Well, I bought this M-254 engine, but was too busy to tear it down so I took it to a machine shop (my sledge hammer was too light). haha!!
Recently, after hearing a friend say that in 1951 Ford design engineers went to upgrade the valves train to allow the valves to roate, it came to my recollection that I was missing all of the I valves (some were cut out with a torch due to rust), and only had 5 rusty E valves, 6 rusty valve stem end-caps; so I assumed caps were for the E-valves only. They may have had 12 caps originally.
In any event I made a photo of these parts and sent it to Fred, and he has posted it below.
In any event I laid out the parts and began to try and understand what would make the valves turn, and I concluded that the design may have been to prevent the valves from turning, if the valves were turning due to rotating tappets/lifters. Seems the caps might tend to carry a bit of oil, open end to the upside, and as the lifters would turn that rotational force would be transfered to the end-cap (rather than directly to the bottom of the valve stem) and tend to slip between the stem-end and the lifter, thus transferring less, if any, of the rotation to the valve stem.
If the valve spring is causing valve rotation, then I don't see the advantage of the caps!
Anyone see any advantage OR disadvantage of utilizing the valve stem caps? I see no readily-apparent advantages; seems the lighter the valve train, the better; the caps seem very light though.
Recently, after hearing a friend say that in 1951 Ford design engineers went to upgrade the valves train to allow the valves to roate, it came to my recollection that I was missing all of the I valves (some were cut out with a torch due to rust), and only had 5 rusty E valves, 6 rusty valve stem end-caps; so I assumed caps were for the E-valves only. They may have had 12 caps originally.
In any event I made a photo of these parts and sent it to Fred, and he has posted it below.
In any event I laid out the parts and began to try and understand what would make the valves turn, and I concluded that the design may have been to prevent the valves from turning, if the valves were turning due to rotating tappets/lifters. Seems the caps might tend to carry a bit of oil, open end to the upside, and as the lifters would turn that rotational force would be transfered to the end-cap (rather than directly to the bottom of the valve stem) and tend to slip between the stem-end and the lifter, thus transferring less, if any, of the rotation to the valve stem.
If the valve spring is causing valve rotation, then I don't see the advantage of the caps!
Anyone see any advantage OR disadvantage of utilizing the valve stem caps? I see no readily-apparent advantages; seems the lighter the valve train, the better; the caps seem very light though.