So, I was noticing I was blowing some oil smoke out of the exhaust, so I took the valve covers off and noticed my valve spring dampers were broken on multiple cylinders, tearing up the valve seals. How can I avoid this happen in the future? I realize I cheaped out on valve springs as I ran the Alexs parts valve spring kit http://www.alexsparts.com/lt1-valve-...rs-locks-cups/

I have an LT4 hotcam with scorpion 1.6 rrs and the impala head gasket. Everything else is pretty much stock on it. The only thing I can think is I wake up late in the morning so I don't let it warm up before I drive it, but I never drive it above 1500 rpms until it warms up past 160 degrees, could that be the problem still?

I need new valve springs, obviously. Any suggestions for the springs and all necessary hardware?

 

Your pushrod lenght is stock too?

 

Pushrod length is stock, although I did replace them with hardened pushrods. What happens if I just remove the dampers? The springs are still good and my setup is not radical at all.

 

Is it all the dampners or just intake or exhaust? I have almost the exact setup same rockers, spring, stock length hardnend push rods and a comp 502 cam which is a little heaver on exhaust and have put about 4k or so on it this summer with no problem. How is it something you just noticed? Like after a over rev or a missed shift or something?

 

To be honest, I didn't think to check if it was only on the intake or exhaust, although that would have been smart to check. Car still runs normal, so I actually didn't notice it until earlier in the week to be blowing smoke. So who knows when it happened.

 

How many miles on the setup?

 

I just setup a LT1 head with Comp 918 springs, Comp retainers and +.050" locks to yield around 1.780" installed height and 140 lbs on the seat. The springs fit the stock locator tight. Pretty nice drop in deal with no machine work and no dampers to break.

 

I have heard of this happening a couple of times. When I put my howards springs in the camaros lt1 I was told by Loyd Elliott to remove them and I did. About 15k on the springs one spring broke. I am not sure why the spring broke but in the back of my mind I keep questioning if removing the dampeners was the cause.

When I did the lt1 in the corvette we went with beehives that the machine shop recommended . Both my lt1s have 502 cams

 

The iron LT1 heads make spring fitment a hassle and a LOT of guys were removing dampers from springs before beehives came out, and they were seeing breakage.

 

I wouldn't feel comfortable running a spring designed with a damper without the damper. Who knows what kind of harmonics it would incur.

 

That is what I was saying guys were breaking springs likely due to removing the dampers. The iron heads use an oversize guide boss to locate the inside of the spring without any hardware at the base of the spring atall. Since the stock spring was damper-less that meant no room for a damper and the choices for a single straight spring without a damper are slim which is why guys did it. The breakages weren't low mileage or anything but they were happening.

 

Stupid phone double post.

 

I assume then this was a iron head lt1 not a aluminum head lt1? I have this setup on my 97 Camaro. I do know though that even though my car has new valve seals installed at the time of the valve spring install it still does suck oil past them. It only does it on the race track though. I remember when I had it dynoed right after I got it all back together and on the decell slowing the dyno back down it smoked a little bit. And on this last track session I burned a half a quart of oil over 4 20 min track sessions. My catch can was almost empty and if has no oil leaks so I assume it's sucking it past the seals on off throttle high rpm lifts. Street driving and autocross it'll go 3k with out adding any oil. That does make perfect sence though if this dampner breakage is on a iron head lt1 I didn't know about the oversized guide boss, but if there's no room something has to give.

 

It is on an aluminum head car, about 6000 miles on the springs, although, as I said, I have no idea how long they actually lasted.

What is a good, reasonably priced spring for a hotcam? I think eventually I'm going to go with a bigger cam and le2 heads, but that isn't in the budget for right now. I just need something so I can drive the car.

Brian tooley, what would I have to have i addition to the 918 springs to install them on my car? I'm slightly valvetrain illiterate as far as what springs need what hardware, so I would greatly appreciate some links.

 

96capricemgr what you said now pretty much confirms my suspicions. I would say its not safe to run any spring designed to run a dampener. I have seen a number of threads where people said their dampeners broke. Then people removing the dampeners broke the springs. When you think About doing the damage that can happen over a 5-10 dollar part its just not worth it.

 

I was saying don't run springs designed for a damper without one because of an increased likelyhood of spring breakage the damper is there for a reason. The damper breakage itself is a separate thing I can't really comment on other than to question the quality or appropriate application of the parts.

 

This makes me want to go pull my valve covers and check my alex parts springs.

 

I used the 918 springs, the Comp 787-16 retainers, some +.050" locks that I carry, and some LT1 seals for a total of $258 shipped.

I think I'm going to offer it as a drop in spring kit on my website, since I don't have a drop in kit now. My dual spring kit requires machining down the guides for the standard .500" ID seal.

Now I need to figure out if it clears the stock self aligning style rockers, anyone have one they can part with for a week?

 

I know the +.050" locks with stock valves won't clear aftermarket s/a rockers, not sure how much the ears come down on the stock rockers.

 

I've seen Alexparts springs last a long time in a few different cars that are driven both on the street and for bracket racing and both with cc503 cams. I haven't heard of alot of problems with them when the dampners are left in. I was thinking of using a set with my cc503, but ended up with a Crane 10308 kit instead.