I've had no issues with spring cams.... But finding a durable piston return spring has proven to be a daunting task.

 

I have ran these 612 springs on my car HARD, and I mean HARD and high revving for at least 12000 miles with no hint of any kind of failure. My cam is a 227/239 560/577 lift, not small compared to most of the cams your normal joe is running these days. The whole top end is done and it's blown on top of that. I have overrevved a couple times and have drove the thing hard to 6k plus, 150+ mph runs (long pulls in 5'th have to strain the valvetrain pretty damn hard), track runs, etc. etc. with absolutely no problems. We have put EX springs on a few customer cars at my shop as well when they wanted to save money, although we usually use comp 918's or other more popular springs, there has not been one complaint from an EX car.

I think installation, lash, and just overall car and precision is extremely important when installing valvetrain items. Just a statement, not implying anything...

Another thing you must realize is that combination never told anybody they had to buy EX springs. We are all competent individuals that can hopefully make simple decisions and accept the consequences of those decisions. If they suggested 612's, that doesn't mean there aren't other springs you can get that may have a better established name and a larger price tag to go along with it... If you want to pay more, then pay more and get comp or isky or whatever helps you sleep better.

The title should have been EX spring failure, not CM spring failure IMO, that's very misleading... any spring can fail. For example, I had a guy at my shop. He broke one of his super expensive isky valve springs on his ported LS6 heads and came in to upgrade to AFR's and patriot golds. **** happens. If I came off a little aggressive that's why... those CM guys are really stand up and I don't think they have screwed one person over that I've heard about, so when I saw this post it immediately attracted my attention.

 

I just saw this post, don't blame springs or even think about the manufacturer, $hit happens and you get bd springs, there is no way around it I don't care what spring you use, I have never had problems with springs because I always bought them used LOL so I knew they worked. This time though when I had my GM 847 cam a while back, I for the first time bought brand new valve springs, Comp 977's. Well one day I had a clacking noise, it got louder over time and sometimes then car would after fire at high RPM. Because I was going to school I just drove the car around (stupid me) anyways, I descided to pop the valve cover one day only to find the very back #8 hardest to get at Comp 977 spring broken in also about 3 places, it wound itself around it looked very scary. Well, I just went out and bought all new 16 comp 977 valve springs to replace one, I'll keep the other 15 just in case LOL. My opinion is "what can you do", they are springs, anyone that knows anything about hardess testings, hair line cracks, metal fatigue, brittlness knows that stuff like this happens when you bend metal if you have bad luck, especially when you deal with stiffer springs like the aftermarket. Out of 16 springs the chances are high for 1 bad one to come around.

Now when I replaced the spring I put a straight edge across the valves and they were all the same indicating that the valve didnt bend, its how you can tell without taking the head out, also the valve is free moving up and down.

I can say one thing at this point, THANK God I didn't settle for single coil valve springs, the inner spring save the day, and also! If I was getting valve float, guess what else saved the day from destroying the lifter and cam? Yes, my AFR Hydra Rev kit, it kept the lifter on the cam at all times, and it took care of the lifter weight so that one inner spring didn't have to do all the work from keeping the valve up and pushing the lifter down, the hydra rev kit with its around 80 LB spring rate at the lifter took care of the lifter mass so all the inner comp 977 spring had to do is keep the valve up, much needed to keep the valve from floating badly enough to kiss the piston.

So, get a hydra rev kit to feel safe in cases like this, and have dual valve springs because things like this do happen, and its always nice to have back up. Its also nice to make sure you have light weight retainers like like the Comp 730-16 titanium retainers to help even more to keep the valve up.

Sorry, I'm just so thankfull that everytime I think about it I feel so indulged that all the preventative assistant mods paid off, especially the hydra rev kit, you can run the engine with no valve springs and still keep the lifters on the cam LOL, and the inner springs, sorry guys all this brings a tear to my eyes.

Matt.

 

http://www.rehermorrison.com/techTalk/03.htm

http://www.rehermorrison.com/techTalk/42.htm

Two good articles about valvesprings, it's a good read if you are worried about the ones in your motor.

Bret

 

I hate to bring an old thread to the top but I'm having a similar problem. I bought a full heads/cam package off of Combination Motorsports in February '03. I installed the heads around June '03. Over the course of the next year and a half I put about 1000 miles on the car. The car was in Michigan and I was working in Mississippi during that time. In December '04 I sold the car. About 3 weeks ago I get a call from the guy I sold it to. He wanted more information because the car wasn't running right. He had it dyno tuned and the tuner said the valves were floating at 5800 rpm. Basically I told him no way the valves were floating because I bought a top dollar heads and cam package. While it's been 2 years since I bought the setup, it only has 4K miles or less on it. I had him come over and we popped the valve covers just to do some quick measurements and make sure we had the right springs. Sadly, we found a couple of small pieces of valve spring in the head and an inner spring that appeared to be broken.

NOTE: I'm not blaming Combination Motorsports for this since they don't make the springs themselves! I still don't know the cause of the failure or how bad it is.

None the less, the guy bought a set of Comp 987's (because that's what I thought these heads had) and we are supposed to be putting them on the car this weekend. The springs measured at the same OD as a Comp 987 (1.43 O.D.) but we haven't had one off to check height. Now I'm starting to worry these heads don't have the 987's and his replacement springs won't work with the retainers and locks. Also, we are doing this with the heads on the car. There has been no indication of any valves hitting the pistons so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. It's not my car any more but that doesn't mean things won't get ugly if there's something internally wrong with the motor.

 

Note to self: Don't sell a car to someone you know and don't leave 'em yer phone number.... j/k

 

Actually, I didn't know him when I sold it to him but he is local. He's been understanding about it and hasn't asked for anything. I think (hope) he recognizes that I'm a good, honest guy and wouldn't knowingly sell a car that I knew had a problem like that. I think he (and certainly I) recognized that this is probably just really bad luck. I feel bad so I've offered to help him swap them out. I'm just hoping no valves are damaged. That would suck! I'm not sure where it would go if that's the case.

 

Correction, last exhaust valve on the passenger side just broke today.

 

Still never heard from cc motorsports and as a vendor i would have addressed this issue .... Still not a happy camper with their springs

 

Just another FYI regarding these springs.

I had one break into 3 pieces also, after about 1200 miles. The spring were installed about 1 1/2 ago..

Looked like a fatigue crack to me, located in the coil right above the bottom termination of the spring... You can see where the oil discolored the older portion of the crack in relation to the clean metal at the final break...

Presently taking the motor out to see if there was any head/block damage.. This might be lady lucks way of telling me to nab the new camaro when it comes out!!

 

Over the years on this board I havent seen much good feedback about these springs. I think its general knowledge just to stay away from them. I know a few running them with no problems, but many more who have had problems. Either breaking or valvefloat.

-Dustin-

 

The EX-612 springs are a great spring when used properly. We have handled any issues with them. In some cases the customer wanted a to use a different spring. In these cases we credited the customer in full towards the purchase of their choice in springs.


Sam

 

My CM612's did fine for 15k miles when I purchased my 224/230 cam kit from them in April 2003. They only came out for Beehives b/c of the larger cam I am running now with my LE heads.

 

I'm Currently using the Combination Motorsports Issued 612 Springs. I have had no problems what so ever with them. The Cam that I have is from them as well. 224/236 XE Cam .555 Lift on 1.6 Roller Rockers. So im very pleased with the springs
Chris