Hi all,

Ive been searching and google'ing and have pretty much come up empty handed

How durable are the LS6 valves? I've heard about tips breaking under big cams but not a lot of examples of this.

I will have a set of 243 heads, a BTR Stage 4 NA Cam and their 660 springs.

Anythign i should be worried about? From what i can tell no, i just would like a second opinion

thanks
steve

 

Check some of the Corvette forums. I have seen similar statements made and I do recall a couple of guys who had the valves fail. However, one advantage of these valves is they don't need as much spring. Also, I would use larger OD pushrods to keep flex and valve bounce minimized.

 

I run the hollow-stem LS3. If I were running a lot of boost, I'd probably swap over to a solid-stem stainless intake valve to deal with the added cylinder pressure. Otherwise, if your valvetrain is stable and the geometry is good, it shouldn't put undue stress on the valve stem and cause failure.

Miss a shift or something and yeah... could be trouble for any valve.

 

I would imagine the GM engineers have thoroughly tested the endurance level of those valves in any and all stock situations in order to offer a warranty on the ZO6. To me it seems that the folks that had issues put in a larger way more aggressive camshaft with minimal piston to valve clearance, much stouter valve springs and potentially a 5/ 16" .080 push rod which can act like a spaghetti noodle at 7 grand.
Then they have a valve failure and say GM hollow valves suck.
The first performance hollow valves were in the LT4 engines and the Fast Burn cylinder heads but those were both 11/32 stem.

 

The OP's setup is much more aggressive than stock although I am not familiar with that cam. So your description may actually be close to that of the OP's.

 

thank you guys for the information. Im working on setting up the valvetrain now and making sure the geometry is correct.

I talked to BTR and they said the valves should hold up fine.