The Sex Life of an Exhaust Valve

Doesn’t get more provocative than that. Was that reason for the good turn out at the gathering?

For our November program, fellow EAA member George Steed from Chapter 406, Bremerton shared some fiery details about the exhaust valves typically found in the Continental and Lycoming engines that power our small general aviation aircrat and the exciting lives they lead. High temperatures and millions of operations exact a high toll on the valves, especially if the engine isn’t carefully operated according to manufacturers recommendations.

There are several things we can do to keep an eye on the health of these valves. George recounted things like compression checks and borescope inspections that can help us evaluate the condition of the valves and to detect early signs of stress or pending trouble.

An exhibit of several exhaust valves were passed around to let us see differences between normal and worn valves. Several photos showed what can happen if valve trouble progresses to catastrophic failure. There are fortunately some things that can be done if issues are detected. George summarized “staking” and “valve lapping” techniques that can improve the seating and sealing of the valves to slow concerning trends. He also mentioned things like worn valve guides that may require more extensive measures to correct.

Good information like George presented is interesting, useful and appreciated.

Ray,