David Reher of Reher-Morrison comments on Titanium Valves.

David Reher Tech Talk #76 Titanium valves

"Another myth is that titanium valves aren’t durable. I remind racers that the production Corvette Z06 and ZR1 have titanium valves, as do several other high-end sports cars. If Chevrolet is willing to put a warranty on a street motor that’s designed to last 100,000 miles with titanium valves, I don’t think that racers need to worry about the longevity of titanium valves. If I had a hot street motor, I’d run titanium valves without hesitation.

As with most products, there are differences in the quality of titanium valves on the market. Without going into specifics, I’ll just note that you usually get what you pay for. It’s my strong belief that valves are not the place to try to save a few dollars in a racing engine."

FWIW - From what I understand talking to my cylinder head guru friends:

1) Not all titanium is equal. There are a lot of near worthless cheaper titanium parts like retainers. The better titanium parts like quality retainers and quality valves are more expensive.

2) Titanium intake valve is the biggest benefit because The smaller exhaust valve is already fairly light.

3) Del West is a quality provider of titanium valves

4) The Ti valve should be coated for longevity

5) New valve seats should be soft, material as Nodular Iron, Bronze, or Beryllium- Copper, all heat treated to correct hardness.

It's my understanding that GM heads used in flex fuel application's have different valve seat material to hold up to the E85. I've not been able to confirm that or find out what material is used. In any case Wegner used Del West Titanium Valves in their spec NASCAR LS2 engines with 243/799 heads.

Regarding electric water pumps, the shop doing the LS swap on my 91 RS strongly discouraged using an electric water pump because the car is a driver that does 1,300 mile trips and sometimes gets stuck in stop and go traffic for 2-3 hours. For street / strip or race oriented cars/trucks the shop really like electric water pumps.

One of my friends did an EWP and ended up having to rewire it and use heavier gauge wire and a relay set up because after a while in stop & go traffic it pulled too much current and wiring got hot. His car didn't have issues after the rewire.

 

Thanks for the response man! I was looking into the Del West valves. I just wasn’t for sure if 1) it was ok to be running with them on a street/strip car and 2) wanted to get real word experience I guess.

 

I would suggest you contanct wegner or a local nascar engine builder for a used set of ti valves. The race teams change them constantly for no reason. I picked up a 2 race old set of del west valves for next to nothing with tool steel retainers and keepers.

 

BTW - I have a set of used Wegner Nascar 799 heads with the used Del West titanium Valves. Haven't checked all of them but they seem to be in good condition for used items.