Project "Payback"

[Vegas69]

How about some real tech instead of Better Homes & Gardens.

That little guy on my shoulder has been telling me that I need to check some vitals. I'm figuring 3500-4000 street miles and around 24 events on this engine with just regular maintenence. I run a mild solid roller in my mill but they are known for eating lifters regardless. The valves are heavy and I turn mine to nearly 7k damn near everytime I drive it. High rpm is the norm at events.

You can wait for catastrophic failure or you can put your time into preventitive maintenence. I'll tell all you newbies and oldies. These cars aren't low mainence regardless if you actually use them. I picked up a valve spring tester from LSM(A great American company). The tester allows me to check the springs by removing the girdle. I'm looking at seat pressure. My engine is spec'd to have 260 lbs on the seat and 640 on the nose. It's normal to see the springs lose 25-30 lbs initially. Well, after the formentioned, I have a couple exhaust valves that are living on 180lbs! No Bueno. The intakes are all in great shape. Clearly, the heat from the exhaust has diminished most of the exhaust valve springs.

Here's where I think a lot of big block guys go wrong. If the valve springs are ready for replacement, what about the lifters? I have a set of Isky Red Zone lifters in this engine. I'm going to take the horse by the reigns and send them in and have them rebushed with a set of their easy rolls with NO needle bearings. Common sense tells me that if the valve springs are toast, it's time for lifters.

Once I found that I had low spring pressure on a couple valves, I wanted to check the vitals. I ran a COLD compression check. While it should be done with a hot engine, I feel a mechanically sound bottom end should check out cold. It did, with less than 5% variance from cylinder to cylinder. My lowest cylinder got a little wet with gas from bumping the engine to check valve spring pressures. The rings look to be sound.



So, I'll have Jason Pettis order a set of new springs and he recommends checking every spring at installed height to make sure there are no manufacturing flaws or wrongly packaged springs. Not surprised with my boy. Check EVERYTHING. I'll send my current lifters out to Isky and have them rebushed. Then, I'll be ready to have all kinds of fun with a clean conscious.

[Track Junky]

Good call. Looks like you stretched it out a little longer than you should have. I'm at about 6 road course events and not even close to full days at half of those with very few street miles. NYES told me to check valve springs and lifters after 1 season and bring the motor in after 2 seasons for freshening. 2 seasons would be about 16 events so hopefully I'm good but now you got me thinking.
Thanks for shedding a light.

[Vegas69]

I'll ship you my LSM valve spring tester. I really think between it and a compression check, it's a good litmus test.

[Track Junky]

Cool, thanks. Can you bring it to Buttonwillow? Planning on 2 or 3 events before Buttonwillow. Including Buttonwillow that should put me at an honest full seasons worth of runs.

[Vegas69]

Yes sir, I'lll bring it with me.

[Track Junky]

Thanks bro. I was just checking my spec sheet.......220 seat pressure, 580 open.

[Flash68]

Leave it to the Pettis Apprentice to get deep into some preventative maintenance. Nice segue from our sh!t talking as of late.

Timely for me, I just finished reading a Circle Track Engine Building book tonight and one of the points I took from it was investing in even a cheap valve spring tester (recommended a $75 Moroso) and they said while it may not be dead nuts accurate, that's fine because it will be consistent and show variances that are the key to preventing a problem like you talk about. I see that LSM piece is quite a bit more than $75.

2 questions... and I don't remember how big your cam lift is, but you do rev reasonably high often.... have you considered shaft rockers?

And whose fuel log is that? I am looking for one....

[Vegas69]

It seems to be really accurate. At 260 seat originally and a normal initial loss of 25-30 all the intakes are in the 230-235 range which adds up. The real key is to calibrate it on a fresh engine. I considered the Moroso unit but I don't think they will clear the tall poly locks with a stud girdle. Maybe they make one but I didn't look to hard.

I absolutely considered shaft rockers. At the time I couldn't stomach another $1200. I haven't found the girdle to be a headache adjusting valves. It fits really well and doesn't change the valve adjustment. On the flip side, I haven't been that thrilled with the consistency of the valve adjustment. Shaft rockers are definitely the way to go. When it's time to freshen her up, different heads may be part of the equation so I don't really want to make that investment right now. I'm at .660 lift. Tiny little big block cam.

http://www.jegs.com/p/JEGS-Performan...59829/10002/-1

[Track Junky]

What duration at .050 are you running? Whats lobe center and installed center?

[Roadbuster]

Originally Posted by GregWeld

.......... well...... somebody has to be last.......

Hey! That is my spot!