I just bought some dart platinum heads, and I need 2.08 1.60 valves. Who makes the best ones and where can I get them for the best price?

 

Who is doing the heads?

They should pick the valve. I have used manley, CV, and REV, all worked well.......You also should let whoever sets the heads up pick them due to setting up the springs...if they want a longer valve etc., let them choose all the hardware

 

I will be doing all of the work my self.

 

I'll say you probably shouldn't do that work yourself. You need to do a complete valve job to make the valves work as the seats won't be right and the stem clearance might be off.

 

All that stuff has already been done. The heads come with a 5-angle valve job. http://www.chevyhiperformance.com/te...ads/index.html

 

I would say Manley or Ferrera. I'm using Manley personally and your valves will have to be lapped to get a good seat to the head. Figure out what spring you have to use first and the weights over all your components. I was going to use a +.250 valve on my BBC, but Bret ended up finding a better spring that was lighter and let me use a standard valve length so I save weight on the valves and pushrods. I would e-mail Bret to get a spring worked out and then go from there. If you already have springs then just use a spring micrometer and figure out how short a valve you can run.

 

So, first i need to get a cam designed, let the cam designer pick the springs, and he'll tell me what valve train to run. Right? If I buy .100 over standard valves right now like the head diagram says, I may not even use them in the end?

 

Buy the lightest, best valve you can afford. Run titanium intake valves if you can afford them. If you can't afford new ones look up "Jarvis Machine" they are in Michigan he turns tit. valves to your specs.

Exceldyne makes a nice light valve too

 

Yes you need to get a cam designed first and then let him pick the springs. If he is worth anything he will ask you what valves and stuff you want to run so he can get weight, dimesions, etc. I wouldn't buy anything right now if I were you. I originally bought an intake/exhaust valve +.250/+.100 because that was the specs on the assembled pair of heads I purchased bare. I bought a pair so I could get them flowed and ported so I could send the flow numbers to Bret. With the weight of my valvetrain and spring installed height with the cam he designed I can actually run std. length valves which will save me 3 grams a valve plus the weight of shorter pushrods. In any case I now have an intake/exhaust valve that I can't use anymore cause they are the wrong length.

Cliff notes: Don't buy any parts until you get your cam done and then borrow a cheap pair of valves from someone to mock up your valvetrain at your spring installed height with a spring micrometer to see what length valve you can run.

 

ok. What dimensions do I need to get the cam ground?

Here is what i know for sure:

Engine Bore (in.) 4.125
Engine Stroke (in.) 4.000
Deck Height (in.) 0.000
Gasket Thickness (in.) 0.040
Cyl Head (cc) 69
Piston valve reliefs (cc) 6


Your Engine Displacement is: 427.7


Your Piston-to-Head clearance is (in.): 0.0400
Your cyl head in cubic inches: 4.211
Your piston reliefs/domes in 0.3662
cubic inches is:

Total volume is (ci.): 58.56792837
Compression volume is (ci): 5.1116

Your Compression Ratio is: 11.46 :1


flow numbers:
.200" 160
.300" 206
.400" 247
.500" 280
.600" 297
.700" 307

 

Those aren't the things that you need to be looking at when talking about a cam. You need to figure out what the car is going to be used for, operating RPM, weight of the car, gears, header primary length, transmission, tire height, head flow, etc. Those are all things that the person who is choosing your cam will need to get the performance you want. Have you even decided who is going to pick your cam or are you going to pick one out of a popular book? Doesn't matter which way you go, but these are all questions that the person who is choosing the cam should ask and/or have answers to. I think you are getting ahead of yourself in the process.

 

I'm getting it done by cam motion.

 

So you have already spoken to them and they are specing you out a cam?

 

I'm pretty sure I am going to use them, but I have not spoken to them yet. I had a friend that referred me to them, and he told me the same thing you did about contacting the cam designer first to get the right springs. But I didn't know that had anything to do with the valves.

 

It has everything to do with the valves because that's what the spring is moving. When choosing springs you have to know how much mass those springs are going to have to move so you need to know valve, retainer, lock weight and also how fast it needs to move them.