Jay's valve covers

[Drew Pojedinec]

Normal speed, 900rpm cold idle, 80psi oil pressure, mild restriction to the top end, .090 if I recall.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttSbWxmy4rY

and in slow motion, because it's super cool
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iT1tFlJXZ18

I need to wire in the LED's and also get studs cut as my bolts are too long and there is a lil oil leak on account of it.

[jayb]

It is really cool to watch that valvetrain in slow motion, kind of like Bill Conley's SOHC valvetrain slo-mo videos.  I've toyed with the idea of building a circuit that would cause the LEDs that you have in your covers to flash.  It could be adjusted so that the frequency of the flashing could be changed by turning a knob.  You should be able to basically create the illusion of a slow motion valvetrain that way, once you got the flashing frequency right.  More stuff to do... 

[Drew Pojedinec]

Right on, I took a bunch of videos with different effects while I was waiting on parts to plate (takes like 25 minutes per batch).
The slow motion ones where I rev the engine are super neat too.  It's cool to hear the air whoosh and watch the engine speed up.

Feel free to link any of my videos of your products as needed Jay.  I've been talking up and posting videos of these covers on the FE Fanatics group, I suspect you'll be able to sell a few of them in the future, especially if you make them breather capable.

[TJ]

Yeah, really liked the slow mo.  Years ago I got curious about what the oil did at various rpms while I was trying to figure out my oil sucking PCV setup. I cut the top out of a stamped valve cover and sealed a clear plastic lid over the resulting hole.  Around 2500 rpm the oil splash became a fog too thick to see anything. 

Thanks for the videos, Drew.

[westcoastgalaxie]

Hey Jay couldn’t you create a driver that fired when the engine did? Like a timing light but instead of flashing the timing light it fired the led(s) in the cover? We do this at work with centrifuges. We strobe  em and can adjust the frequency to visually stop the centrifuge so we can watch what happens in the g-field. Now that I think about it you’d probably want the driver to adjust it’s pulse frequency to match the rpm of the valve train. Then use the timing light idea to adjust the pulse frequency to change the pulse to match the rpms. Like manually adjusting the knob on a strobe to make the object visually freeze.

[Joey120373]

Jay, bit of an electronics guy, I would love to help on the strobe light flasher deal.
Super simple set up would just be a flasher with variable frequency like you describe.
Guessing you could adjust the frequency to just a bit slower ( or faster ) than the valve event, should work as you describe.
Just a bit fancier set up you could read the Rpm, and automatically compensate for it.

[jayb]

Joe, I'll keep you in mind for that if and when I get to it.  FYI each LED light string would only take a maximum of 200mA, so I was thinking about using a 555 timer circuit and a buffer to drive the LEDs, with a pot to adjust the flashing frequency.  Should be pretty simple, just have to experiment a little with it...

[Joey120373]

Joe, I'll keep you in mind for that if and when I get to it.  FYI each LED light string would only take a maximum of 200mA, so I was thinking about using a 555 timer circuit and a buffer to drive the LEDs, with a pot to adjust the flashing frequency.  Should be pretty simple, just have to experiment a little with it...

Hard to argue with the simplicity of the good old 555! I had thought of that also, but my stupid brain immediately wanted to design something that could automatically compensate for different RPMs.

Now I wish i had jumped on a set of those clear valve covers.....

 

[cjshaker]

Fittingly, that slow mo video sounds amazingly like a freight train rolling down the tracks....before they went to continuous rails. Love it, Drew!

[Drew Pojedinec]

Fittingly, that slow mo video sounds amazingly like a freight train rolling down the tracks....before they went to continuous rails. Love it, Drew!

Right?!?  If I inserted a train whistle halfway through, no one would notice.    That was just my iphone slow-mo setting, nothing fancy.  I actually hit it by accident since I'm borderline incapable of operating touch screens.  I saw it and was like "Woah, that is super cool, gotta share it."

[Joey120373]

Ok Jay..... now all we need is a clear upper for the tunnel ram. Kasse did one, thinking you should one up him with a molded more stock looking unit. I want mine next week, thanks...