valve springs....questions

[Old Guy with 87 GT]

?????>....i'm doing a little research on what valve springs to buy......i'm looking for low budget springs that will work well on e7te's with roller rockers (1.7)and a stock cam.....
(there might be a mild cam in the future.....b or e cam .......but for now i just need a low cost set for my 1.7s)..

if anybody's been following my other posts , ........i redid my heads --milled ,ported and did valve job with brand new springs-- and then installed 1.7 ratio roller rockers ....well i got it all put back together and found my valves are floating at about 5,500 rpms.....
......... i did a little asking around and it seemed at little odd that i was having problems at such a low rpm...i've heard that peaple have had the same problems but were able to wind higher and somtimes havn't even had any problems......
......... well i looked at the invoice from the machine shop that did the valve job on my heads ........on the work order it say's "83" 302 , i know there's a big differents in the 83 non roller moter and i'm thinking that the springs in the two different years might be interchangable.....
?????>...can you guy's tell me if the different year and style moters have different 'spec' springs and can they be interchanged ....i'm going to go to the machine shop monday to talk to them and find out more ....i'll keep you guy's posted.......till then what springs can i get (low budjet) to remedy the problem????

[Jeff Chambers]

One of the best spring packages I've found for the SBF head is the Comp Cams 986-16 double spring set. Its a double spring with damper that provides 125# on the seat and around 300# at .500" lift. It'll definitely keep the valves from floating up past 6400rpm. Because they're a double spring, you have to use a smaller teflon valve stem seal and its really recommended to use a hardened shim/cup. I've got a brand new set for sale on my website (still shrink wrapped) and I've also got a used set that have about 60 passes on them. I make a habit of changing springs at least twice a season.

[Old Guy with 87 GT]

thanks for the reply jeff........i'm definatly interested ,but i want to wait before committing to buying anything ,.....they sound like a good deal but they might be more then i need for what i'm running ......my plans for this car are kinda mild (low 13 range)

i did have some dumb questions about what all would be involved with using them though(bare in mind i'm kinda new to building perfomance moters).......

???hardened shim cup ?(part of the retainers?)what are they and if i'm running a rather mild lift/rpm range are they neccesary

??? the smaller valve stem seals ...i have a new set of seals that came with the fel-pro set i have ...i was wondering if these would work and what all is involved with changing them?....can they be canged relitivly easy by an amuture like me?....(the ones i have are part #8-70817b and 5p00555....i'll check with comp cams to see if i can use them ,if not then i'll have to find out witch ones i need and how much they cost)

btw ...cool web site dude

[Jeff Chambers]

Higher pressure springs, when used without hardened shims or spring cups, will tend to dig into the head and create metal shavings/particles....not good floating around in the engine. Double & triple springs do this even a little more. Comp Cams makes both hardened washers and spring cups. Spring cups are used alot on aluminum heads and washers are used on both aluminum & iron for shimming the spring to the proper seat/lift pressures. The doubles do take a different retainer, but the steel retainers for these springs are only about $39 from Comp and are 10^ locked. Your shop should be able to tell you what seal will work with the ID of the spring.

Good springs are a necessity no matter where you normally shift or trap your car. You never know when you'll miss that shift and rev the motor higher than expected. Plus its amazing how much fresh springs will wake up a motor. They are absolutely the cheapest preventative maintenance that you can do for your motor.

I'm a fan of double springs since there's a backup in case on of the primary springs ever break; the valve won't immediately drop into the cylinder and wreak havoc on my precious motor.

[Old Guy with 87 GT]

jeff .....>update...i decided to go with a crane spring kit (44-308-1)
i did some shopping around and price comparison ,allthough the double springs you have are better and priced reasonably.......i called comp cams and priced everything i would need to run em .....i just don't really have the money .....the crane kit comes with everything i need and it's priced a little bit better in my range(poor "old guy" range).....the crane kit was recommended from a friend of mine and should be strong enough the run up to rev limit with 1.7s......hopfully i won't have a problem with them

jeff......i was however interested in that distibuter you have on your site......mine is a little old and warn (186,000 miles)......pm me on how much you want for it, if it's still available.......also how many miles are on it

i'm hopfully going to put the springs in this weekend .....i'm going to use air to do it with the heads on the car ......got any tips

[Jeff Chambers]

You can email me at jchambers@kellnet.com I don't do the PM very often.

The distributor's still available, has about 38K on it and the brass terminal cap & rotor only have a few months of track duty on them (~ 50 passes). Email me if interested.