In racing valvetrains, there is always an imperative to reduce reciprocating mass, as it allows the valvetrain engineer to be more aggressive with his cam profiles in an attempt to improve the valve lift curve, by increasing lift, increasing the area under the curve and so on. This will generally require greater valve acceleration or deceleration.
If we are constrained to using the existing valve design, we may be able to cope with increased forces and stresses due to increased acceleration. Read more…
For Morgan Lucas Racing’s John Stewart, tuner for second-year NHRA Top Fuel driver Shawn Langdon, the change from titanium valve springs to steel units was due to the cost. “A set of titanium springs is about $1500, and we can get a set of steel springs for about $500. They seem to last just as long,” Stewart says.
More than 15 years ago, a young David Coulthard said he was “very excited” about a new development at Williams, going on to say that “machine is working better than man”. The reason for his enthusiasm was that he had just tested Williams’ revolutionary continuously variable transmission (CVT) system. This was in 1993, and the system so worried other competitors and the FIA that it was banned before it could be raced. There is video on the internet of the car being tested in CVT guise, and it is well worth watching - and listening to. 
If a shaft spinning at 20,000 rpm can pose a sealing problem then what about one doing 120,000 rpm or even, dare I say it, 240,000 rpm? A simple enough question, you might say, but before answering it we need to understand the application and the desired effectiveness of the seal required.
I’ve always said that to be a good engineer takes many years of experience but to be a great one takes an appreciation of history as well. It’s a well-documented fact that very little is totally new in the world of automotive technology. For instance, four-valve chambers were first recorded in the Peugeot L3 of 1913, while the very first turbocharger came about in the mid-1920s - just two examples that readily spring to mind and were readily ‘re-invented’ later in the century. So when people talk about the latest in oil control ring 
In our May issue, we spoke about the challenges of pushrod fitment issues and how to find the proper avenues for combating strength and lightness problems. Beyond fitment though, there are the closely linked issues of pushrod adjustment and the inevitable challenge of cost.
Getting long life from a racing piston that is subjected to 8000 hp is not easy. Every trip down the 1000-foot dragstrip used by NHRA’s Full Throttle Drag Racing Series means a modicum of damage to an engine and, with the pistons, damage is a way of life.
When I was a lad, my old dad always used to say, “Change your oil regularly, son, and you’ll rarely have any engine problems.” Good advice indeed at a time when the statistic that 90% of all engine wear takes place in the first few seconds of engine life wasn’t even invented.
Last time we looked at ways of producing high-quality cylinder bores. Needless to say, the thinking and methods used might seem extreme to some or insufficient to others. In all this, however, we must always remember that it is not the shape or degree of roundness of the bore that is necessarily important but the degree to which the piston can conform and seal the combustion gases that is perhaps more critical. We can make the bore as circular in cross-section as possible but unless the piston rings used can conform to that shape, little will be gained. 
In 2009, and to much fanfare, Formula One ushered in a new technological development that should have improved the racing spectacle and gone some way to placating those environmentalists who see motorsport as the enemy. In both these regards, the introduction of kinetic energy recovery systems (KERS) should have represented an important step forward, but at the end of the year the systems were dropped, and this year nobody is running KERS. 
