I'm new to V8 performance, and am having a hard time getting my head around some of the information I've found searching here, and reading up on the subject.

I built a 355ci engine with AFR 195cc heads, and an LT4 hotcam with 1.6 Pro Mags. Originally I was just going to run it like that, but today I found out I have to strip the engine back down to a shortblock and that has me reconsidering some of my choices.

Namely, I think now is probably the best time to investigate changing out the springs. I've read nothing but bad things about trusting the stock AFR springs, and while the specs seem to indicate that they'd be adequate, postings here and misgivings about not running matched springs have convinced me to change 'em out. The problem is I want to run beehive springs, but don't know enough to figure out which ones to order, and haven't found a post that recommends a specific PN. My main problem is that I don't understand how the OD of the spring affects the decision. Mine are 1.450" OD. I'm pretty sure that I can't easily go larger than this as that would involve machining. But can I go smaller? It looks like some of these springs have .9" ODs? And then there's spring depth?

I'd really like to avoid having any machine work if that's possible. Does anyone have a specific recommendation for a suitable beehive spring, and any auxiliary components (I've seen mention of adapters?) that I would need to install them. Or if no-one can/wants to do that, maybe some guidance in navigating all the variables in spring selection?

Thanks for any help, it's appreciated!

 

you can go smaller, but it wouldn't be the best route to take. there's a lot of factors to consider and as seat pressure, wire diameter, coil bind, and other things come into play the diameter of the spring is controled by that. have the spring seats recut is fairly cheap, few dollars a seat. if you find the spring you want or need and it's too big to fit you're way ahead getting the seats cut than trying to work around it.