A
Anonymous
Guest
I recently decided to change the valve springs in my 200. Although I've rebuilt the engine, then raised the CR afterward, then ported it and divided the center exhausts, added special valve seals, etc., I never thought much about the valve springs. The shop had shimmed them .055" each during the head rebuild, and not too well: 4 of the shims were tilted on casting bosses near the center 4 intake valves. 
The new springs are Clevite, from NAPA. What a difference! They have the same number of coils, same wire size, but wound in the opposite direction (must be a Canadian thing...like their coat zippers...
) . As soon as I fired up the engine, I was astonished at the difference at idle: smooth as a baby's bottom! (It's always beeb a bumpy idler.) It accelerates better and (duh) winds up tighter, too. It even starts better when hot, always a problem with this one.
I guess maybe 220,000 miles is too many to ask from these springs?
The whole set of sproings (sic) was $26 and the valve cover gasket $6. Trust me, it's worth twice that! After some more run-in, I'll do some MPG tests against the previous records and post the results here. I'm interested in seeing if it makes any MPG difference - but, first I have to quit running it up to 4000+ RPM at play time. :!:
The new springs are Clevite, from NAPA. What a difference! They have the same number of coils, same wire size, but wound in the opposite direction (must be a Canadian thing...like their coat zippers...
) . As soon as I fired up the engine, I was astonished at the difference at idle: smooth as a baby's bottom! (It's always beeb a bumpy idler.) It accelerates better and (duh) winds up tighter, too. It even starts better when hot, always a problem with this one.I guess maybe 220,000 miles is too many to ask from these springs?
The whole set of sproings (sic) was $26 and the valve cover gasket $6. Trust me, it's worth twice that! After some more run-in, I'll do some MPG tests against the previous records and post the results here. I'm interested in seeing if it makes any MPG difference - but, first I have to quit running it up to 4000+ RPM at play time. :!:
