Titanium Valve springs

[Chris "drooze" Wertman]

I know they are used in TF TA and ProStock fairly frequently.

Does anyone have any experience with titanium valve springs ?

They have a lot of properties I am interested in , rate as well as strenght for limited life applications, I would love to hear from anyone that has run them, pros/cons.

[Ed Wright]

Originally Posted by drooze

I know they are used in TF TA and ProStock fairly frequently.

Does anyone have any experience with titanium valve springs ?

They have a lot of properties I am interested in , rate as well as strenght for limited life applications, I would love to hear from anyone that has run them, pros/cons.

Last I heard, Pro Stock many guys had gotten away from them.

[Chris "drooze" Wertman]

Hmmmm....well cant be the costing for those guys.....any idea why ?

Originally Posted by Ed Wright

Last I heard, Pro Stock many guys had gotten away from them.

[Gary Merrick]

I had the priviledge of driving John Lingenfelter's old A/ED transformed into a B/ED in 1999. John had some early Pro Stock Truck wedge engines that he wanted to sell along with the dragster, so we got together with some of my parts and ran them for four races in that summer. Prior to going to the Bowling Green points meet, John decided to put titanium valve springs on this engine. He told me to keep an eye on them because they were only good for twelve runs and these had eight runs on them already from one of the then, current Pro Stock truck motors. He also told me that they were $150.00 a piece. After the 2nd qualifing pass, the car lost 5 MPH, and as it turned out, it did have a broken intake spring, so he told me to not take a chance and change all of them and it would be good thru this race and Indy.

This was way to expensive for my pocket book and I really don't know if I saw anything in them. I would say today's springs are probably a lot better than those were and obviously, a lot cheaper. We have ran our PAC springs for many-many runs without problems at 10,500 RPM.

Gary Merrick
3522 C/ED

[Aaron Keown]

We have run them in the past on some engines and our experience was identical to that of Mr. Merricks,they were great if you were on an unlimited budget and did'nt mind checking the springs after every pass.This was also quite some time ago say 90-95,so it is quite possible that there have been significant improvements in titanium sice then.

[Chris "drooze" Wertman]

Thanks for the info, after a couple days of research, I found out what I needed to know, when they fail, they fail catasrophicly.....breaking like a candy cane and leaving shards everywhere, the tension of a spring breaking in relation to steel is huge, and as a result the resulting teardown and rebuild equally as massive.

I was looking to save money in the long run if they were more durable, it dosent seem that they are in for the long haul in a stocker, if they cost $1800 a set and lasted all season without failure, and could help eliminate valve float at absurd RPM, its a no-brainer, but unfortunatley this isnt the case.

Im limited to beehives, and well single springs make me nervous for high revs......they just do....So I was looking for something maybe on the material side to help, and the engine Im running is prone to breaking them in just this scenario.

Thanks for the info guys you pointed me in the right direction.

Originally Posted by Aaron Keown

We have run them in the past on some engines and our experience was identical to that of Mr. Merricks,they were great if you were on an unlimited budget and did'nt mind checking the springs after every pass.This was also quite some time ago say 90-95,so it is quite possible that there have been significant improvements in titanium sice then.

[Aaron Keown]

Pac and Nextek are awfully good springs,if they offer something for your application then it is definitely worth looking in to.

[Mike Carr]

Gary, how about this eastern OH/western PA weather, huh? In the last 24 hours, temps in the mid fifties drop to wind chills of single digits, snow, hail, sun, rainbows, thunder, lightening.

On-topic, I didn't think titanium springs would be allowed in Stock. I would have thought that was one rule change not permitted?

[Chris "drooze" Wertman]

Oddly they are, I checked , confirmed and double checked (with the NHRA), since there is NO mention of allowed or disallowed material, its allowed......

Originally Posted by Mike Carr

On-topic, I didn't think titanium springs would be allowed in Stock. I would have thought that was one rule change not permitted?

[Gary Merrick]

Hey Mike,

You are correct about the weather. As usual, it SUCKS this time of year. I went to Cincinnati yesterday to pick up my son from U of C and the wind was really tough. It was like driving a B/ED at Indy in a 20 MPH cross wind when you get past the grand stands at half track. HANG-ON!!

Hey Aaron,

I appreciate the respect of Mr. Merrick, but racer to racer, please call me Gary. Even if I am old, bald, and fat, my Dad (rest his soul) was Mr. Merrick. <G>

As far as getting back to the topic, good luck with the valve springs.

Gary Merrick
3522 C/ED