Pnumatic valves?

[Birel99]

HI ALL!
nice site! very informative.
anyway, can i get an explination on how Pnumatic valves actualy opperate.
i understand that Pnumatic means Air, but i dont understand how they incormperate that into valve movement and timing.
THANKS

[bhall]

Simply put, F1 engines use compressed air (nitrogen, I think) to close the valves rather than using springs, which can't fully close the valve at ultra-high RPM.

That's the gist of it, really. I'm sure someone else can explain it better than I can though.

Welcome to the forum.

[Mikey_s]

Well, manchild is obviously slow off the mark this morning, so I’ll fill in until he can do a better search!...

The air is used in place of a metal spring - it has less inertia and is therefore less likely to suffer from valve bounce as a consequence of natural frequencies/harmonics.

Already discussed here;
viewtopic.php?t=3124&highlight=pneumatic+valves
and here;

viewtopic.php?t=2341&highlight=pneumatic+valves