Lube for valve stems?
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TORQUE INC, Its a long story but basicly Ive seen a dirt track racer with an oiling problem to the top of the motor have the valves seize in the guides after two laps. When the heads were assembled with moly, it went 13 laps. In this case the valves still seized but it proved to me how much better the moly is. The moly will also not run off if the heads sit for a few months. Moly is not a must but it gives you more room for error.
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Dennisairflowdevelop wrote:I hate to ask this question...but what do you guys do when you have a race car that sits for 6-8 months? Take the heads off and re-lube the guides?
That is a scary question....
The customers I used to help on start up after
winter time..Not saying it is correct...
Would either pour oil over all the springs and
then rotate motor by hand or 1 customer used
a oil squirt can and just "at will" squirt into the
spring....
Brian B
Dakota Parts Warehouse
The Ferrea Valve Guy
877 235 2832
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this is a serious problem at times and needs to be addressed. I was an automotive machinist for 20 years. We had a rash of valve guides go bad on us. They were NOT sticking the valves but wearing out big time in a very short time, as in just a few miles. We called in the factory rep on the guides and we had a major investigation to find if the guides had changed as far as composition. They were the same as always but all of a sudden we had failures. Same clearancing method as before using Sunnen guide hone and same clearances. The only thing we changed is we had started using moly lube. The guide rep said that they had some other failures due to this because as mentioned before the guide is the first thing to get heat cause the moly to loose it.s lubricity and the guides instantly wore out. Changed back to an thick oil and never had another problem. On the race engine sitting scenario I like the idea of pulling the valve covers and oiling things up a bit before starting.Brian B wrote:Dennisairflowdevelop wrote:I hate to ask this question...but what do you guys do when you have a race car that sits for 6-8 months? Take the heads off and re-lube the guides?
That is a scary question....
The customers I used to help on start up after
winter time..Not saying it is correct...
Would either pour oil over all the springs and
then rotate motor by hand or 1 customer used
a oil squirt can and just "at will" squirt into the
spring....
Brian B
Dakota Parts Warehouse
The Ferrea Valve Guy
877 235 2832
John
one of these days I will have my web site done ;-)
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It very well could have been the moly we were using also as it was very pastey to begin with.axegrinder wrote:jfholm, Ill keep that in mind for stock rebuilds. I have had no problems with moly on atleast 30 drag motors. There was no increase in guide wear when I switched to moly in this application.
Thanks,
John
one of these days I will have my web site done ;-)
This makes sense to me. As an amateur I have always used straight motor oil because that's what I was taught; this explains why it is still a good idea. Taking that line of logic further based on what others in this thread have stated it would seem that a heavy synthetic motor oil would be a desirable product.jfholm wrote:....they had some other failures due to this because as mentioned before the guide is the first thing to get heat cause the moly to loose it.s lubricity and the guides instantly wore out. Changed back to an thick oil and never had another problem....
YMMV
Joe
Novadude,
This board isn't structured to feed egos for their moderators & patrons and it's not here as a masked attempt for frequent patrons & moderators to expand their business.
It's here to share information to the larger majority so they don't:
- Buy the wrong stuff
- Do the wrong things with their stuff
- Break the stuff they bought because of mis-use
Never be bashful about asking because there's no such thing as a dumb question. Since the members of this forum do not equate to any particular "scene" or "social clique" you should have no worries about approaching any of us.
This board isn't structured to feed egos for their moderators & patrons and it's not here as a masked attempt for frequent patrons & moderators to expand their business.
It's here to share information to the larger majority so they don't:
- Buy the wrong stuff
- Do the wrong things with their stuff
- Break the stuff they bought because of mis-use
Never be bashful about asking because there's no such thing as a dumb question. Since the members of this forum do not equate to any particular "scene" or "social clique" you should have no worries about approaching any of us.
Re: Lube for valve stems?
I have had guides go bad, and when I asked my machinist he asked whether I used a liquid or paste as an assembly lube. They warranty the engines they sell and stopped using anything non-liquid years ago. He believes the heavier materials don't allow the oil to get past the thicker material. I use Bearing Guard and the Lucas equivalent.
So much to do, so little time...