.
Still awaiting the lightweight, 8,500 RPM lifters but they had to come from
My new nickel alloy valve seats should be here later this week and my silicon
bronze guide material I'll use to turn up my own guides.
Everything is right on schedule so far with this project tho
any single item could go south in a banana boat at any moment. Still looking
like a mid-August/early September installation date.
More updates as they occur.
Pic 2; Nothing new, just different angle...
