There are two different valve float warnings: The one which is just informative is the one which says something “valve float is reducing engine performance”. This is no big deal and you don’t have to worry about it too much. This just gives you the power drop near the RPM limit. The more severe one says that valve float reduces MTBF. In this case, lower the RPM limit, reduce bore (you already figured that out ), use better head types/more valves or increase top end quality.
Seeing that you got peak power at maximum RPM lets me guess that you got the first warning. You may even want to increase the RPM llimit to have a wider high power range, even if power drops off a bit. The bottom end of course has to able to cope with the extra stress.
Valve float also depends a lot on in which year you build your engine, so a pretty modern one should be able to rev higher than an old one.
Okay I understand now. However, this leads me to another question.
If valve float (just reduced performance valve float) is occurring at an RPM greater than the peak power output, is considered normal and working as intended, and is unavoidable, is it necessary to give a warning for it? From a user-friendliness point of view, an unavoidable warning for something that is normal, displayed in the same manner that ‘bad’ warnings are, might lead to some confusion.
Perhaps the warning should only be shown if it is affecting the peak power output or the lifespan?
It almost always affects peak power, as that usually is the breakpoint. At peak power you already have a tiny bit of valve float for these engines and you would have significantly higher power at even higher RPM without it.
This being an important thing, what message would not have confused you?
Well I wouldn’t say it’s important. I’m not trying to blow it out of proportion or anything. If it’s normal for valve float to occur at peak power in high revving engines like you say, then I guess it’s not an issue at all. I don’t know much about it, which is why I was confused. See, I originally saw it as something I had to fix, but when I couldn’t and saw someone say it was normal, I started questioning the purpose of the message.
However, if valve float is normally the ‘bottleneck’ of high revving engines, then I now understand the purpose of the message. If that’s the case, I think it’s all cleared up now.
That’s exactly the point, the massage can be misunderstood and probably misleading. We need comments like yours to make the game more approachable for those with less knowledge about engines and the game itself. But I don’t know how the hint can be improved.
I can’t think of a way to improve it, to be honest. It may cause some initial confusion for some such as me, but I do see that it’s necessary to know what your bottleneck is. It doesn’t seem like too many people are finding it confusing, so it might not be something to worry about. Just a lack of knowledge on my part is what it came down to.
I also found it confusing, and tried to fix the problem to get rid if the warning also.
If if is something that is normal and unavoidable, there shouldn’t be the warning.
It only effects what happens after peak power, so does it matter?
I think they should remove that warning, there isn’t a warning for when other restriction are reducing performance like when the intake or exhaust are too small.
The thing is it does matter, because if you didn’t have some sort of warning you’d have no idea that getting rid of valve float would improve it, or that it’s starting to happen at all. It’s fairly easy to discover exhaust and intake limitations, but there are so many things that influence valve float that you’d never guess it was happening.
I think we might just need to re-word to warning to make it really super clear what it means
[quote=“Daffyflyer”]
I think we might just need to re-word to warning to make it really super clear what it means[/quote]
I think that would be a good idea. First I also thought that this message is something that needs to be get rid of. Normally you get some warning after the testing you still need to fix something. Fex. engine running too rich, engine knocking etc.
But if the text would be better (I have no idea what could be better) it wouldn’t be that confusing.
Why not get rid of the warning (unless it is reducing lifespan), and make the valve float indicator in the manual test mode more sensitive? Currently, valve float can occur and it stays green. Perhaps it could be adjusted to the point where yellow is an indication it’s reducing power and red is an indication that it is reducing the lifespan. I figure that might be an alternative worth discussing that avoids confusion.
Plus, it follows the trend of the previous warnings and indicators: warning messages mean something needs to be changed, while colored indicators in the manual test mode show you what parts are bottle-necking the engine.
The valves manual test mode should turn yellow if there’s a problem. As I see it, if there’s a warning message, there should be a colour-coded warning to correspond with it.
Exactly what I was thinking… if it isn’t a real problem, make it a yellow warning (text yellow oryellow icon) and if it is kind of starting to destroy the engine, make it a red warning (red text orred icon)
Since the update, I’m redoing all the scenarios and this valve float thing is causing me major problems esp on the trans-am racing one… Having to use push rod type cams and get it to 322 horsepower seems a bit insane. I’m no way an expert at this game, nor do I understand the complexities of engine tuning but I’v tried messing with bore/stroke and I either end up with valve float or bottom end parts causing problems trying to get that much HP. Tried upping the cam profile to max (which helps but not enough) fiddled with the quality. Spent an hour or so to get it to 310hp, but can’t get past it. Before the update I managed to get quite decent scores on most scenarios, but now I’m barely scraping through some of them. I love this game to bits, its teaching me lots and is still fun but seems too challenging for a non engineer to get a pass on certain scenarios now. Unless the scenarios now need adjusting to suit the update to valve float thresholds?
With about 15 minutes of tweaking I achieved platinum. I got to 371hp. Remember that you have a tech pool in this one. Make sure you use all of it. Also remember that if you use an aluminum block it will lower your tech pool in the two most crucial tabs in this scenario plus it will cost more. And make sure you take advantage of all $2500 you are allowed. It will also help valve float and weight if you make your engine with more stroke and less bore. Hope that helps!
Late to the show, but this is annoying. Because Valve Float at peak RPM should be able to be negated with a timing correction, It would decrease performance, but save the engine from wear and tear. introducing different camshaft types (solid, roller), and materials (cast, billet, etc) would be another option to help. Its frustrating not being able to make a pushrod engine do what they can actually do; rev past 4300 with ease.
You won’t make do with the basic pushrod valvetrain setup. And as you may have actually read from this thread, quality points and higher cam profile do help by doing things like stiffening valve springs etc
), use better head types/more valves or increase top end quality.