God's a drag-racer and he was lookin' out for my car yesterday

It's been 30K miles since I put the Crane duals in and I was planning on changing these out in 3 weeks (how ironic; I even had the new Crane duals sittin' on the kitchen counter for a month and a half now ).

I was juuuuust backin' into the garage when I heard it go . . . I was Reversing in neutral goin' about 2 mph at idle when it happened. I panicked and shut Her off. I had another 8 feet to go to get Her in the garage so I cranked it back up.

Obviously idle was NOWHERE to be found and I rushed it into the garage as quick as possible before I shut it down finally.

Pulled off the valvecovers at the shop and saw #1 was broken . . . in THREE PLACES . Also, the inner safety spring was split in half

As I said at the beginning . . . drag-racer God was lookin' out for my engine and saved the Valve from dropping

Question: I was at idle and split both the outer and inner springs . . . is this normal ? For the record, I noticed a slight change in tone of the valvetrain over the last week; it was so subtle that noone else would even hear it (one of those "it's your engine and you just know something's different . . . ").

 

that sucks man. look in the bright side, be happy you're not tellin us about a dropped valve!!

 

Darn right I'm happy

I dodged a biiiiiig bullet here

Oh well . . . at least it's turd easy to swap in new plugs and wires

 

I'm glad to hear you made out OK on that potential disaster. I've got that problem, too - where only you can hear the changes because nobody else is accustomed to how it normally sounds.

 

damn you got lucky man 30k WOW!!

 

got to church lately?

 

Your question about being "normal" for this to happen at idle...
The actual failure of the spring probably occurred during the time that you last ran the engine and the time that you started it up again. It's the heating/cooling cycles that really stress the metal. Like has been said already...you were very fortunate that this time it decided to let go when you were just starting...buy lotttery tickets!

 

It would be interesting to get your other springs tested to know how good of an indicator it would have been.

 

Inner safety spring? Ok that's a new one...lol

Are you with everyone that says a dual spring is best? That way if one brakes..the inner will keep you from dropping a valve.

 

Maybe in his case the inner one broke first, and then the outter one....
That would explain why he noticed a different tone for the past few weeks: Inner one broke first... imo

 

Possibly.... I was just using this thread to make a point. Just because it is a dual spring..don't use that inner spring as an excuse. It is not there to hold a valve up if the outer brakes. It's there for added spring pressure and to help relieve some stress off the outer spring. Instead of using a single spring with a ridculous spring rate, you use two springs and lessen the spring rate of the main spring.

 

Damn Chris!

Been awhile bro! We are both a couple of lucky sumbitches.... I did a # on one of my Crane Duals last month....



I had 20K on them, center spring was intact, kept the valve up as well.

 

Umm . . . yes I am

Hence my query; too bad you didn't have anything technical to reply

Thank you for replying In hindsight, this is probably exactly what happened.

 

REALLY LUCKY

That's pretty much the way my outer spring looked . . . just the inner was snapped in half

 

Thanks Jim, how ya been? My Woman wants to know how's the weather in Tampa??

After thinking about what AdamSS replied I'm certain this is what happened to me . . . and what you might be facing

You should seriously pull those covers and/or replace the springs right away. Much cheaper than the alternative

 

I dunno about Tampa - I'm in Orlando

I've been down that broken spring/trashed motor a few times. Not much phases me anymore I just had the covers off two weeks ago and the springs weren't damaged. But about the only fluid I don't burn is wiper fluid

I got 35K out of my last 918's before selling them with many caveats about their use. Of course that was a 218/226 cam, and this is a 228/228 but I don't know the ramp rates as the block was used.

It's probably simplest to just get the AFR 205's milled and pre-assembled

 

I just put the crane duals in my car and now you guys are making me think I made a mistake. Do all the duals go after 20-30 thousand miles or just the cranes? I have a Crane 228/232 .610 on 110* lsa. How long should I wait before I change the springs again?

 

I'm not aware of an easy litmus test to find out how long to wait. Many pull springs off, test them and/or outright replace them every 10-15K miles. The faster your ramps combined with the higher lift the harder it is on them. What is the advertised duration on your cam?

Years ago I had an appointment to have my valvesprings replaced the following morning after a spring broke and caused major damage. The springs had been waiting for me for a few weeks. While it's a pain to replace the springs, the jury is out on how far to push them.

 

Odd, mine broke yesterday too. Second valve spring for me.

 

290* 294*