Does anyone know how to tell the difference between a beehive valve spring and a normal valve spring? Is a beehive the same as dual springs? (the ones wear there is a spring inside a spring). Thanks.

Also, does anyone have experience with AFR springs??

 

I had the AFR springs that they put on all their heads, and you can upgrade to better springs if you want when you place your order. Anyway, the base model ones they put on the heads are OK (don't know who makes them), but only good to .550 lift or so unless they've changed that. They were decent springs, I never had valve float with them or any other problems. If I had it to do over again, I would have opted for better springs when I ordered the heads, but that was a long time ago.

Beehives are single springs which are smaller up top - made out of ovate wire, if I remember correctly. They don't have the harmonics problems that other springs have in the useable rpm range, they have good fatigue properties, and they have a smaller, lighter retainer, which helps with the valve train weight. The steel retainer weighs about what the ti retainer weighs on a full diameter cylindrical spring, and the ti retainer weighs even less. I'm not entirely comfortable with just a single spring, but they seem very good quality. Good to about .600" lift. Comp makes '915 and '918 models which work on LT1 with the correct retainers.

Hope this basic info helps you. I'm sure some other builders will offer their knowledge.

 

A quick look at Comp Cams online article list, and I found these:

• A Spring Thing = Has a great picture of what a beehive looks like
• Comp Cams Beehive Springs
• Beehive Radical

Happy reading!!

Thomas.

 

Beehive on the right, dual spring on the left.



Notice the smaller top of the spring compared to the bottom.

Bret

 

so are Comp 918s a beehive spring?

 

My micrometer eyeball says the beehive in the pic is a 918.

 

Man, that's a wimpy valve spring on the left

Rich

 

anyone know the limits of this spring? as far as lift till coil bind?

 

yeah, I thought it might be because of the blue stripes.

 

Just a little whimpy, but it takes a lot of abuse, just .800" lift.

 

LOL! That helped a LOT as did the tag wired to the spring which you can't read unless you get inside your computer (or look on Bret's desk).

As far as wimpy, remember that the equation for a coil spring's rate not only uses wire diameter (to the 4th power), and spring diameter (first power), but also number of (active) coils (to the first power). I counted just about 3 active coils in the wimpy outer spring and about 5 in the beehive. Both springs have about the same outside diameter and quite similar wire diameter (except the beehive has ovate or non-round wire. A coil spring is just a torsion bar that happens to be coiled up, and shorter torsion bars are stiffer than longer ones. I suspect the "wimpy" spring might have a higher rate than the beehive.