Speedmaster valve quality

-
66Valiant528

66Valiant528

FABO Gold Member
FABO Gold Member
Joined
Aug 20, 2019
Messages
1,224
Reaction score
983
Location
Medway Ma
I ordered some bare castings during the Black Friday sale for a small block. My question is are the valves they sell any good? And what's up with the .050 longer? 11/32 valve stem. The price is right but not of they're junk. Any insight? BTW sale ends in 16 hours.
 
Guess it depends on your goals. Being you posted in the “race” section I’ll assume performance ranks up there pretty high. That said I’d be leaning towards a set of the “Bloomer” heads. Appear to have a port design that works and come equipped with what I’d assume would be quality parts coming out of a small niche shop and all. I know John (Pittsburghracer) liked the Speedmaster stuff but IIRC he was buying the bare castings.
 
Ferrea valves are the only valves made in the usa, Even Manley are now made over seas they sold the company. Are the valves you ordered stainless?

All of the valves Steve gets for viper heads are from manley. All the faces have to be touched. All their valves the face is usually cut at different angles from 40 to 47 degrees. So where ever you get them they needed to be checked. Quality isn't what it use to be thanks to getting less qualified employees from all over the world due to labor rates.
 
Last edited:
You just cannot buy valves and pop them in without checking the angles and stem height on valves and angles on seats. You will be looking for trouble if you do.

We find even new assembled heads from all different companies are just thrown together incorrectly.

Yes there are precision built heads out there but not many put pride into their product if mass produced for internett sales through a third party..
 
A body said:
Guess it depends on your goals. Being you posted in the “race” section I’ll assume performance ranks up there pretty high. That said I’d be leaning towards a set of the “Bloomer” heads. Appear to have a port design that works and come equipped with what I’d assume would be quality parts coming out of a small niche shop and all. I know John (Pittsburghracer) liked the Speedmaster stuff but IIRC he was buying the bare castings.
Click to expand...
Same thing bloomer is doing. Buying bare china castings and doing there own porting.
 
IMO I'd say if you are going to buy the speedmaster bare castings and then buy their valves, might as well just have bought the heads loaded. But my personal experience is the valves that came in my speedmaster heads have held up well - but mild use.
 
318willrun said:
IMO I'd say if you are going to buy the speedmaster bare castings and then buy their valves, might as well just have bought the heads loaded. But my personal experience is the valves that came in my speedmaster heads have held up well - but mild use.
Click to expand...
Thank you.
 
Oldmanmopar said:
You just cannot buy valves and pop them in without checking the angles and stem height on valves and angles on seats. You will be looking for trouble if you do.

We find even new assembled heads from all different companies are just thrown together incorrectly.

Yes there are precision built heads out there but not many put pride into their product if mass produced for internett sales through a third party..
Click to expand...
I have no intention of popping the valves in. Just wanted to know about the SM valve quality and added length.
 
66Valiant528 said:
I ordered some bare castings during the Black Friday sale for a small block. My question is are the valves they sell any good? And what's up with the .050 longer? 11/32 valve stem. The price is right but not of they're junk. Any insight? BTW sale ends in 16 hours.
Click to expand...
The Speedmaster heads are basically a copy of the Edelbrock RPM head, using the same basic dimensions. The valves that say they are .050 longer are correct because that is how the Edelbrock heads were made as well. If you search you will find threads about geometry correction efforts on the Speedmaster heads, but the same effort is required on the Edelbrock heads.
 
Bobzilla said:
The Speedmaster heads are basically a copy of the Edelbrock RPM head, using the same basic dimensions. The valves that say they are .050 longer are correct because that is how the Edelbrock heads were made as well. If you search you will find threads about geometry correction efforts on the Speedmaster heads, but the same effort is required on the Edelbrock heads.
Click to expand...
Thank you . I have every intention of having the heads professionally inspected and assembled.
 
Oldmanmopar said:
Ferrea valves are the only valves made in the usa, Even Manley are now made over seas they sold the company. Are the valves you ordered stainless?
Click to expand...
Are the Ferrea 5000 and 6000 series valves made in USA? I thought these were still made in Argentina and only the higher end valves and custom orders were made in USA. I do not know for sure, so I am asking.
 
