well, today i started to swap out my valve springs. I have LT4 valve springs, and am swapping to some Combo612's for my new 1.7 RR. I started at cylinder # 1, pulled both the springs, the noticed something funny. The valve seat on the intake valve was broken. there was a chip missing...... about 1.5 cm. or so by a 1/4 in.. i got pretty worried for a second that this shard had fallen down into my engine where it could cause some damage. i then looked around in the top of the head for a while, then thankfully found the shard all the way over by the #7 cylinder.

has anybody else ever had one of these break before? I mean, they really shouldnt break. manufacturers flaw or what?

 

Yep seen them break, funny how everytime that happens its always in the head, cool

 

I have opened mine up and had a valve seal gone and upon further inspection most of them chewed up b/c the springs with inner dampner was too small and ate up my seals. Needless to say the heads came off and were worked on....

 

Are you talking about the surface that the valvehead in the combustion chamber seals against?

 

I think he's referring to the spring seat area, rather than the valve seat area.. [since it appears he had the heads still on the car?]
1loudz can you clarify it for us?

 

No, sorry, im talking bout the seat for the valve spring .

 

Oh , ok, yeah the 97 heads I took apart had broken spring seats as well, they look like they werent hardened or something.
As long as they didng gouge into the head I would just replace them with some better ones.

 

I still have some stock seats that i replaced with theses new ones from the hotcam kit, would it be ok to replace the broken one with the stock one. None of those broke after 90,000 miles, and the C612 springs are supposed to be able sit on stock seats?

 

Many of the aftermarket spring seats are about . 060" thick of hardened steel. I know the ones I'm using are about that thick. If you are breaking those, you better determine why.

 

I always prepare my springs when I replace them etc. You remove any sharp edges and smooth out the seat and top op the spring, really helps keep stuff like this to a minimum.