Valve seat material in aluminum casting

[ddallen1]

I’m casting ICE cylinder heads in aluminum; what material are you folks using for cast in valve seats?

 

[creast]

With wrought aluminium you can often get away with machining the seat in the aluminium itself as per the Vega V twin aero engine.
Personally, for cast aluminium heads I prefer to press/shrink fit a seat/ guide cage into the head made from either Phosphor bronze or cast iron.
Rich

 

[ddallen1]

With wrought aluminium you can often get away with machining the seat in the aluminium itself as per the Vega V twin aero engine.
Personally, for cast aluminium heads I prefer to press/shrink fit a seat/ guide cage into the head made from either Phosphor bronze or cast iron.
Rich

Thanks, Creast. I’ve got both of those materials in hand; I’ll give them a try and see which one works best for me. I hadn’t thought about the seat/guide cage method.

 

[bluejets]

Bronze cage with stainless valves.
No need to "press fit" ALL the way, just make top and bottom slightly different size and press fit size the last few thou. each end.