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View Full Version : Please Help Bassett Wet Headers(reversion???)



hot_rod
04-10-2001, 05:55 PM
Whatahey!!
I am building a radical engine for my boat and I have been told not to use water injected headers because at lower rpm and idle the water will be sucked into the cylinders and cause problems. Can anyone tell me how to get around this, iI really don't want to spend big$$ on jacketed headers
Thanks,
Hot_Rod

Rivertoys_com
04-10-2001, 07:36 PM
I have through-the-transom headers (safer for my young son) on my boat. Last summer one developed a leak where the log bolts to the riser. The water that crept in through that leak did get sucked into the cylinder and rather quickly polluted the oil. I spent a lot of time and money (esp. $ on cases of oil!!!) trying to track down this problem. I have a rather large cam so the exhaust valve is not closed all of the way when the piston is on the first part of the intake stroke. The water from the exhaust is sucked in. My pistons are tight, the block was just machined and new pistons fitted last spring, yet the water got around. If what I’ve described doesn't make sense, I'm sure someone here will point out the flaw in my descriptions. But that's the problem the way I understand it. The water in the exhaust will only be a problem with a large cam. Perhaps someone here knows more specifically what size cam will be a problem for you. They may need to know your engine type and size. Mine is a 460 Ford. G'luck-hope that helps.
Jason.

Timer
04-10-2001, 08:12 PM
hot_rod, you can put a manually adjustable valve on the water feed and locate it where you can control it from your driving position. That way you can shut the water off when bringing your RPM down to idle.

spectras only
04-10-2001, 09:08 PM
When you get high cam lifts,over 600, and over 114 lobe separation you have both valves,intake and exhaust open.During this overlap when reversion occures at idle. I would stay with around 560 lifts and 112 lobe separation,then you shouldn't have reversion problems.

Ken Marsh
04-11-2001, 05:10 AM
There is a couple more things you can do. Bassett makes what they call a T valve. This shuts off the water to the headers automatically (www.bassettracing.com/). The shut off point is around 2000 rpm for a stock drive with A impeller and can be as low as 1200 rpm for modified drives with large impellers.
Another thing is to set your idle up. 1200 to 1400 rpm idle and you have no reversion problem.
With Olds engines reversion first causes cylinders to drop out. This aggravates the situation because the engine then idles slower. The next thing is to knock out the head gasket. Km

FoMoCo
04-11-2001, 02:14 PM
ive never heard of a boat with headers not running a t- valve (basset or rewarder) the spring regulates the water by pressure to the headers mine opens at about 1200-1500 rpms they start fogging to cool them down. also me and a buddy had water in the oil problem his was cracked heads mine was missing the t-valve spring but after a few oil changes our wallets were getting thin so we shut down the water inlet and ran 200 degrees and put the petal to the floor you could see the steam coming out of the valve cover breathers and the oil went from milk to new in minutes its kinda hoaky but its better than 30 bucks in oil until the problem was found and solved--- but headers need that t-valve otherwise it could get ugly

superdave013
04-11-2001, 02:48 PM
I ran huge roller cams with water injected headers. I had problems with the tee valve spring before so this is how I did it. I used a valve that's like a barrel valve on a fuel injector. I hooked it to the throttle linkage and adjusted it so when the engine was at idle the headers were dry. I also had the barrel set-up so when at full throttle the headers were dry. How many times have you pulled up to race a guy and he's shutting off the water with his hardware store valve. With the set-up I had you just wack the throttle all the way and it's dry. Then when you back off a little bit it starts flowing again. Then a little before idle it's dry again. You never get water in the exhaust ports.

hot_rod
04-11-2001, 06:08 PM
Whatahey Superdave
Thanks for the reply, your idea sounds like a winner, I was thinking of trying something like that. Can you give me more details on how you did it?? Where did you get the valve, how did you rig, type of valve, etc... Any thing you can tell me would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Hot_Rod
Originally posted by superdave013:
I ran huge roller cams with water injected headers. I had problems with the tee valve spring before so this is how I did it. I used a valve that's like a barrel valve on a fuel injector. I hooked it to the throttle linkage and adjusted it so when the engine was at idle the headers were dry. I also had the barrel set-up so when at full throttle the headers were dry. How many times have you pulled up to race a guy and he's shutting off the water with his hardware store valve. With the set-up I had you just wack the throttle all the way and it's dry. Then when you back off a little bit it starts flowing again. Then a little before idle it's dry again. You never get water in the exhaust ports.

spectras only
04-12-2001, 11:09 AM
We had lots of Basset equipped hotrods in the seventies and the eigthies and installed on the Catalina 18 / 19 models and all of them had the t-valve and checkballs.The cutoff point was around 1500 when the header was dry.This application worked well on the LS-7 as well.These headers came with setup insructions and still lots of people never used the valve.You could see water pouring out of the exhausts at idle,not a good thing.We don't see to many of these application anymore due to noise bylaw coming to effect very soon.Even captain's call exhausts are phasing out and will have to be fully automatic.I'll miss the music of the headers .

spectras only
04-12-2001, 11:09 AM
We had lots of Basset equipped hotrods in the seventies and the eigthies and installed on the Catalina 18 / 19 models and all of them had the t-valve and checkballs.The cutoff point was around 1500 when the header was dry.This application worked well on the LS-7 as well.These headers came with setup insructions and still lots of people never used the valve.You could see water pouring out of the exhausts at idle,not a good thing.We don't see to many of these application anymore due to noise bylaw coming to effect very soon.Even captain's call exhausts are phasing out and will have to be fully automatic.I'll miss the music of the headers .