One of the guys in my club is giving me a free head, so I want to spend some time upgrading it all. The question is what would you do to the valvetrain of your car if you had the chance??? Keep in mind that I want to go turbo in the future so Ill probably get turbo grinds.

Stainless steel valves, Crower titanium retainers and springs, cams, cam gears, 3-5 angle valve job. Not much else you really need. Of course PT lifters and the other usual non-performance upgrades as well.

Have it checked for flatness - and have it milled flat if it isn't.

Port & polish - just a mild one. If you could get 10-15% more air flow that would be great.

Oversized stainless steel valves - 1mm or 2mm. The bigger size should help flow a bit more. The stainless valves can take more heat abuse than the stockers.

I've heard good things about turbo grinds as far as spooling is concerned. If you're gonna run a turbo - stick with the turbo grind.

Use PT lifters. I would probably use Blackdog rockers instead of PT rockers - but at the very least use the PT rockers.

I'd probably use the Crower springs/titanium retainers. Our springs are good. Crane and Crower make better springs, but Crane's retainers are half the weight of the steel stockers(less valvetrain weight = faster revs).

As a finishing touch you could have the exhaust ports ceramic coated. I probably wouldn't do this because of the cost...unless it was an all out race motor.


95 Eclipse RS : 5 speed
Jeep TB writeup - http://www.dimensia.com:81/jimbo/JeepTBfor2gnt.html

Port matched (?) to intake manifold
extrude hone
oversized titanium valves/springs
pt cruiser lifters
Turbo Grind cams
Swaintech coated Combustion Chamber -> http://www.swaintech.com/goldcoat.html

Current Mods:
Flowmaster Muffler
Ghettofied PVC intake w/K&N Filter
Platinum +4 Plugs
MSD Super Conductor Wires
1 Heavy Right Foot!!!!!

Turbo build on head... money being no object.

Valve springs with titanium retainers
Mopar Performance Lifters
PT Cruiser Rockers
Undercut valves
Your turbo cams
Adjustable cam gears
Full port and polish
Only mill the head enough to ensure it's flat and seals against the head gasket.



15.9 @ 86.7mph
97 Eclipse RS

Injen CAI, 55mm TB, P&P Intake, Crower Stage 2 Cams, Hooker Header, GS-T Muffler, AFX UDP, Crane Ign Amp, S-AFC

money being no object i would upgrade to blackdog lifters and rockers,
crower springs,and retainers,
crower cam gears,
crower cams, or crane which ever

stain less valves from blackdog, ful race, port and polish 800$ ouch

ceramic coated chumbustion chamber and exhuast ports

then id steel o ring the cylinders like armond has, and run about 30psi or so

Standard fare upgrades..

stainless back cut valves
crane springs
ti retainers
PT lifters..

as far as the money no object thing..

blended valve seats.. none of these 3 or 5 cheapo jobs.. oversize Ti valves.. Ti or aluminum rocker arms.. solid lifters.. hollow cams with the bearing surface cut down to minimize friction, have the bottom and tops of the ports filled with material and grind then up higher (lift the floor of the port)..

but i don't have $10K so spend on a head..

-- WheatKing

Toney you know what you want to do with it. Get the cams, lifters, SS valves, and cam gears. It has already had a mild port job. Get the port work checked out and have it cleaned up. Do what Don did just get cams and valves to.

Howell's deal isn't bad. $1K or so, check the website.

Well we looked at the port work on the head and I dont even know if Im gonna be able to use the damn thing. Doug and I are gonna take by a machine shop either today or tommorrow and see if it can be saved. If it can, ill just get the porting cleaned up and then go by this list (prices at howell, i do plan on shopping around before purchasing, when i get the money):

Crane #14 cams.....................399.95
Crane valve spring set.............99.95 (where can I get titanium springs and retainers???)
PT Cruiser lifter/lash adjusters...89.95
Stainless steel oversized valves...239.95
AEM Cam gears......................299.95
Machine work.......................350.00

Also which of these parts are can be used on the 1G neons??

I would get pretty much everything reccomended so far (money being no object), oversized valves, 3 or 5 angle valve job, check for flatness, cam gears, turbo grind cams, springs, lifters, rocker arms (defenitely rocker arms), ect...

But, I would not bother with the retainers. From the information I have gotten, our retainers don't need to be replaced when it comes to the rpms they can rev to, they are fine up to something like 9000 rpms or more (don't remember exactly). Yea, once you're in there you could have the "why not?" attitude but it really isn't necessary, better t use the money for other things.

I understand perfectly the idea of less valvetrain weight, and less weight is always a good thing, don't get me wrong! But, for a turbo application, you are making horsepower with boost, not high RPMs. If you were going for an all motor high revving car it would be one thing, but I don't think the weight in the valvetrain of the stock retainers is going to be a big deal in a boosted application.

For porting, I would get it extrude honed or lightly ported. I would NOT go crazy on a port job. I know with a turbo you can get away with not being as careful about such things as compared to being naturally aspirated, but I would error on the side of taking out less material rather than more. You can't add more metal to the head, but you could always take more away.

If you ceramic coat anything, do the pistons and the exhaust ports, but not the whole cumbustion chamber. I don't remember the exact reason why, probably because that is all that is necessary the rest doesn't help, but this is what I was told from a reliable source.

well Doug and I dropped our heads off at a machine shop and the guy is gonna look at mine for 20-30 bux. He said it will probably cost me anywhere from 200-500 to fix the horrid port job done to it and do the mods. He said that since the ports on the exhaust are so big, combined with the turbo cams, my car will probably be a slug until about 5000rpm and then it will scream (while NA). The compression will also drop because the guy ported in the actual cylinder around the valve seats (hopefully he didnt mess anything up) and in order to fix that he will have to take off even more material. Once I go turbo he said it should be unbelievably quick even at 7-8psi. So with all the parts, it will probably end up costing me atleast 1500 bux if not more.

oh, and does anyone know if the oversized valves that howell sells are 1mm bigger or not. Im thinking that they are, but if not what are they?

get your valves from blackdogmotorsports.com 230$ for a set of 1mm over cheapest around ive found

hes got all the other pt valve train and stuff

You can get the springs and retainers directly from Crower. http://www.crower.com/cat/import/mitsu/valvetrain.shtml

$251.10 for the spring/retainer set...or you could just buy the retainers for $161.22


95 Eclipse RS : 5 speed
Jeep TB writeup - http://www.dimensia.com:81/jimbo/JeepTBfor2gnt.html

Thanks guys!

I would go 2 mm over on the valves your doing all the work and your going for the most flow possible.

95 silver gs
Termanator 2 wing
Complety built head
Ground effects
Projector headlights
5% tint all the way around
Kyb Struts
Skunk 2 coilovers
Pilot antisway bars F&B
Apexi N1 3inch cat back
t3t4 custom turbo dyno'd at 175 on 3psi with no mods