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Engineering Design Solutions
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Beyond "Outside the Box" - Engineering Design Solutions- Engineering Design Solutions

A company paid good money for engine valves with holes in them? Are you kidding me? No! There was a project to investigate the wear characteristics of camshafts and followers, testing different materials, different coatings and different lubricants. An engine was built with only complete heads mounted on an engine block that had only a crank shaft and the cam-drive chain. An electric motor turned the crank shaft.

In order to run the engine at high speed and have proper pressure on the cam lobes, racing valves were installed in the heads. These sodium-filled racing valves were very expensive and when one broke during a test run, it was a hazardous mess that had to be cleaned up. The solution was to use stock valves, made by the millions that were lightened to racing valve specs. The point was that they did not need to seal a combustion chamber, but only put tension on the valve train. Therefore, drilling holes and facing them off reduced the weight but did not affect their functioning in this application.

The picture above shows two rather “customized” automotive engine valves. They were the first (and only) iteration of the concept. Amazingly, they each hit the target weight within a tenth of a gram! When you work focused and diligently, you sometimes get lucky. Good luck is always welcomed.