I am freshening up my 1987 305. The 081 heads are getting cleaned and the valves touched up. While I have the heads disassembled I got thinking of valve springs. The heads have the stock 33 year old valve springs. I was just going to re-install them and this being a budget build I don't want to go out and buy new springs. But I do have a set of gently used Comp Cams 26918 "beehive" springs from another project. The 26918 springs have 130lbs of pressure on the seat at 1.80" and 318lbs of pressure open at 1.20".

Will these work on the 081 heads with pressed in rocker studs? The stock LB9 roller camshaft will be used.
What are the pressures of the springs on the 081 heads?
What are the factory spring installed height on the 081 heads?

 

Here is a related post that Sofa already answered. See if any of this applies to your situation.
https://www.thirdgen.org/forums/engi...ml#post6387611

 

That thread does link to springs that are very similar in pressure and installed height. I will have to mock up to see how they fit.

 

The original 305 in my 91 Formula went away from a high revving adventure with a rod knock at about 90k when the previous owners boyfriend at the time (now married) spun it beyond it's limits... And that was without valve springs. Anything that increases the ability of the stock bottom end to rev might be counter productive.

Worth considering anyway. I spin my stock Vortec to 6500 with beehives but it has different rods and pistons than were used in 87.

GD

 

That makes sense. I don't want to rev this 305 up. I was just thinking if the stock springs were tired I could replace them with something I had on had. My rebuild goal is just to restore the 305 to 1987 stock glory.

 

After 33 years, consider those springs to be shot. It cheap insurance to replace them.
You don't have to pay a lot for valve springs.
Here is an example: https://www.competitionproducts.com/...epartments/49/
https://www.speedwaymotors.com/Searc...in_Quantity:43