Actuation of valves of internal combustion engines and conversion kit for adapting an internal combustion engine to such a valve actuation.

摘要

The invention provides an inexpensive and simple mechanical spring system which automatically compensates for variations in the clearance gap in the valve-actuating mechanism of internal combustion engines, whereby considerably to lengthen the time an engine can be in operation before manual adjustment of the clearance gap becomes necessary. The system comprises at least one tin metal disc (20) located between a convex surface (21a) in contact with the centre of one face of the disc (20) and an annular surface (22a) in contact with the periphery of the other face of the disc (20), movement of the surfaces (21a, 22a) together deforming the disc (20) around the convex surface (21a) to produce a spring force which increases at a variable rate until it exceeds the valve spring (14) loading and the valve (12) opens. The mechanism is initially adjusted so that the spring deflection is approximately one half the deflection required to overcome the valve spring loading.