66Valiant528 said:
Thank you . I have every intention of having the heads professionally inspected and assembled.
Click to expand...
Are you building a street engine with these heads or a dedicated race engine?

I bought a set of the Speedmaster 2.02 intake and 1.6 exhaust valves during one of the previous sales for a set of bare heads and have not used them yet. If you want any actual pictures of them before purchasing you can feel free to ask and I will try to post them.
 
As far as flow goes, the SM valves are as good or better than Ferrea 6000 and the TF 2.02. As far as weight, a 2.08 SM is about the same as a 2.08 Ferrea at 127g. The 2.02 SM is 118g while a 2.02 TF is 125g. Both the TF and the Ferrea have a smoother polish than the SM. Margins on the TF and Ferrea are thicker than the SM.
 
Earlie A said:
As far as flow goes, the SM valves are as good or better than Ferrea 6000 and the TF 2.02. As far as weight, a 2.08 SM is about the same as a 2.08 Ferrea at 127g. The 2.02 SM is 118g while a 2.02 TF is 125g. Both the TF and the Ferrea have a smoother polish than the SM. Margins on the TF and Ferrea are thicker than the SM.
Click to expand...
Are the 2.08 Speedmaster valves actually the same length as the 2.02 valves used in the Chrysler heads? They don't list a 2.08 for the Chrysler heads and the Chevy 2.08 valve is listed as longer than the Chrysler valves.
I know some of the details they list on Speedmaster's site are wrong but if you have measured them I would be interested in the numbers.
 
The TF 2.02 is 5.200" long. The SM (Chrysler I think) 2.02 is 5.000" long. The SM 2.08 that I have is actually a Chevy +0.100 valve and measures 5.013" long.
 
66Valiant528 said:
I ordered some bare castings during the Black Friday sale for a small block. My question is are the valves they sell any good? And what's up with the .050 longer? 11/32 valve stem. The price is right but not of they're junk. Any insight? BTW sale ends in 16 hours.
Click to expand...
Small block Chevy valves
 
Earlie A said:
The TF 2.02 is 5.200" long. The SM (Chrysler I think) 2.02 is 5.000" long. The SM 2.08 that I have is actually a Chevy +0.100 valve and measures 5.013" long.
Click to expand...
They list those 2.08 Chevy valves with a 5.051 length. Interesting they are actually 5.013.

Thanks for the details.
 
Bobzilla said:
Are you building a street engine with these heads or a dedicated race engine?

I bought a set of the Speedmaster 2.02 intake and 1.6 exhaust valves during one of the previous sales for a set of bare heads and have not used them yet. If you want any actual pictures of them before purchasing you can feel free to ask and I will try to post them.
Click to expand...
I dont have an end plan for these heads yet. I already have a racecar and 2 other drivers, 440 and 225. But I've got a 273, 340 and 360 plus a 383 and 440. 727A and B. 8.75 Abody rear. Moser axles wilwood brakes....just no room and no real plan.
 
66Valiant528 said:
I dont have an end plan for these heads yet. I already have a racecar and 2 other drivers, 440 and 225. But I've got a 273, 340 and 360 plus a 383 and 440. 727A and B. 8.75 Abody rear. Moser axles wilwood brakes....just no room and no real plan.
Click to expand...
Buy now and figure out what to use them on later. I like that plan.
 
The .050" longer stems is for more valve spring room and the 11/32" stems is to pick up a little more flow. I didn't see where anyone answered that.
 
Last edited:
RustyRatRod said:
The .050" longer stems is for more valve spring room and the 11/23" stems is to pick up a little more flow. I didn't see where anyone answered that.
Click to expand...
Thanks and you are correct nobody answered. I will probably try the beehive spring set up. It'd be a solid cam.
 
66Valiant528 said:
Thanks and you are correct nobody answered. I will probably try the beehive spring set up. It'd be a solid cam.
Click to expand...
I meant 11/32" stems. I went back and changed it. lol Some people are even going to 5/16" and 1/4" stems, but 1/4" is gettin mighty small, IMO.
 
Eric Weingartner has a video from a few years back on the on the cheaper chinesieum valves in aftermarket heads in racing applications. A lot them were stretching with hard use. I spoke with PBR some time ago about 2.055 valves and he told me he was liking the results in flow he was getting with Liberty valves compared to the Ferrea's.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
-

Back
Top