of valve retainers and springs... (pic heavy - 56k no)

[simon]

I wanted to use the lighter one-piece 4.0 V6 valve spring retainers recommended by the Schjeldahl bros.
They are pricey, but also a perfect fit with the original springs.
Unfortunately they don't clear the new replacement springs I got, as those are of smaller ID.

So I had the spring seat diameter of the retainers turned down .050 to accomodate the new springs. During machining, we found out the valve retainers were neither concentric nor was the seat surface truely flat, contrary to the stamped-steel 2-piece originals.

Now I'm on my own, and since I don't have an engine lathe myself, I cleaned uop the surface using my trusty drill press, a steel file and lots of 180grit sandpaper.

Seems like I've solved one problem and created two new ones:

first, I don't know how well the springs and retainers will work together, sepecially if there will be any binding (retainer-to-spring) when subjected to full spring pressure. To my understanding, retainers, springs and valves slowly have to rotate on a running engine, very much like a lifter rotates in its bore to prevent cam and lifter damage.

second, after checking with some dye, it is obvious the spring seats only on the inner area of the retainer seat. I've compared that to some of my old stock valve assemblies, and only on a handful of them the spring fully seats (judging by the small polished areas). Will this create any problems in the future or even cause valve damage?

 

[lyonsy]

ok first thing i whould do is keep going with ether stone or paper till around 1000 mark to try and reduce the surface strees raisers now created.
second how much meat is left where you took them out?
less contact area is a good thing i beleave but may be wrong.

now personly unless your building a test engine that dont matter if it blows up ie a stocker $100 engine with bolted on it i whouldent run them valve train failure can be very expensive i know i just had it happen.
can you risk your engine for this.
i all up for this but when i do stuff like this i do it on old shiters that i then try to blow up to see if it works or fails.

 

[simon]

Me no worry about fatigue failure - shot-peening and nitriding are part of the plan. There's plenty of meat left, we only removed about .050" (or 1.2mm) at the most. Thickness was not affected.

The more I look at the design of the retainers and their non-positive conn. 7°keepers, the more I come to believe that Ford didn't really intend valve rotation on the lm200 anyway.
On some of the big sixes, they used rotators on the exhaust valves tho.