Thread: Springless Valvetrain

This is really neat:

YouTube - Springless Valvetrain For Push Rod Engines!

humm. looks cool. how much power do you think it would actually free up? percentage wise?

I would be surprised if it freed up anything less than 20%. There's other considerations as well. The engine should rev a bit more free, should get considerably better fuel economy, etc.

yea thats a good point. thats a really cleaver design

There is someone else that has an alternative valvetrain design for some time now. Look up or search on Coates Engines. His design is really innovative as well and I believe even says that with their set up there is no need to even lubricate the upper valvetrain, which if true would make even a conventional oil last three or four times what it currently does, plus the fuel economy and maintenance savings.

Me likey!

Honda has a camless valve train in some of their race bikes. They use pneumatics to run the valves not sure how it works tho.

this is really neat, i looked up there website and they said anywhere from 10 to 40% improvment in hp 40 seems a bit high but ten to twenty seems very reasonable.

I don't see where this would free up any HP except for if you're having valve float. Any energy required to compress the spring on one cylinder is offset by the spring being closed on another cylinder at the same time. No energy is lost by compressing a spring. It is simply stored, then released back into the system as the valve closes.

Now, if you have valve float, that means the spring can't close fast enough. If that's the case then the lifter isn't riding down the back side of the cam lobe in full contact. This prevents the energy from being returned to the cam shaft and thus back to the system as a whole.

If this really freed up HP, then adding higher pressure springs would take HP. Which, it doesn't.

Don't think I'm not kinda psyched about their idea though. I've had an idea for this for quite a while. Fairly similar to their implementation. The only thing I never figured out is how to assemble it when you put the cam into the engine. After that it would've worked just like this.

I think that opening and closing the valve springs does take some horsepower away. Anything the crank has to spin or compress makes it harder to turn. I don't see what you are saying about the force from one on the opposite side balancing it out. Could you explain that a little better? or maybe I am just stupid lol