“These days, almost never,” proclaims Billy Godbold, Comp Performance Group Valvetrain Engineering Group Manager. For sure, anytime you can reduce the mass of the valves, valvesprings, valve locks, and retainers, it’s a good thing. Dynamic forces seen at the valve increase with the square of the rpm, so the higher the rpm, the more important it is to cut valvetrain mass without reducing reliability. “The crossover point where saving valvetrain weight becomes significant is around 6,000 rpm,” Godbold says. “Lightweight retainers alone can add 100–200 rpm to the powerband.”
The problem with titanium is it begins to wear as soon as it’s installed. Wear increases the valvespring’s installed height, resulting in a loss of dampening over the nose of the cam. On the high end, a titanium retainer may actually…
