<VV> More on valve seat failures

[Marc Sheridan]

I think it all comes down to economy. You do things differently when
building an aircraft engine versus one for an economy car. Years ago I went
to Trusports Indycar shop for an open house. We were told how valve seats
were done in the race engines. The exotic alloy seats were left in liquid
nitrogen, while the heads were heated in an oven. With the two temperature
extremes, the seats simply fell  into place. Once temperatures equalized,
the engine builder told us nothing would get them out. Not even a heavy
crash that ripped apart the engine.

A race engine isn't an aircraft engine, but I imagine they do something
similar.

Marc Sheridan


On Tue, May 8, 2012 at 4:23 PM, Kerwin Nailor <kerwinnailor at verizon.net>wrote:

> How do the air cooled aviation engines, flat and radial, deal with keeping
> seats in place? They get some pretty dramatic changes in temp, like heavy
> rain.
>
>
> Kerwin Nailor
> kerwinnailor at verizon.net
>
>