titanium retainers vs steel retainers???
I personally would go with machined locks, they are fairly cheap insurance. The need for titanium will be based on your springs and cam, what is the setup? Also, if you are running the 918's, TSP just introduced less expensive titanium retainers for them.
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Anytime you can reduce the mass of the valve side of the valvetrain with retainers, locs, springs or valves the engine will almost always rev higher and cleaner. However, Ti has a hardness of only 35-40 Rc and springs are up in the mid 50's. The Ti will wear and I wouldn't recommended it for the street use unless you are planning on running low miles and can watch it! The endurance engines that run 12 and 24 hour races that we work with have all gone to steel after fighting with trying to get Ti to last. Nascar guys all coat their retainers to stand up to the springs.
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From: LONG ISLAND, NY; MADE IN THE USA
Originally Posted by PAC Racing Springs
Anytime you can reduce the mass of the valve side of the valvetrain with retainers, locs, springs or valves the engine will almost always rev higher and cleaner. However, Ti has a hardness of only 35-40 Rc and springs are up in the mid 50's. The Ti will wear and I wouldn't recommended it for the street use unless you are planning on running low miles and can watch it! The endurance engines that run 12 and 24 hour races that we work with have all gone to steel after fighting with trying to get Ti to last. Nascar guys all coat their retainers to stand up to the springs.
myself included, are we wrong in doing so?
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Not if you pay attention to your engine like I said. I just wouldn't recommend it unless you want every last ounce of performance and you look for wear over time. I have seen retainers let go from the outer edge wearing out from the contact with the spring.
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Guess I am confused on this as well, there are a lot of guys running Ti retainers on the streets for lots of miles. I would think fitment would play a part as well as the type of service the engine sees over that time. For example, most of the time the LS1 is loping along at less than 2K RPM on the highway because of gearing.
Guess I am trying to figure out what is the mileage that is considered low here.
Guess I am trying to figure out what is the mileage that is considered low here.
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Many folks have run titanium retainers for 30,000 plus miles with zero problems.With most of the springs needed to be replaced at that time and with the low cost of spring kits from TSP and other sponsors,run the titanium retainers.Your engine will be happy.
Over the last couple of years, we have sold 35,000 plus retainers. Out of these we have not seen a single failure. We have customers, many of which are members of Tech, that have over 30k miles on these retainers with no problems what so ever.
Our spring kits use the only the highest quality parts and are a (complete) kit including Ti retainers, Super 7 machined locks, viton brown seals, machined bases, and of course the Original Patriot Gold dual springs....all this for $255.00.
Guys, we strive to provide only the highest quality, great service, all at the best available price.
9/11......Never Forget
Our spring kits use the only the highest quality parts and are a (complete) kit including Ti retainers, Super 7 machined locks, viton brown seals, machined bases, and of course the Original Patriot Gold dual springs....all this for $255.00.
Guys, we strive to provide only the highest quality, great service, all at the best available price.
9/11......Never Forget
