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Valve Recommendations

If you aren’t planning on making more than 500whp, replacing your OEM valves with aftermarket is not a requirement. However if your budget allows for the valve upgrade we highly recommend it! The OEM exhaust valve has been known to burn, which can result in burning the valve seats, the debris from this failure can go straight into your exhaust wheel creating more carnage, which cam potentially take out your cylinder heads. A repair like this can be costly, so upgrading to aftermarket valves isn’t a terrible idea!
An aftermarket valve is constructed of materials that can withstand the heat. Aftermarket valves bend, OEM valves break.
If you decide to upgrade your valves you will need our rebuild with guides service because the stem size of the OEM valve is different than any aftermarket valve. Installing an aftermarket valve in an OEM steel guide will result in too much valve to guide clearance, this can wear the guides out prematurely.

A common concern when picking out a spring kit is adding too much spring pressure, especially in street applications. When it comes to the spring, more pressure is better than less pressure. Less pressure will result in valve float which can cause damage to your valve-train.
The correct amount of pressure will keep the springs controlled which in turn controls the valves. The number one cause of valve-train and or cam/bucket failure is not having the correct valve spring for your application. If the valve spring is not happy, nothing will be happy.

Are you planning to sit in a lawn chair and listen to your car? If so, purchase the biggest cam on the market and you’ll be a happy camper! The big chop will add happiness to your ears, but it will feel laggy because the camshaft is too big!
If you enjoy beating the crap out of your car and jumping into boost, a smaller cam is the cam for you!
At this power level we suggest not moving up to any aftermarket camshaft and sticking with stock cams. This will give you lots of area under the curve that will keep your dyno happy with miles of smiles.

Buckets (aka lifter valves) are wearable items. The number one cause of valvetrain failure and or cam/bucket failure is not having the correct valve spring for your combination. If the valve spring is not happy, nothing will be happy. DLC won’t save you, it will only take longer for the failure to happen.
If you are shopping for heads because of a recent engine failure, it is likely your bucekts will need to be replaced. Especially if you are upgrading to a new cam.
HeadGames can polish them, if they pass our inspection, great! We will not reuse buckets that have any kind of wear, this is a recipe for failure.

If you are putting your car together as a restoration the refresh is the right choice for you. During our inspection we might find that your valve seats are beat up from the skimpy spring pressure of the OEM spring. If that’s the case we will recommend our rebuild service, which includes a valve job.
If your budget allows for a valve upgrade then our rebuild with guides service is a must. That service includes new bronze guides that get resized to the correct valve to guide clearance, our trick valve job, we set bench lash, mill and assemble with your new parts!