Variable compression?

[850 Combat]

Mercedes Benz used desmodromic valves on 300 SLRs, and on the W196 F1 cars.

I beleive thatthe Alfa variable cam used a centrifugal system.

 

[pdplot]

I could have used the Ducati system on my TR6. A valve spring broke leaving me with a 5-cylinder car. The good news is it made me get a valve job with hardened inserts.

 

[850 Combat]

I could have used the Ducati system on my TR6. A valve spring broke leaving me with a 5-cylinder car. The good news is it made me get a valve job with hardened inserts.

Back in '95, I was moving from Anchorage, to Healy, AK in my '68 Cortina. I was in the process of breaking in a new Kent BCF3 cam a couple nights before. It broke a brand new valve spring about 30 min. into the recommended procedure. The Cortina engine has parallel valves, so at a fast idle, it did no damage. I got a stock spring for the one valve from a friend who was racing an ITC Ford Fiesta. Pulled the head, and had a shop install the Fiesta valve spring in place of the broken one, and got the head back on that night, and was ready to drive to Healy the following morning. Stopped in Chugiach at a Porsche Club autocross on the way. Unloading my belongings from the car at Chugiach High School, it looked like The Joads on the way to California. I never had trouble with that valve again, however in about '98, it did suffer a burned piston at Portland International Raceway at a racing school. The engine was rebuilt by Ivey Engines in Portland.with a bumpier cam, more compression, and bigger valves. It remained my daily driver until a couple years ago. I'm trying to get it back into DD condition. That Ivey engine has been great. About two years ago, I put a new distributor on it. I called Jay Ivey about timing marks on the crank pulley. I had never reset it. He still remembered that build. I was shocked, after 18 or so years that he did.
https://www.iveyengines.com/