I heard on a 93 that you could use the stock springs on 1.6 rockers? Is this true? I know you can't do it on later years because there is coil bind on the exhaust side, but 93's have less exhaust lift (I think 94+ 460 and 93 450).

 

you can use 1.6 rockers on any 93-97 f-bod. the stock springs bind at .491 with 1.6 rockers your lift will be at .490 lift. its close to coil bind but GM proberly over rated it slghtly so it may take a tad more then that.

i used them on my 94 with no problem

 

I have the 1.6rr on my 93 with stock springs. Been like that for ~1 year and never had a problem.

 

If your springs are worn enough, you may get coil bind. No way to really know until you install them. I had some with 98K on he stockers, I took em off til I did the Crane 10308's.

 

It is a car company, they didn't over-rate the springs. You are .001 from the max lift for the spring. Why not just get a set of LT4 springs that install at the same installed height for $30.00 and put them on and not have to worry. Because if I were you, I would be worried. The LT4 springs are good to .525 lift (just barely) but they are a hell of a lot better than a stock LT1 spring and they are dirt, dirt, cheap.

 

where can you get LT4 springs?

 

www.sdpc2000.com 29.95 and retainers are 13.95.

 

You can use the stock retainers and keepers.

 

On the 93 stock lift was .450"intake, .450" exhaust. With 1.6rr's you would be at .480" on both. Still pretty close to the .491".

 

My friend used a set of 1.6's on his 93. They worked for about 6 months and then he killed a lifter. He changed the cam when he replaced the lifters so he had to go with bigger valve springs. Oh, he put the rockers on the car at 175K miles. Long live the LT1.

 

.491 max lift or .491 to coil bind? I hope you know you should always leave .060 of free space to coil bind, max lift = coil bind minus .060, so a .600 lift spring coil binds at .660 if properly setup.

FYI

 

Correct, the retainers that "go with" the LT4 springs are a lighter weight retainer that will help extreme high-RPM operation. You can use the stock retainers. Getting new locks (keys) is probably a good idea, they are also so cheap it isn't even worth re-using them.

On later LT1s, the retainers are the exact same part as what is sold to go with the LT4 springs. The early ones such as the one that this thread starter has use a slightly different retainer.

 

When was the change from 'early' to 'late'?