I just took my cams out today and saw that several of my valve stems (the tips) looked as if they had been flattened out some what as the tip of a nail would if you hit several times with a hammer....I'm curious as to what caused this : worn LMA's, worn tappits (lifters), or from running with no oil pressure for a couple of minutes when my pump failed??? The motor is a B17A with Skunk2 stg2 cams, valve springs, retainers and most significantly their nitraded valves...I mentioned the pump failure just in case it could be a significant contribution as the valvetrain only had about 10K miles on it.
Though the motor did not seize up, it did fry a couple of bearings. Also the lifters and LMA's were original so they had more wear on them than the Skunk stuff. The valve lash was correct and adjusted a couple of times after the motor was rebuilt so I don't think it played a role. I'll gladly post a pic tomorrow if someone can tell me how to do so, as the insert image icon doesn't seem to be the only step involved...I thought Skunk2's nitraded valves were supposed to be strong **** SO WHAT HAPPENED?


Modified by 1stGENGSR at 4:53 PM 6/24/2004


Modified by 1stGENGSR at 5:09 PM 6/25/2004

 

Skunks older valves had problems with "ballooning" at the tips. Are the valves recent purcahses or are they older valves?

 

Well I'm not Rocket or Omni but I can tell you that Skunk had some heat treating problems on their valve tips a year or so ago. I'm sure running without oil pressure did not help the tips either. Skunk fixed their problem and maybe they would replace them for you.

 

Make sure you run a valve with a hardened tip, such as induction hardening.

 

These were supposed to be nitraded...I bought them about two years ago.
The link below shows a picture of how they look, sorry about the flash. I'll take a better pic as soon as I recharge my camera batteries. Pay paticular attention to the valve tip on the right...
[IMG]
http://www.we-todd-did-racing....D.jpg[/IMG]


Modified by 1stGENGSR at 5:30 PM 6/24/2004

 

What Earl said.

PM me. coz you may have some other problems as well.

 

I took some new pics today much clearer: They go in the order of #1Exhaust, #3Exhaust, #2Intake, #4Intake. I haven't figured out how to make them show up on here yet so just click the links below, and they will pop up. I list them in the same order as listed above.....
[IMG]http://www.we-todd-did-racing....D.jpg[/IMG]


[IMG]http://www.we-todd-did-racing....D.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.we-todd-did-racing....D.jpg[/IMG]

[IMG]http://www.we-todd-did-racing....D.jpg[/IMG]


NOTICE ALL THE DAMN PIT MARKS!!!

Modified by 1stGENGSR at 10:26 PM 6/25/2004


Modified by 1stGENGSR at 10:28 PM 6/25/2004

 

Since you had oiling problems and this is an area that has sliding friction, the problem is made worse.

Are the valves worse off on the exhaust side?

 

It's kind of half and half.....A couple of the valves on each side still look good, and then a couple on each side look hammered, the rest just look pitted as if someone took an ice pick and tapped the hell out of them
All in all both sides have almost an equal amount of each.......
This is the worst on the exhaust side:[IMG]
http://www.we-todd-did-racing....D.jpg [/IMG]

And this is the worst on the intake side:[IMG]
http://www.we-todd-did-racing....D.jpg [/IMG]

 

If it was a heat treating problem, the tips would just be mushroomed out slightly. You problem looks more oil related because of the pitting.

 

I recently took apart a head and it had similiar looking valve tips and the head had burnt tarnished oil.