The more productive the engine, the higher the requirements for wear resistance to the contact pairs like the valve-guide system. The objective of the present research is to assess the thermo-mechanical influence of spiral-channel valve guides on stress redistribution and comparative wear resistance in the valve-guide interface. The research used a Brodix 10X cylinder head of the high-performance “Small-Block” V8 by Chevrolet (General Motors). The valve, manufactured from the Ti-6Al-4 V titanium alloy (\(\:{\sigma\:}_{y}=839.87\) MPa), and the guide of Bronze C86300 interact at high temperatures (900 °C at the valve head surface) and are cooled with an oil layer. Additional spiral channels on the guide surface proposed by the authors reduce the maximum and average von Mises stresses \(\:{\sigma\:}_{max}\) and \(\:{\sigma\:}_{ave}\) by 17.96% and 10.42% (15.35 MPa and 1.29 MPa, respectively). In the numerical model, the expected influence of the spiral channels on heat transfer and lubrication was represented by an increased convection coefficient (up to 900 W/m²·°C) and a reduced effective friction coefficient (down to 0.05). Finite-element analysis was used to quantify thermo-mechanical stresses, while analytical modelling provided first-order estimates of how spiral channels modify lubrication and heat-transfer conditions inside the guide. Due to the reduction of \(\:{\sigma\:}_{max}\), the guide with spiral channels demonstrates a markedly improved fatigue response. The ANSYS Fatigue Tool indicated a substantially improved model-predicted fatigue response, with the comparative fatigue indicator exceeding that of the smooth guide by more than seven times. These results demonstrate the expediency of using spiral channels and motivates further research on optimizing their geometry and lubrication conditions. Such stress-reduction and wear-improvement mechanisms may be relevant for high-performance engines, motor sport applications and heavy-duty IC engines where valve-train durability is a limiting factor.
