anyone running these?

they are plumbed special to oil the springs, and the roller rockers direct

http://www.drysump.com/valvcvr.htm

 

One principal advantage is the cooling effect that direct oil spray
provides when directed at the valve springs. Lift and RPM create
significant heat in the springs.

Bypassing the push rods also helps reduce valve train weight.

As for the roller rockers, my vote is that these don't benefit much
from feeding oil through passages and jets in the covers.

.

 

I was thinking the tips, not the fulcrums.

Sorry, should have been more specific.

 

The cooling effect is generally not necessary until you are over about .800 lift. That is the lift range that starts to make heat provided it sees enough RPM for extended periods of time. Oil cooling efficiency is about 10% of water but when you need it you'll take whatever you can get.

 

I generally defer to Greg Gore on engine matters but I have
been meaning to rebut his comments above.

If someone didn't know otherwise, GG's remarks would leave them
with the impression that spring oilers are an esoteric addition
with a very limited range of application, ie: max effort engines
with 0.800"(+) valve lift.

In fact, springs generate heat at much lower lifts than 0.800".
Anytime there is work, heat is produced. If enough heat develops
in the springs then they will begin to anneal and lose their ability
to control valve motion.

Spring oilers were found to be useful long before the lifts seen
now became possible.

Perhaps modern materials and processes used today for springs makes
them able to endure higher temperatures before beginning to anneal,
but I don't think there will be so much difference as to prevent springs
operating at 0.500-0.600 in endurance applications from benefiting by
application of direct oil cooling. Especially if oil through the push rods
has been restricted.

As for the efficiency of oil cooling, relative to that of water - this is
a Red Herring. I know of no practical way to directly water-cool
valve springs. Even if direct water cooling were possible,
characteristics of oil are superior to those of water for cooling
objects such as valve springs. For instance, water boils at 100ºC
(212ºF.) and is corrosive.

Oil serves as an effective cooling agent elsewhere throughout the
engine, it can do so equally efficiently for valve springs.

.

 

Greg is correct. Context is everything. Spring oilers are indeed intended for "max effort engines with 0.800"(+) valve lift". They have no place on a standard oiling system SBC with a hyd cam.

Infact the first time we ever used any was in the very late 1980's when we had a rash of good ole Comp Cams "Pacoloy" valve springs breaking every other week. Quite baffeling at the time as those springs had worked great for us for almost to 10yrs with no problems and were still considered my most engine builders to be the best spring money could buy. You couldn't buy better valve springs, oil temp was still in check, no bottom end oiling problems just breaking springs like crazy so what to do...

Turns out years of increasing valve lifts, increasing engine RPM, and more aggressive cam lobe profiles cuppled with the standard (for the time) SBC "restricted cam/top end oiling system" was a big factor in killing them. Of course old spring technology was a factor as well. K-Motion H-11 tool steel springs AND the use of spring oilers solved our spring problems for about another 4-5 yrs, then we moved on and moved on about 3yrs after that and so on. Anyway history is just that history. People like PAC, ISKY, K-Motion and PSI have ramped spring technology up so much (along with better oiling systems, better oil, ect) we don't have to run spring oilers on anything but our endurance engines and these are far more restriced (actually integrated into our T&D rockers) than the valve cover "sprinkler system" of the good/bad ole days.

However we have to keep things in context as to their application. NEVER in my life have I ever seen a hyd roller cam that had lobe acceleration rates, lift and the ability to turn enough RPM that would require spring oilers, unless you were way off base with your spring selection in the first place in which case it would be a parts selection problem much more easily solved with the proper springs. Also (NO OFFENSE TO BRIAN or the engine he is building) but a 23degree standard SBC with a stock oiling system is going to pump as much oil to the rockers and valve springs as it could ever need. The last thing it would need is more oil spraying around in the valve covers instead of oiling the rods and mains. Even with the Blower (if it runs off of the engine oiling system) all you would need is a good oil cooler, the correct cyl wall finish, ring end gap and proper oil pan to keep oil temp in check.

These valve cover spring oilers have their place. IN OVAL TRACK ENGINES ABOUT 10YRS AGO.
Will

 

Thanks... I should have said "enough heat for concern." The entire engine oiling system should be well thought out for any build that deviates from stock. You really want to be sure you have a good uninterrupted supply of oil to the rod bearings first. Oil exits rod bearings under load at 400 degrees F so this is the most critical component in the oil chain. It costs horsepower to pump oil and with stock engines flowing around 12-13 GPM you really don't want to consume unnecessary power pushing more oil than is necessary to valvesprings which see relatively low valve lifts and do not generate enough heat to be concerned about. Actually the level of heat generated by lifts up to about .700 can be tolerated without additional cooling even in engines that run WOT for 4-5 hours but when lifts gets close to .800 it will move to the top of the list fast. I can say from practical experience that the valve spring is the single most critical component in any well developed professional series competition engine. When you are far along in the development process with any competition engine you eventually hit a wall when you realize the valve spring controls everything you do. If you could get your hands on a better valve spring you could lift a little more and turn more RPM and this is where your opportunity for an advantage lies. Around ten years ago we received a nice bump from the radial tire industry of all places. It turned out the wire used in radial tire construction was drawn down to .020 and wound on huge spools in Kobe, Japan. Small impurities remaining in the steel resulted in a lot of breakage and downtime to rethread and restart the machines so a better refinement process was sought to get cleaner steel. A new process was eventually discovered and successfully implemented and as a sideline it was also used afterwards to make better competition valvesprings. That process gave us a nice 1000 RPM advantage over our competition for a short time before everyone else eventually had it too. There are engines currently out there reliably turning 10,000 RPM on 6 GPM! Can you imagine the amount of effort that goes into achieving that? This includes diverting a sufficient amout of oil to cool the valvesprings too! A couple of other points worth mentioning: The valvesprings used in the Z06 LS-7 engine are beehive style ovate wire springs made by Mubea and designed to survive .600 lift with tested and documented reliability. GM buys them by the boxcar load and probably pays less than a dollar a piece for these springs; you can buy this spring at your local dealer for around $5. On the other side of that you can spend $100 each for good valve springs and sometimes you have to depending upon the intended purpose; You buy these so that you can lift higher than your competition but lift too much without cooling and they will not make it either.

 

How relevant is this anymore??

 

If you run your engine hard, not the occasional sprint on the highway, then it is. The springs still need their temperature controller and oil is used to do it.
I have oilers on my 434, with a .682 mechanical roller cam. They give me a sense of security when I run it really hard for a good amount of time and often.

 

Are you doing this with a wet sump system, or dry sump?

 

Sorry Bill have't been on site for some time now. Life gets in the way
The oil system is Wet Sump