Valve springs
 

So, reading some of the many 86 valve spring recall threads, got me thinking...

...in a inline, slant inline, V, or W engine design, if a valve spring breaks, it can "drop a valve". What about in a boxer engine? does it "toss the valve to the side"?

:iono:

I asked this same question in one of those threads and I believe someone told me that the FA20 is an interference engine so the pistons could uppercut the valves if the timing is off (or if the valve springs fail).

Yes, and depending upon which side it gets tossed to, when, - makes all the difference - :D

We didn't have this "valve dropping" problem back in the flathead days - :iono:


humfrz

Also, the RPM can play a factor as well.

I have a valve story for you. Once I was helping a friend tear down his blown V8 in his boat (wife and he did speed skiing competitions). We took one head off and one cylinder was missing a valve. It was just gone. The valve got sucked all the way to a cylinder on the other side. Block and everything was mangled.

Was alcohol involved in that rebuild - ??


:D


humfrz

Well, the blown and injected 500+ cubic inch chevy did run on nitro.

The wormhole geometry going from initial conditions to final end point are doing my head in.

Was Windows vers.xx in the block involved?

I think I'll go back to the term we used at a previous employer, when a jet engine had a blade failure, and say that the "valve liberated itself".