[TRADERMIKE 2012]

Mikes Reply:

valves to go with those seats:

https://www.enginebuildermag.com/201...ves-and-seats/

What is a performance valve seat?
A valve seat must actually do several things – it must support and seal the valve when the valve closes, it must cool the valve, and it must resist wear and recession. Consequently, a performance valve seat material should provide a certain amount of dampening to help cushion the valve when it closes at high rpm.

[P@blo]

Originally Posted by Schurkey

I read it. It's wrong in the areas I pointed out.

The rest of the article isn't relevant to this discussion.

How could direct and indirect marketing information that has been SEO so mike can easily find it be wrong Schurkey? Mike is spreading marketing info not facts but he does not realize. Water wetter was enough for me thanks...

[78w72]

Originally Posted by TRADERMIKE 2012

Mike said:

"The Heat from those valves sinking into the Head and then Block and into the Engine compartment is most of my problem. Since I have not installed those seats, I feel lucky that I got past Vapor lock and under hot hood temps., at all."

78w72s final reply to mike: your heads already have valve seats! changing them to hardened seats for unleaded fuel will NOT change the temp the engine runs at nor will it stop vapor lock! go ahead & google up some more info & let us know when you find anything credible that says otherwise. until then please stop copying & pasting the same info over & over.... "the radiator is kind of a show off"

running transmission fluid in place of oil in the engine??? i give up.

[Formulajones]

My take on the whole hardened valve seat theory.

I built the engine in my Firebird in 1998. At that time using the original #12 heads, I didn't bother with hardened seats. Living in Ohio then, I raced the car regularly and street drove it nearly every day in the summer months and when weather permitted in the winter months. Raced Tri-power Nats, the TA Nats (when they had races), the Muscle Car Drags and many test and tune nights and put 70,000 miles on the car. Couldn't even begin to tell you the amount of track passes it's had on it. In other words, the car was used and not babied. It's had nothing but unleaded pump fuel running through it.

Fast forward, 4-5 years ago I tore the engine down for a known cam bearing issue I was ignoring, and decided to freshen things up. As far as valve seats go, they were perfect. No valves sunk, no excessive wear, the guide clearance was perfect. I simply lapped the valves in, new positive seals, and a new set of springs for the new cam and put the heads back in service. New bearings and a light hone with new rings on the old TRW pistons.
Been daily driving it since and have put another 40,000 miles on it, been racing the snot out of it. For the last 15 years it's been driven in Arizona with the crappy 91 pump fuel we have and the extreme desert temperatures. And this thing has always been 10.13:1 compression with the iron heads.

I will say that for more than a couple decades I generally mix a little 2 cycle oil in my fuel just to give the fuel a little lubricity. Does that do anything for the seats? Don't know for sure, but tearing this engine down and seeing virtually no wear after all those years and abuse makes me think I'll keep my routine. Maybe it does nothing....

So my thoughts on hardened seats is that they get hyped up more than necessary, especially on flat tappet builds with very little spring pressure. Couple that with the fact that most of you guys are lucky to even put 2000 miles a year on these cars anyway, making it a non issue.

But these days I do generally spring for hardened seats on new builds, just because I'm there and it doesn't cost much more anyway, when you're spending $1500 to refurbish 50 year old iron heads that need seats anyway, then why not.

To the point, this car doesn't run hot or vapor lock or any of that nonsense. I don't use any fancy coolant, just water mixed 50/50 with antifreeze. The valves or their seats have nothing to do with it. Just a well thought out build that runs efficiently with a proper tune and a perfectly working cooling system gets the job done.

[TRADERMIKE 2012]

Originally Posted by Kenth

Someone in this thread has got stuck in the snake oil swamp from the advertisers in the Hotrod magazines and accepted just about every incredible tip after another and instead of learning the combustion engine principles or at least learned to service their engine according to the service manual. We have all been beginners and done similar things but thankfully learned what is correct on the journey to a well-functioning car.

FWIW

Mikes Reply: I have proven my point but people denied the truth, I have learned a lot and strive to learn more, but to say to me that under the hood temps are not affected after I have shown that valves cool and the heads are the recipient is fact not fiction.

[b-man]