Valves
When it comes to choosing valves all are not created equal and the application you plan on running them in has a huge effect. There are few common options we set people up with: stock valves, stainless steel, titanium, and inconel. Stock valves are good for most heads/cam street car applications that are naturally aspirated or on relativity mild boosted cars. Upgraded Stainless valves are recommended for anyone looking to get a little more serious with their setup, these will handle more abuse then a stock valve and are still relatively cost efficient, if only one is being upgraded we recommend a stainless exhaust valve upgraded first due to the exhaust valve normally being the first one to fail. Titanium valves are the go to for us when valve train stability and rpm is the goal, due to the weight loss you get with a titanium intake valve the valve train stability and rpm potential is greatly increased. Inconel exhaust valves come into play when extremely high heat will be present on a heavy racing application.
Valve springs
When porting your heads there is nothing that goes better with it then a properly chosen camshaft and this means more lift then stock and that means the stock valve generally springs won’t cut! Stock valve springs are rated for a low lift and will bind if you try to go higher than that causing massive engine failure, not to mention stock valve springs have lower spring pressure then a comparable aftermarket setup and this holds you back from turning higher rpm and making more horsepower. This is the time to upgrade your springs! By going to an aftermarket valve spring you increase the control of your valve train which in turn allows you to turn rpm and make more power! Aftermarket springs are also strong and especially at high rpm greatly decrease the chance of failure.
Valve seat material
A large majority of the work we do we end up utilizing the factory seats the manufacturer installs in their cylinder heads, but on big performance application where people are looking to push the limits, the stock seats will just no longer cut it. At this point we upgrade to a larger stock style iron seat to accept a larger valve or we go to a copper alloy seat for better heat dissipation from the valve and also giving us the ability to safely use a steeper valve job for more air flow.
Airflow
The more air you can get into an engine the more power you make! The cylinder head is generally a larger restriction and is also why good flowing cylinder heads are a need for any performance engine. When it comes to porting most people think you are just making the ports bigger everywhere and that is it. While just making the port bigger might flow more air if you put it on a flow bench it will neither perform how it should or anywhere near the max it could! When we engineer a port many hours are spent measuring and flow testing to ensure the port is sized and shaped correctly to give you the most power across your rpm range and make your engine do that efficiently without leaving any power on the table.
Intake manifolds
Intake manifolds are not a one size fits all in a performance application. The intake manifold can make or break your combination when it comes to making an efficient induction system. We have many customers that leave alot of horsepower on the table by not properly choosing an intake manifold that works well with our heads. In many applications our ports will exceed the stock intake and by customers using them they have alot of power that is not accessible. With so many options out there please talk to us about the intake manifold you should run with your combination and we would be happy to help you choose one to ensure the you get the most out of our product!