Broken Valve Spring!!

Another setback. I finally get the car insured and a temp plate. I was pulling the car out of storage this weekend. I had big plans to start scanning and tuning. 2 mins of idling and the suddenly the car starts running like crap. I shut down and start trouble shooting. Finally I pull the front valve cover and shit: broken valve spring.

Fuck man, what the hell. I dont think my engine build is at fault, mostly because if it was, the car would never have run in the first place. And it ran good. Right now my only guess is a crap spring from comp cams.

So yeah one more setback. Next weekend I will be back at it...

Crap. Hope nothing else is broken. Was this a CC 105# spring? Has this happened to anyone else? My GM LS6 90# (blue) springs have 80k miles on them so far.

This makes me feel even better about my upcoming cam install yay
sorry to hear it urbs, that's rough

Which springs, what cam/rockers and what rpm are you shifting at wot?

My 105# were taken out of my blown engine and I've been using them in my current engine without a problem.

Valvetrain:
L32 block <50 miles
XP cam
Stock L32 lifters
Stock Pushrods
Stock rockers
Manley Retainers
Comp Cam 105lb springs
Stock valve locks

All new parts, stock parts were from the new engine..

I have put MAYBE 40 miles on my car since the new engine went it. I moved back to Chicago and I just got the car re-insured and re-registered! I was all excited to put some miles on my baby. Since the motor was put in, I have not gone over 60MPH and had done 4-5 25-60 wot pulls.

Here is the lucky part, the spring broke at the best time. The car was idleing in the drive. The valve didnt drop. Because the spring broke in the middle, it held the valve up. Zoomer speculates that I have a bum batch of springs or the Manley retainers are some how giving me the wrong spring height.

I guess I should be happy I didnt wreck a piston. I will probibly replace all the springs, retainers, and locks.

Check clubgp etc. Some guys were having problems with the CC 105's for a little while.

Might be time to upgrade to 130's on the XP.

Yeah I posted on clubgp. I am going to do retainers, springs and locks. I am already in for a new set of springs, so I might as well do them all.

I just want to get the beast running with a decent tune. It is killing me!

So my brother came out and helped me swap the springs. We used the air compressor method to hold the valves in place while we swapped out everything. I went ahead and got a new set of springs/retainers/locks/seals.

I had never done it this way, so I was happy my bro was there. We were cruising along swapping the front and then the unthinkable happened. I wont name names but some one clicked off the auto switch on the compressor and a valve dropped. LUCKILY it was an exhaust valve. We just pulled the front manifold and with some time and patience, my brother was able to get the valve started back in the guide. We used suction to pull the valve back up into the guide. It was pretty freakin amazing that we pulled that valve back up. If we had not heard of some one else doing it, I dont think we would have thought it was possible. It sure beats tearing the engine down an pulling the heads. Pretty amazing, I prolly owe him a beer for that feat.

We had to get to a whisky tasting later so after the valve excitement we only got to the front springs.

Oooh that's lucky. Nice job saving the valve!

Another option is to fish inside the spark plug hole with a skinny magnet and/or screwdriver, sometimes you can push a valve back up that way.

Glad to hear it's running

Here's a question - what year are your heads? I recall hearing some issues with certain springs on the older heads...

Yeah my brother used a "tickler" in the sparkplug hole to angle the valve.

These are L32 heads with an assembly date of 05-06. I am still not sure why the spring broke. Defective spring or defective install/combo. I DO know that ZZP's XP combo uses mod'd comp retainers and 7* locks. I used manley retainers the first build. Dont deviate from what the vendor tells you.

I have not heard of many problems with older heads. I do know that there used to be some concern with '97 and earlier heads. They were prone to cracking between the valves. This used to be a big concern, but time has shown that the crack usually doesnt grow.

Finally got all the new springs/retainers/locks/seals installed.

I took a few measuremens of the Manley retainer and the ZZP modified. From what I could see, the Manley retainer actually gives you .01-.02 MORE clearance then the ZZP modified. It is hard to measure spring height, but they were pretty close. I am pretty convinced that the spring broke because it was simply defective.

ZZP made the comment that they have only heard of one broken comp spring and that was due to installation error. Judging by the threads I have read, that is BS. OH well they are trying to run a business.

I have Manley retainers with 105#'s. No issues in 30K+.. (with the valve train that is)

Unfortunately I'm biased about ZZP because of parts etc I have seen/received. Therefore I'll keep quiet for once.