i dont have an air compressor, so that method is out
nor do i wanna spend 4 hours putting twine into my spark plug hole

a friend of mine broke a few valvesprings before on his 'bird and he simply brought the cyls he was changing up to TDC to stop the valve against the piston, car ran fine

is there any real horrible consequences to doing this? because this is what i plan on doing

 

no it'll work, just make sure you have the piston at the top of the stroke. you chould be able to feel it with a thin crew driver using the spark plug hole for access.

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-=ICON MOTORSPORTS=-
1st & 3rd

 

Ede is right, but just to be safe I'd use a clean 1/4" rope (not twine) to fill the cylinder and combustion chamber. Gives you something soft for the valve to press against when you're compressing the spring. Also adds insurance from dropping a valve and getting to pull the heads. And no, it doesn't take four hours. It takes about 5 minutes per cylinder, so just be patient and feed about 1 to 2 feet of that rope in each spark plug hole with the piston at TDC. It's sorta a pain in the a-- feeding that rope in an inch at a time, but it makes you feel better. Hope this helps, I just did it myself a couple months ago.

 

thanks guys

 

I don't want to panic you but you also need to find out what it was that caused the spring to break.

If one spring breaks then the others may be in for the same. Absent a defect in the spring itself, springs usually break after being overstressed or meeting with interference.

Many times using a higher ratio rocker on stock springs may make the spring work outside its design specs and will over-stress them shortening their lift span. This usually shows up as a dramatic loss in pressure, but can cause them to break too.

Naturally interference - underside of rocker to retainer; retainer to guide/seal or not having the required clearance between coils -can cause spring breakage.

Be sure to examine the broken spring carefully using a bright light and magnifying glass (if you're old like me)and look for any tell-tale signs that the coils were touching.

While the cover is off take the time to look at all the other springs too. A few minutes now can save you a lot of time and $$ later.

My strong recommendation, if one spring breaks, change them all. That's what I'd do.

Breaking a spring at high RPM could result in a dropped valve which will certainly ruin your day.

Hope this helps.

Jake

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1986 Corvette Coupe, 415 CID, Edelbrock 6073s, ZZ9

[This message has been edited by JakeJr (edited November 12, 2000).]