A poppet valve (also called mushroom valve

[1]
) is a valve typically used to control the timing
and quantity of gas or vapour flow into an engine. It consists of a hole, usually round or oval, and
a tapered plug, usually a disk shape on the end of a shaft also called a valve stem. The shaft
guides the plug portion by sliding through a valve guide. In most applications a pressure
differential helps to seal the valve and in some applications also open it. Poppet valves date from
at least the 1770s, when Watt used them on his beam engines.
[2]

Poppet valves are used in most piston engines to open and close the
intake and exhaust ports in the cylinder head. The valve is usually a
flat disk of metal with a long rod known as the valve stem attached
to one side.
The stem is used to push down on the valve and open it, with a
spring generally used to return it to the closed position when the
stem is not being depressed. At high revolutions per minute (RPM),
the inertia of the spring makes it too slow to return the valve to its
seat between cycles, leading to 'valve float'. In this situation
desmodromic valves are used which, being closed by a positive
mechanical action instead of by a spring, are able to cycle at the
high speeds required in, for instance, motorcycle and auto racing
engines .
The engine normally operates the valves by pushing on the stems
with cams and cam followers. The shape and position of the cam
determines the valve lift and when and how quickly (or slowly) the
valve is opened. The cams are normally placed on a fixed camshaft which is then geared to the
crankshaft, running at half crankshaft speed in a four-stroke engine. On high-performance
engines, the camshaft is movable and the cams have a varying height, so by axially moving the
camshaft in relation with the engine RPM, also the valve lift varies. See variable valve timing.
For certain applications the valve stem and disk are made of different steel alloys, or the valve
stems may be hollow and filled with sodium to improve heat transport and transfer. Although
better heat conductors, aluminum cylinder heads require steel valve seat inserts, while cast-iron
cylinder heads often used integral valve seats in the past. Because the valve stem extends into
lubrication in the cam chamber, it must be sealed against blow-by to prevent cylinder gases from
escaping into the crankcase, even though the stem to valve clearance is very small, typically
0.04-0.06 mm. A rubber lip-type seal ensures that excessive amounts of oil are not drawn in from
the crankcase on the induction stroke and that exhaust gas does not enter the crankcase on the
exhaust stroke. Worn valve guides or defective oil seals are characterised by a puff of blue
smoke from the exhaust when pressing back down on the accelerator pedal after allowing the
engine to over-run, such as when changing gears.
[edit] Valve position
In very early engine designs the valves were 'upside down' in the block, parallel to the cylinders -
the so called L-head engine because of the shape of the cylinder and combustion chamber, also
called 'flathead engine' as the top of the cylinder head is flat. Although this design makes for
simplified and cheap construction, it has two major drawbacks; the tortuous path followed by the
intake charge limits air flow and effectively prevents speeds greater than 2,0002,500 RPM, and
the travels of the exhaust through the block can cause overheating under sustained heavy load.
This design evolved into 'Intake Over Exhaust', IOE or F-head, where the intake valve was in
the head and the exhaust valve was in the block; later both valves moved to the head.
In most such designs the camshaft remained relatively near the crankshaft, and the valves were
operated through pushrods and rocker arms. This led to significant energy losses in the engine,
but was simpler, especially in a V engine where one camshaft can actuate the valves for both
cylinder banks; for this reason, pushrod engine designs persisted longer in these configurations
than others.
More modern designs have the camshaft on top of the cylinder head, pushing directly on the
valve stem (again through cam followers, also known as tappets), a system known as overhead
camshaft; if there is just one camshaft, this is a single overhead cam or SOHC engine. Often
there are two camshafts, one for the intake and one for exhaust valves, creating the dual overhead
cam, or DOHC. The camshaft is driven by the crankshaft - through gears, a chain or a timing
belt.
[edit] Valve wear
In the early days of engine building, the poppet valve was a major problem. Metallurgy was not
what it is today, and the rapid opening and closing of the valves against the cylinder heads led to
rapid wear. They would need to be re-ground every two years or so, in an expensive and time-
consuming process known as a valve job. Adding tetra-ethyl lead to the petrol reduced this
problem to some degree, as the lead would coat the valve seats, in effect lubricating the metal.
Valve seats made of improved alloys such as stellite have generally made this problem disappear
completely and made leaded fuel unnecessary.
Valve burn (overheating) is another major problem. It causes excessive valve wear and defective
sealing, as well as engine knocking. It can be solved by valve cooling systems that use water or
oil as a coolant. In high performance engines sometimes sodium-cooled valve stems are used.
These hollow valve stems are
partially filled with sodium and act
as a heat pipe.





Theoretically above cycle is well perfect but in actual practice,it is slightly
modified by the opening of inlet valve and delayed closing of exhaust
valve.The details are as below.
The inlet valve is opened 10 to 30 degree in advance to the top dead
centre of the piston to facilitate the inrush of fresh charge and out rush of
burnt gases.
The piston moves down during suction stroke which is continued up to 30
to 40 degree or even 60 degree after the bottom dead centre.The inlet
valve is then closed and compression stroke starts.
To give some extra time to fuel to burn,the spark is produced at 30 to 40
degree before the top dead centre of piston.The pressure rises up and
attains a maximum value when the piston is about 10 degree past to top
dead centre.
The exhaust valve is open about 30 to 60 degree before piston reaches to
bottom dead centre.The burnt exhaust gases pushed out of cylinder as the
piston starts moving upward.This exhaust stroke continuous till the exhaust
valve closed when the piston is about 8 to 10 degree or even 25 degree
past the top dead centre.
The angle between the position of the crank at the inlet valve opening and
that exhaust valve closing is known as valve overlap.
All this angular positions of crank can be plotted by a circular line
corresponding to one vertical line;where top dead center can be taken at
top of the line and bottom dead center at bottom of the vertical line.