I spoke with my cylinder head porter this afternoon about some tall perimeter style fabricated valve-covers for use on my 396. For approximately a $100 more I can have them plumbed for valve spring oilers.

Does anybody have any opinions on the pros and cons of using them on a solid roller motor for use on the street? Do they really add that much life to the valvesprings? Or is my head porter just trying to sell me something I may not really need.

Thanks, Dave.

 

What kinda springs and how much pressure?

put your money into a set of GOOD valvesprings (eg PSI springs $300 a set) and your springs should last you a full season of racing before needing another

 

On a circle track engine with a solid roller you will double the valve spring life with the oilers. This is with around 260# to 285# seat and 650# to 750# open on fairly agressive lobes and rocker ratio's. The psi spring are good, as are the comp pacoloy springs, but the best I've tested and lived the longest are the isky tool room springs (I'm not a big fan of isky but their springs are second to none). The psi springs get alot attension because D.E.I uses them in there cup engines but beware the spring they are useing are not the cheaper ones you usually find.
One foot note on spring pressures alot of people believe that to much will cost you HP because it takes more power to turn the cam. This is untrue as one lobe is climbing another is going down the lobe pushing the cam forward balancing out the added spring pressure. I've showed this to alot of people on the dyno and they can't hardly believe how much you can pick up power wise. This is on flat tappets as well.
Example a 355 with a comp solid flat tappet with the spring comp recomends verses a comp 977-16 spring(which is what they recommend for a solid street roller) will pick up 10 to 15 hp at 6500rpm and 20 to 25 at 7500rpm. Now alot of this depends on the cam and engine. Also cam and lifter wear is worse in a street engine because of the idle time which doesn't lube the lifters very well as a race only engine doesn't idle much.

 

Haven't got my cam specs yet. I am picking up the flow sheet today and calling Cam Motion tomorrow. Expect the cam to be in the .670-.680 lift range, with between 250-250 duration at fifty from what I have seen them spec'ing for similar motors.

Have the factory ECM so plan on shifting it about 7000RPM max. But don't know the spring specs...I do plan on running Pacaloys though.

Dave.