valve springs

[BillyJack]

Well I may have screwed up royally. They say you are your own worst enemy and I believe it. I just put in a new cam/intake on my 1985 CV that went from CFI to carb. I also added pushrods, rockers, keepers, and springs that are called for by Crane cams. It is an energizer cam with .456 lift, not very wild. The problem is I put in new springs that were all the same height useing the stock retainers and exhaust valve rotators. I did not pay attention that the old exhaust valve springs were shorter. Is this going to destroy the new cam in short order? The engine will never see above 4000 rpm and it runs fine right now. If the cam does go to hell how long do think it will take? As long as I can get a year out of her I will be satisfied. Thanks .

[turbo2256b]

shouldnt destroy the cam but valve float will probably occure sooner on the intake than exhaust. You can get special keepers that ofset the the position of the retainers. Intake retainer reduces spring height exhaust keeper increases spring height. cALL THEM AND THEY SHOULD KNOW WHAT YOU NEED. Might not make them perfet but very close to equal. There are lots of hot rodders that do what you have done and never realized anything is wrong.

[1987cp]

Sounds offhand like your best bet will be to buy a set of Crane's hardened retainers and keepers, that will make sure, barring weirdnesses, that the installed height of the springs is as Crane intended. Crane's hardened retainer-and-keeper system uses two different keepers (probably the same ones Dave is referring to), one designed to interface correctly with the intake groove and the with the exhaust groove, all while retaining the same installed height for all springs. I didn't end up worrying about this directly for my Crane-cammed engine because I bought the cam, springs, and retainers all in one kit. It even included a set of rocker shims, which I was very annoyed not to be able to find a few weeks ago when I found myself in possession of some 0.100"-too-long pushrods (I was silly and installed stock-length pushrods to start with, without checking to make sure that my lash was correct).

Alternatively, if the cam is indeed VERY similar to a known factory cam, factory springs (that are different for intake and exhaust) can be had from your Ford dealer that will work correctly with the stock retainers and keepers - this is what I did when I had a set of '93 E7 heads reconditioned, and bought Ford springs that are stock replacements for a '95 Mustang. But I'm using these heads with a factory cam - your Crane rep can tell you whether this is appropriate for your engine.

[BillyJack]

Thanks for the input guys. I really just want to leave it as is and floor it every chance I get.:3gears: