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valve spring life

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Old Oct 11, 2011 | 05:45 PM
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Default valve spring life

Just curious as to how often you should change valve springs on a heads/cam car. I'm going to run ported LS3 heads and have pat G spec me a cam, cam will be on EPS lobes.

How often do you change springs and please post your cam specs! I really don't want to run more than .625 lift unless someone talks me out of it...
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Old Oct 11, 2011 | 05:53 PM
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Probably should've mentioned this will be on an LS2 with double springs good for .650 lift
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Old Oct 11, 2011 | 07:18 PM
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run PAC 1218's and i put new ones, every time i change my heads, 5-9K at most..
lift's are .581 / .588 most of the time...
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Old Oct 11, 2011 | 07:23 PM
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Wow that's pretty often. I've seen some others going 25k on .600 lift. All the search threads were old, I figure by now springs and cam lobes have gotten better.
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Old Oct 11, 2011 | 07:23 PM
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I ran a 0.650 PRC double spring with a 0.561 cam for nearly 3 years and almost 100k. I had a cam hardness material failure which gave me opportunity for a new build at that point. I checked my springs though around once a year so it'd be good to monitor them. The closer you are to the lift limit though, the more I'd check on them.
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Old Oct 11, 2011 | 09:13 PM
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I ran the upgraded tfs dual spring for a summer of only nice weekends and by the spring of the following year broke on a VRX5 cam. The valve kissed my piston ever so lightly but it still bent the valve.
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Old Oct 11, 2011 | 09:17 PM
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Ouch don't want to play the bent valve game
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Old Oct 12, 2011 | 08:25 AM
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I've got an LS7 with a .656" lift cam. My Patriot extremes have been on for 23,000 miles with many a 7,200 rpm blast. Patriot recommends replacing them at 15 - 20k. I'm doing them this week.
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Old Oct 12, 2011 | 08:36 AM
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Originally Posted by good2go
I've got an LS7 with a .656" lift cam. My Patriot extremes have been on for 23,000 miles with many a 7,200 rpm blast. Patriot recommends replacing them at 15 - 20k. I'm doing them this week.
thats not so bad especially considering your lift and rpms
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Old Oct 12, 2011 | 11:10 AM
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It also depends on your l
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Old Oct 12, 2011 | 11:12 AM
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It also depends on your lobes tainted. Some cams need a higher spring rate. Get the correct springs for the cam you choose.
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Old Oct 12, 2011 | 11:15 AM
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well it would be on pat G's EPS lobes which are supposed to be MUCH easier on your valvetrain. I'll obviously discuss this a little more with Pat when I send in the cam sheet but opinions and experience are worth their weight in gold.

litle we are gonna have to meet up here in a few months and go for a cruise. or better yet you can come and let me have some parts off your car how far is burbank from indy?
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Old Oct 12, 2011 | 12:08 PM
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I have had an MS4 since October of 09' (0.649"/0.609") with PRC Golds (0.650"). I swapped them in March of 11' with around 20K on them. I am now using PRC EHT (0.675") but I have yet to get the Gold's tested. I will someday soon, haha.
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Old Oct 12, 2011 | 02:45 PM
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im thinking I dont wanna ruin any more than .625 using SDPC .660 dual springs that come installed on their cnc ls3 heads. It seems like theres plenty of ls3 style cams out there running less than .625 and still making some great power.
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Old Oct 17, 2011 | 02:41 AM
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Have you guys taken the springs out and had them tested for tension in relationship to when they were new? Then you could see if they are really needed later or earlier.
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Old Oct 17, 2011 | 07:14 AM
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If you want a loooong life spring get the PAC 1521 duals. I've had them in my car with three sets of heads and about 20k miles running cams up to .660 lift and 2.200 inch valves. When Richard at WCCH (proheads.com) did the Stage 3 porting he checked the springs and they were within a couple pounds of new pressure. That was after about 16k miles with a lot of dyno and street time on them.

I'm still running them and will check them again at around 30k but I expect them to still be in excellent shape.
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Old Oct 17, 2011 | 03:52 PM
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Sounds like the PAC1521 spring is the way to go
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Old Oct 17, 2011 | 04:47 PM
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Yearly. Springs are spring maintenance/cheap. Much cheaper then the whole kit, since you just reuse the locks/seats/retainers
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