Boofers

Please feel free to share your experiences with valves & seats wearing out after a solid lifter cam was put into a stock engine. A friend of mine is considering the XS262 but is wondering how his stock valves & seats would hold up.

bence13_33

I ran a Comp 294 solid flat tappet in my big block. The heads were "206" heads that were worked over. The heads still had "soft" valve seats. I ran unleaded 93 octane through it all the time and never had any problems (which proves that hardened seats are overrated in most cases). After 2 years of use, whenever I pulled them off they were still fine. The only thing that should really cause seat damage would be excessive spring pressure. Hardened seats hold up much better to a lot of spring pressure than the "soft" seats. A cam that small (XS262) should be fine. Valve lash caps are a good idea to use. That way if something goes wrong it doesn't damage the tip of the valve.

Wrencher

Like he said. The cam per se will not have an effect other than slightly higher lift (and spring pressure) and a different mixture. Seat pressure is the biggie.

Hans

Boofers

I keep telling my friend that the 262 is a tiny cam and now you have given me some more ammunition to bug him! Thanks for the input.

Solid LT1

Be SURE and get the "offroad use only" Valvoline racing oil for a flat tappet cam. Because most extreme wear suppliments are zinc based they had been steadilly removed from engine oils in the last 5-10 years (the catalytic convertors were plugging up from them.) Valvoline has come out with a new line of racing oils that have a high content of anti-wear additives and cannot qualify as street legal because of this, you need to run this type f oil if you are building a flat tappet engine to prevent lobe failures on your cam.

Gordonm

Are you just talking break in or normal use. I am running Mobil 1 in my flat tappet cam for over 6000 miles and the lift still measures exactly what is was when new. I agree for break in but once it is broken in a good quality oil will do.