Episode

Why did the "Normal" valve win? Poppet valves vs. Sleeve Valves vs. Rotary valves.

Podcast
Cycle World Podcast
Published
Feb 25, 2026
Duration seconds
4166
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/cycle-world/episodes/Why-did-the-Normal-valve-win--Poppet-valves-vs--Sleeve-Valves-vs--Rotary-valves-e3fjn3h
Audio
https://anchor.fm/s/f21971c8/podcast/play/116038193/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-1-25%2F418815023-44100-2-7873200812ead.mp3
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/cycle-world-podcast-6850183/episodes/why-did-the-normal-valve-win-poppet-valves-vs-sleeve-valves-vs-rotary-valves
Markdown
/podcast/cycle-world-podcast-6850183/why-did-the-normal-valve-win-poppet-valves-vs-sleeve-valves-vs-rotary-valves.md

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Summary

There have been many engine valve designs since the dawn of the internal combustion engine. What made poppet valves stick? (See what we did?) There were many other designs and some, like the sleeve valve in the Bristol Centaurus WWII radial aircraft engine, that worked very well. Classic Kevin Cameron stuff here as he and Mark Hoyer discuss the relative merits of engine valve types.