I am trying to swap out the valve springs on my cc306 cam install. I have #1 at TDC and I took off the front most stock valve spring. I fully compressed the new valve spring and drop the locks/keepers in the "groove" on the valve stem. After I decompress the valve spring, it sits up about a 1/8 to 1/4 of an inch taller than the stock valve springs. This also sits the valve stem too low in the middle of the retainer, so the roller rocker has nothing to rotate on.
Could you please look at my webshots photos and tell me if it looks totally wrong or what is going on?
By the way I am using the Comp Cams 918 blue stripe "bee-hive" valve springs, as Combination motorsports said these would work perfect without head machining.

Thanks for any help

http://community.webshots.com/user/lt4bird

 

YOu either need different retainers or different locks.... They did not come as a set, the retainers and locks?? When I did my cam swap, I had springs, retainers, locks. Any way you look at it, that is not going to fly.

 

Well, you see that is what pisses me off. Combination guaranteed us that this combo would work. I guess I am just extremely dissapointed that we have been on hold for almost 3 weeks waiting on either locks/keepers or retainers.

Here are the part numbers for each valve spring item we are using:
Valve Spring = 26918-16 (LS1 blue stripes)
Retainers = Titanium 794-16 (and it states on package "Ti Retainers for Beehive spring
Locks = 601-16 (11/32 Single Groove Lock)

this is all going on stock heads, stock valves, and stock seats. We have a second set of valve springs sitting here (Comp 987 dual valve springs) along with retainers and locks, but we didn't really want to pull the heads without getting them ported.

So, what would you guys do.

 

Looks like somebody mixed up 7 and 10 degrees.....

 

The comp 987's will fit stock heads if that is what is keeping you from using them. My buddy put them on his stock heads when he did his Xe224/230. The problem is the seats are extremely large, way larger than they need to be. They over hang the spring a lot. The seats will almost fit flat on the head but there is one little "tab" cast on the heads that the seats will hit on. All we did was grind just a hair off the corner so the seat would sit flush. His name is turbo_z if you have any questions, although i was right their during the install. I believe he bought his setup from nu-tek 2 yrs ago and its all running great.

 

I would tend to think this is the type of problem it is. When I did my cam swap about 3 weeks ago, we had one wrong retainer. It looks similar. You either have a bad retainer(s) or bad locks. Take the retainer off and sit the locks in them just off the car... with no valve in there. Do they sit flush? Mine didn't on the bad one.

 

I will check when I get home. thanks guys. So which springs would you guys recommend, the 918 beehive LS1 springs or the 987 double valve spring?
Thanks