Reusing Titanium Valves in VK45DE

[Rob-bb]

Hi, I am looking at getting an ATK remanufactured VK45DE engine, but I have been told they reuse the Titanium valves. Some people (JWT for one) say they should never be reused.

So I am worried they might break ag max RPM. Any one got any information I can read ?

[holeset]

when I worked for a crowd here in NZ rebuilding sprint car motors it came down the customers budget

lots of money we replaced the whole valve train after every season-titanium valves keepers and retainers springs

how ever budget teams would ask us to reface the old valves and reuse the retainers and locks-sometimes for another 2-3 seasons and I never saw these fail, the only thing we replaced was the valve springs, the notch in the valve certainly got a terrible hammering from the lock but these were in springs running 350-500 lbs spring base pressure

some teams here would buy a season old ,motor out of USA -Don Ott, Shark racing built engines , get us to tear them down , check the balance and just replace the valve springs every season and they never had a problem


the only time I saw a titanium valve fail was a motor that was imported and never checked over after advising the customer to at least do the valve springs, this motor dropped a valve due to excessive valve bounce from worn springs and ruined the block , pistons and heads entirely, bits of broken retainer and locks blew up through the intake and destroyed the other side of the engine as well

this is the extreme of motor endurance under really harsh conditions , food for thought?

[HollywoodJackson]

the only time I saw a titanium valve fail...

this is the extreme of motor endurance under really harsh conditions , food for thought?

So in other words, for regular street duty the titanium valves are solid and everlasting??? I like that!

All the best,
~HollywoodJackson

[kylem7793]

when I worked for a crowd here in NZ rebuilding sprint car motors it came down the customers budget

lots of money we replaced the whole valve train after every season-titanium valves keepers and retainers springs

how ever budget teams would ask us to reface the old valves and reuse the retainers and locks-sometimes for another 2-3 seasons and I never saw these fail, the only thing we replaced was the valve springs, the notch in the valve certainly got a terrible hammering from the lock but these were in springs running 350-500 lbs spring base pressure

some teams here would buy a season old ,motor out of USA -Don Ott, Shark racing built engines , get us to tear them down , check the balance and just replace the valve springs every season and they never had a problem


the only time I saw a titanium valve fail was a motor that was imported and never checked over after advising the customer to at least do the valve springs, this motor dropped a valve due to excessive valve bounce from worn springs and ruined the block , pistons and heads entirely, bits of broken retainer and locks blew up through the intake and destroyed the other side of the engine as well

this is the extreme of motor endurance under really harsh conditions , food for thought?

I have an indy lights vk45. I am trying to figure out how to make it more streetable. I want to keep the flat plane and high revs. Max power is not a concern. It is in a full carbon fiber 240z. Was told I should replace the valves for steel and upgrade springs. I have lots of questions if anyone would like to discuss with me