I agree! I believe you are seeing the result of a problem, not the problem itself. Eric can chime in, but I don't believe I've ever seen a broken valve spring on a DS650, so at the very least, it isn't common on a proper motor build. And .430 lift ain't nothin!!

I definitely have springs over 3 years old running with no failures, but they may not have seen as many hours as yours has.

I'm leaning toward installation/setup...

222

 

Good point 222. I'm kind of leaning toward that myself. Or possibly just a batch problem. Spoke with my machineist today and he felt the that the spec at install may have been wrong. He sees broken valve springs almost NEVER. The only time he as seen broken valve springs is when a valve broke and created havac under the hat.

HT, I was thinking about you this morning....

Is it odd to change valve springs on a routine basis? Not for serious racers racing each and every weekend. When I raced boats, we changed valve springs about every four races or so but it was based completely on spring pressures after the 4. That was about three times a season. We ran Top Alky Hrydro, so the botton and top were taking quite a beating. Then again, we changed pistons every other weekend, and rings EVERY RACE.

So I guess it's possible to stress the springs to a point to which they would fail, but like 222 said..... you may look for another cause before jumping back in.

Good Luck HT

 

Hightower ..... KIBBLE WHITE. Yes sir, those are the ones. Give them your specs and they will hook you up.

 

as far as setup goes, all I know is that I have a1/a2 cams, and the intake lift is .433 and that is what I told WEB and they sent me what they said I needed. Did I check for coil bind and all that - no. I simply thought it was as simple as telling a supplier what you have and having them hook you up. apparently I'm mistaken.

But these springs have 500 hours of motor time on them, and thankfully routine gap checks allowed me to find the issue before I dropped a valve into the cylinder. One more ride and I may have gotten totally screwed. I will now send my head to THEBOM, for valve work and spring install, and he can use his equipment to get me set up right with what he knows is best. But regardless of professional setup, I will still check gap every 6 months as before, and also check spring integrity while i'm at it, and no matter how well they seem to be holding up I will go ahead and replace springs at a regular interval from here on out.

 

That's probably a good thing to do HT. You're right, you might have REALLY had some problems if you didn't catch it when you did.

Good luck, and let us know what the TheBomb finds.

See ya HT.

 

Hey by the way thanks very much everybody for your input, its how we learn. If I knew what I know now 3 or 4 years ago alot of things may have been done differently. You see these spring kits advertised all over the place, and cams from a million different places, and pistons offered by several companies all made at the same place but with different specs. Start mixing and matching from several vendors, and you're playing with fire. If you don't have the tools or the knowledge to made them jive together right, you are set up for failure!