Last year I bought a set of assembled Dart Iron Eagle heads. not even 1500 miles later the car was totaled so I pulled the motor and kept it in storage. Although I taped over all the ports and kept the spark plugs in it, I didn't take off the rocker arms. So the valve springs and lifter springs have been compressed in the same position for over a year. Does anyone suggest I replace the valve springs? If the lifters go bad due to a bad internal spring, I can just replace the lifters. If I break a valve spring, then the whole motor can be trashed.

 

you can always have the springs tested if you know the original specs for thm. the other option is to replace them, since even a very good set of springs is fairly cheap it may be easier and more cost effective to just replace them.

 

You have nothing to worry about. The lifters eventually bleed down fully under the spring pressure until the self-adjusting plunger inside the lifter bottoms out in it's bore. After that there's no further to compress them and no damage will occur beyond that. Also, by bleeding down the lifter the valve spring is allowed to relax slightly, relieving some pressure on it, even if it stopped at the top of a cam lobe.

Before you fire the motor you should use a pre-oiler on it for at least 15 minutes. And I mean a GOOD pre-oiler that basically mimics the bottom of a distributor shaft. Simple straight driveshaft types don't seal the oil galley to the pass. side lifters and so no oil will be supplied to them no matter how long you run the pre-oiler. That's why you need a GOOD one.

And borrow a good quality high torque drill to drive it. You'll burn out a typical handyman 3/8" drill long before you've been at it for 15 minutes.

 

Hey, thanks for the replys. I called Comp Cams and they said that the lifters would be fine, but that the springs would have to be replaced.

Damon, I see what you are saying and understand. Before I do anything I'll have to see how much the springs are still compressed and then go from there. I was going to treat it like a new motor anyway, except for the cam break in. That will give me a chance to see where the stupid oil leak was coming from! I think it was the rear main seal.