Thoughts and experiences with aluminium retainers...

[JLaw]

Hi guys,

I'm in two minds about using Aluminium valve spring retainers due to some of the stories I've read while researching the pros and cons.

The retainers are hard anodised items from cat cams in Belgium. They look nice quality and they're very light. What I'm worried about is the springs eating into the retainers or the collets pulling through.

Any thoughts from anyone who's been here before would be appreciated.

Cheers, John.

[Greg Ward]

Never ever ever again.

Zero problems and 5yrs racing on this engine until this happened.

Pulled valve through retainer, all valves were doing it, and so bad that the inner springs couldn't come off the retainers because they were mushroomed so bad.

They were Titanium valves too, so it wasn't the valve weight.

When I weighed them, they were 7g a retainer, as opposed to 11g for a Titanium retainer, 4g is not worth the drama I can assure you!

Cheers,

Greg

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[JLaw]

Hi Greg,

Thanks for the input, sorry for the late reply. That looks terrible- sorry to see that. Would you care to share who made those retainers? I have read that when using Aluminium retainers they need to be changed every year or so due to fatigue. I would think this depends on the alloy. I have to admit it does seem like a gamble. 

Did you notice any aluminium fleck or sheen in the oil when you changed it? Was there any sign of the spring eating into the retainer?

Im thinking I might have to try and find some ti or steel retainers that will work.

Cheers,

John.

[Greg Ward]

Hi John,
I'll have to admit that I never knew they were totally Aluminium, being black anodised and perfect when put in, I had no idea that they would end up like this. I should have been smart enough to realise that when I weighed them, but I wasn't at the time.

Springs never ate into retainer, best engine I've ever had for no alu sheen or flecks in the oil, it simply never had any of it, and I had no concept that something like this needed a yearly change, I can understand that with Aluminium rods in Top Fuel that they may need to be changed 5 or 6 times a year, or even every meeting, but that was not what this engine has ever been about.
This was built as a Hillclimb engine, we are talking 20+ runs a weekend, with up to 40 gearchanges a run, and each one for me changed at up to 9000rpm....

So in the scheme of things, in a pure drag race engine, I may have picked up the problem due to much closer engine rebuild intervals.

Aluminium is awesome for so many applications, internal engine parts aren't one of them in my own opinion.

I've thought about it, would you use 3 groove or even single ,valve collet locks if they were aluminium?

No-one would, and if all your reason for using them is weight, as I said, it is 4g between these type of retainers and CB Titanium.

For a recommendation, CB Ti retainers have been in my race engine builders Supercharged Methanol injected VW engine for the last 20yrs, and that is also a Hillclimb built engine, not a dragrace one, so it must have done, 10,000 miles absolutely flat out all that time, so rather a lot of 1/4miles.

Cheers,

Greg