Broken Valve Springs
Thread Starter
Team Owner
Joined: Mar 1999
Posts: 22,025
Likes: 192
From: At the beach in little Rhody
Broken Valve Springs
Was just on the Z06Vette.com forum and have found several guys have recently broken valve springs. Just wondering if anyone has had this problem with the LS1 springs.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 2,743
Likes: 3
From: Davie Florida
Broken valve springs are not uncommon on LS1s with aggressive after market cams. However with proper valve spring selection & maintainance broken valve springs can be avoided for the most part.
Safety Car
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 4,596
Likes: 2
From: Atlanta GA
Mine was with the stock cam:
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...541&forum_id=1
Going with the crane 1.8 gold setup, dual springs and Ti retainers.
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...541&forum_id=1
Going with the crane 1.8 gold setup, dual springs and Ti retainers.
Supporting Manufacturer
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 352
Likes: 0
The reason for breakage is often not the spring quality. It's usually because they were installed with too much seat pressure. Combine that with an agressive cam profile and it's going to break the springs, even good dual ones.
The solution is to measure the installed height of the spring before you put them on (measure from ID locator to bottom of retainer) - that is what your spring will have for height when you put it on. Check that against what the spring manufacturer said the pressure is @ a given Installed Height.
If you think you will be closer to 150 Lbs of seat pressure than 120, you will be more likley to break again. (on most all dual springs and singles rated for the job). You really need a spring tester to do the job right. Just take one spring, take your measured installed height and goto any machine shop. They will test your spring at that height and tell you the seat pressure. Really, it's the right way to do it. I'm pretty picky but then again, we don't have broken springs.
HTH
Bob
The solution is to measure the installed height of the spring before you put them on (measure from ID locator to bottom of retainer) - that is what your spring will have for height when you put it on. Check that against what the spring manufacturer said the pressure is @ a given Installed Height.
If you think you will be closer to 150 Lbs of seat pressure than 120, you will be more likley to break again. (on most all dual springs and singles rated for the job). You really need a spring tester to do the job right. Just take one spring, take your measured installed height and goto any machine shop. They will test your spring at that height and tell you the seat pressure. Really, it's the right way to do it. I'm pretty picky but then again, we don't have broken springs.
HTH
Bob
Thread Starter
Team Owner
Joined: Mar 1999
Posts: 22,025
Likes: 192
From: At the beach in little Rhody
Originally Posted by gmblack3
Mine was with the stock cam:
Pro
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 678
Likes: 2
From: Alpena Michigan
Checked the height on my stock springs that were removed when I did a cam swap and one spring out of the 16 was about 60 thousandths shorter than the rest. This was on springs that had 25000 miles of easy driving on them. Looks like it might have been a problem waiting to happen.
Corvette Stories
The Best of Corvette for Corvette Enthusiasts
Top 10 Most Explosive Corvettes Ever Made: Power-to-Weight Ratio Ranked!
Joe Kucinski
150 hp to 1,250 hp: Every Corvette Generation Compared by the Specs That Matter
Joe Kucinski
8 Coolest Corvette Pace Cars (and Replicas) of All Time
Verdad Gallardo
Top 10 Corvette Engines RANKED by Peak Torque (70+ Years of Muscle!)
Joe Kucinski
Corvette ZR1X Will Be Pacing the Indy 500, And Could Probably Race, Too!
Verdad Gallardo
Top 10 Corvettes Coming to Mecum Indy 2026!
Brett Foote
Top 10 C9 Corvette MUST-HAVES to Fix These C8 Generation Flaws!
Michael S. Palmer
10 Revolutionary 'Corvette Firsts' Most People Don't Know
Joe Kucinski
5 Reasons to Upgrade to an LS6-Powered Corvette; 5 Reasons to Stay LT2
Michael S. Palmer
Melting Slicks
Joined: Sep 2003
Posts: 2,911
Likes: 1
From: Augusta GA
St. Jude Donor '05-'06
Originally Posted by Bob@PrecisionPorting
The reason for breakage is often not the spring quality. It's usually because they were installed with too much seat pressure. Combine that with an agressive cam profile and it's going to break the springs, even good dual ones.
The solution is to measure the installed height of the spring before you put them on (measure from ID locator to bottom of retainer) - that is what your spring will have for height when you put it on. Check that against what the spring manufacturer said the pressure is @ a given Installed Height.
If you think you will be closer to 150 Lbs of seat pressure than 120, you will be more likley to break again. (on most all dual springs and singles rated for the job). You really need a spring tester to do the job right. Just take one spring, take your measured installed height and goto any machine shop. They will test your spring at that height and tell you the seat pressure. Really, it's the right way to do it. I'm pretty picky but then again, we don't have broken springs.
HTH
Bob
The solution is to measure the installed height of the spring before you put them on (measure from ID locator to bottom of retainer) - that is what your spring will have for height when you put it on. Check that against what the spring manufacturer said the pressure is @ a given Installed Height.
If you think you will be closer to 150 Lbs of seat pressure than 120, you will be more likley to break again. (on most all dual springs and singles rated for the job). You really need a spring tester to do the job right. Just take one spring, take your measured installed height and goto any machine shop. They will test your spring at that height and tell you the seat pressure. Really, it's the right way to do it. I'm pretty picky but then again, we don't have broken springs.
HTH
Bob
Dave
Supporting Manufacturer
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 352
Likes: 0
Thanks guys!
I have written a new article valve springs you might find useful in the new Tech Talk section:
http://www.precisionporting.com/index_files/Page407.htm
Also I wrote an article about flow numbers and how you should look at them when buying heads. Not too bad if you like to know the real details of things.
Enjoy!
Bob
I have written a new article valve springs you might find useful in the new Tech Talk section:
http://www.precisionporting.com/index_files/Page407.htm
Also I wrote an article about flow numbers and how you should look at them when buying heads. Not too bad if you like to know the real details of things.
Enjoy!
Bob
Race Director
Joined: Aug 1999
Posts: 16,935
Likes: 26
From: Lackey, my own dragstrip VA.
Virginia Events Coordinator
Cruise-In IV Veteran
Cruise-In V Veteran
Cruise-In VI Veteran
Cruise-In VII Veteran
NCM Ambassador
It's always good to have a Supporting Vendor jump in on tech stuff........
Another reason for breakage.................hitting the RL to many times
makes for bad spring harmonics.
My only LS1 experience with breakage..........plan to keep it that way too but not for the lack of trying
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...ing&forum_id=1
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...um_id=1&arch=1
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...um_id=1&arch=1
Another reason for breakage.................hitting the RL to many times
makes for bad spring harmonics.My only LS1 experience with breakage..........plan to keep it that way too but not for the lack of trying
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...ing&forum_id=1
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...um_id=1&arch=1
http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...um_id=1&arch=1
Last edited by Allthrottleandsomebottle; Jun 21, 2005 at 08:48 AM.
: