quote:Originally posted by bdud:
"Oil serves new purposes, we are using oil to cool and dampen parts where back in the day it was only used for lubrication". "Oil fills the insides of the valve covers, completely submerging the valve springs. The crew must drain this oil before removing the valve covers". They take 6 gallons of oil though, it is dry sumped.
My information shows right or wrong, that when the 351c first came into use in NASCAR after the 429 Shotgun (Boss 429) was eliminated by the rules, that initially there was an issue with valve spring failure.
Granted there has been a drastic improvement of technology in valve springs which let them last at higher lifts, higher rpm's for seemingly forever.
It was the lack of valve spring technology which limited the 427 Fords at LeMans to 6,000rpm's in the GT40's.
I know in the 351C's one of the solutions was to cool the springs by submerging them in about 1-1/2" of oil. At least according to the Woods Brothers.
They told me that fixed the problem.
Solutions often cross from one team to another (stealing others good ideas) and where that idea originated (Ford or Chevy camp) really doesn't matter except to the historians.
I personally can tell you that the location of the oil drainback holes in my A3 Motorsport heads positively creates a reservoir of oil which keeps the base of the springs permanently submerged in oil. Roughly a quart between the two heads.
Something else that I haven't seen mentioned in about 35 or 40 years which some think is very significant, the original Ford Boss 302/351 valve covers had drip tabs that fastened with screws to the insides of the valve covers.
The Detomaso script covers do not. They seem to be fashioned from the original molds of the Boss covers?
Just the fact that the Ford engineers thought them important enough to include at extra effort on their parts, makes them significant to me too.
Just food for thought here.