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Valves
Pontiac V8 Valves
Find Your Casting First — Valves for Pontiac V8s
Valves are bought by cylinder head casting, not by displacement. Two Pontiac V8s of the same size can take completely different valves depending on which heads are bolted to them, because the factory changed valve length, head diameter and seat angle across the castings. Get the length wrong and the spring installed height, the pushrod and the geometry all go with it.
Butler's valve program is built on Ferrea, split into Cast Iron Heads, 421 Super Duty and Ram Air V, Edelbrock Heads, non stock length race valves, and Ferrea singles sold each. Butler also offers a Head Builder Kit for rebuilding your own castings.
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More About Valves
1. The Casting Number Picks The Valve
Every group in this category exists because a family of Pontiac heads needs a specific valve length and head diameter.
| Cast iron heads | the largest group, covering the common D-port castings from the 326 through the later 400 and 455 heads, with lengths that change by casting family, not by engine size. |
| 421 Super Duty and Ram Air V | a separate group because those heads use their own valve dimensions, including Ram Air V valves with a 3/8" stem and a .225" tip. |
| Edelbrock heads | aluminum castings with their own two length families depending on whether you have a Fast Burn style chamber or the earlier non Fast Burn chamber. |
| Non stock length and singles | longer race valves for combinations past factory geometry, and Ferrea valves sold individually so one bent valve does not cost you a set. |
2. Ferrea 5000 And 6000 Series
Butler stocks two Ferrea tiers, and the difference is what the valve is asked to live through.
| 5000 Performance Series | one-piece forged stainless with a special heat treatment, hard chrome stems and a hard tip, CNC machined for tight tolerances. Ferrea designs them for street performance engines and mildly modified drag and oval track applications. Many feature flat combustion chamber faces to help increase compression in naturally aspirated engines. |
| 6000 Ultimate Race Series | built for reliability under high spring pressures and roller cams, using EV8 stainless on both intake and exhaust with special heat treatment and stress relieving, hard chrome stems, friction-welded hard tips and a swirl polished head. Higher fatigue resistance and tensile strength than the 5000 series. |
| How they are made | Ferrea forges the head in a slow two-step process to avoid damaging the material structure, then machines, triple heat treats, stress relieves, grinds and coats, with ultrasonic tests and x-rays performed piece by piece. |
3. Sets, Kits Or Singles
| Sets of eight | intakes or exhausts for one bank, the usual way to buy for a valve job. |
| Valve kits | a matched intake and exhaust combination listed against specific head castings, which is the shortest path to getting both sides right. |
| Head Builder Kit | for good castings and no parts list, Butler's Head Builder Kit for cast iron heads includes Ferrea stainless intake and exhaust valves at stock install height, matching Crower, Edelbrock, DHP or Comp springs matched to your cam specs, chromoly retainers and locks, PEP valve stem seals for machined guides and a shim kit. |
Pull a valve cover and find your casting number. Butler's valve listings are organized around those numbers because that is the only thing that reliably tells you what fits.
Cast Iron Heads- 421 SD, Ram Air V Cast Iron Heads
Not sure what your Pontiac needs?
Call our tech team at 866-762-7527. Tell us your engine, heads, car, and power goal, and we will put the parts together as one combination that works.