Pulled my engine last week, Blown whipple deal (had 2 exhaust valves going away) We pulled the heads and indeed the valves are beat. I cant find any part numbers or manf. name on them. Is there an easy way to tell if they are inconel, S.S or other?? I don't know the history of the heads, so I dont know what they are. Plus would love a sure fire way to tell the difference.


Thanks, Dave

you can use a magnett to check the valves in question.magnett willnot stick to the inconel valve.i am not sure of part#.my motor guy is doing a set of heads now and using ferra valves.they are about 40 dollars for one.

The inconel valves are only the inconel material at the head, the stem is stainless steel. You can check them with a magnet but I do not recall which end of the valve should be attacted by the magnet. So if a magnet pulls on one end of the valve and not the other they are inconel.

Magnets don't stick to ss either so....

I have a Ferrea exhaust valve in my hand, magnet sticks to the stem but "not" the valve head.

And I believe they are heavier. You can feel the difference in the head of the valve.

Dave,
Take a magnifying glass and look real close around the top of the valve. The numbers can be very hard to see. If they are Manley, they will not have a part number, only "Manley" and a code. Ferrea's numbers will start with an "F"

HTH,

Bill Koustenis
Advanced Automotive Machine
Waldorf Md

Magnets stick to lots of stainless steel. Just not the common 300 series ss which is what is used on refrigerators and sheetmetal items. I'm pretty sure valves use a 400 series magnetic stainless. Inconel is ALSO available in magnetic and nonmagnetic. Depending on the constituents used in a particular grade of inconel (a high nickel stainless), it may or may not be magnetic.

But YES, if your stems are magnetic and the valve heads are not, they are very likely "Inconel".

MC

+ 1
it's amazing the number of people that still think that all stainless alloys are non-magnetic...

Sorry, sort of a simple question here. What is the engine, what type of heads are we talking about here? It always helps with these type of questions for answers if we have good base info.

Best Regards,
Ray @ Raylar