Best valve seat material?

[2112]

Bob Teague recently wrote about seat material ideally having a Rockwell hardness #s in the range of 40-50.

I am about to put custom seats into new aluminum heads and come to find out that the big $ copper beryllium seats I bought are pretty soft. Too soft according to the Teague on tech article.

Some specifics;

Running on 91 pump gas, 10 to 1 compression
Stainless 2.35" intakes, Inconel 1.88" exhausts (read heavy)
Fuel Injected.
closed cooling
Heavy spring rates

What is the consensus on seat material?

 

[MERPerformance]

I bet he is speaking of, nickel colbalt alloy. I talked with my sales rep. from CV Products about this. There is a patent on this alloy, out side of that, they have not seen a reason to offer it. I questioned him on the copper alloy seats I use, as far as being soft, that I don,t believe. I have used many copper beryllium seats for pump gas, leaded racing fuels, NA and SC applications and have not had the seats pound out from being soft. I guess the question is: what is the heat transfer between copper and nickel. As far as the difference between the the intake seat and the exhaust are a different alloy in copper alloy seats. I have seen nickel and stainess valves have pits in them from water, meaning a inconel valve. Will a nickel colbalt alloy corrode? I haven't seen any beryllium copper corrode. I wouldn't worry about your seats as long as it was a spec. material from the mfg. either C.H.E., Precision Products, or CV Products. The cost should fall in between 20-27 $ each, intake being the most.
Maybe it's just a new sales pitch. I'll check again with CV and my other sources and get back with you. I questioned this about 3 months ago.

 

[2112]

The heads came with iron seats. The Copper Beryllium are from Martin-Wells and they are 3/8" thick, same as the Ductile Iron. I have to refer back to my notes but I believe I was told a Rockwell hardness # of 30

I think the seats mentioned in that article were from Tucker.

.

 

[nthdegree]

Rockwell C scale? I can test them for you if you want....

 

[2112]

Turns out the Copper Beryllium seats I have are a Rockwell of 37 and a wear rating equal to 53. Not sure which Rockwell we are talking though, I assumed they would all use the same one.

Not sure but it feels like I may be making a mountain out of a molehill.

.