What is piston to valve clearance? Well, it’s the important measurement that lets you know just how much camshaft you can put in your engine without the pistons and valves coming in contact which would be very bad. Piston to valve clearance changes throughout each stroke and depends on both total lift and camshaft timing. If your camshaft had 1 inch of lift, which is HUGE HUGE HUGE, it would theoretically fit as long as the camshaft isn’t trying to open a valve that far when near a piston. But valve timing needs to happen at the right time or an engine won’t run.

So how do you measure what piston to valve clearance your engine has so that you can determine what camshaft will work in your combination?

Watch at Richard Holdener shows you how on a 5.0 Small Block Ford. The process is the same regardless of what V8 you have, so watch and learn.

Video Description:

HOW MUCH LIFT CAN I RUN IN MY 5.0L FORD? HOW MUCH CAM WILL FIT IN MY 302 FORD? HOW DO I MEASURE PISTON-TO-VALVE CLEARANCE? CAN I RUN A CAM BIGGER THAN THE 274 XTREME ENERGY COMP CAM? DO I NEED SPECIAL TOOLS TO MEASURE P-V CLEARANCE? CHECK OUT THIS VIDEO WHERE I DEMONSTRATED HOW TO MEASURE THE PISTON TO VALCE CLEARANCE ON AN ORIGINAL 1990 5.0L FORD 302. I MEASURED THE P-V ON THE STOCK CAM THEN AGAIN WITH A XE274HR CAM. HOW MUCH DID IT CHANGE AND CAN I GO EVEN BIGGER?