[Project82]

Hey guys, just thought I'd ask for some opinions from some of you guru's out there....lol...about a month ago i was on the freeway driving home from work and after exiting the freeway, i come up to the red light ahead and notice it sounded like it wasn't idling on all cylinders, like a fouled plug or something....so i babied it home and the next day i pulled the plugs out and removed the valve covers to find oil on number 8 cyl. spark plug, 5, 6, & 7 were oily too. looked around at every valve spring and took a small magnet to each spring. started to notice i could move the dampner springs on 5, 6, 7, & 8. but get this, only on the intake valve springs. upon further inspection and a brighter drop light, saw pieces of the #8 dampner spring in valley of head bolt space towards the back of passenger side cyl. head. not good. and also saw tiny blue chunks of valve stem seal everywhere oil would gather in head...

I guess i should tell ya specs on motor..
1977 Chevy 350 block bored .040 over, scat rods and crankshaft 3.48" stroke, flat top 2 valve relief pistons w/coated skirts. comp cams xtreme energy 268H camshaft pn#12-242-2 (.477"int, .480" exh.). Bought matching lifters for cam, and comp ultra gold 1.6 rocker arms. Bought Patriot Performance Freedom Series Aluminum heads (p/n 2169). 2.02/1.60 valves, 185cc intake runners, and springs are rated up to .575" lift int & exh. Now here's the kicker with the heads, a tech. card came with the heads in the box, said i will have to measure pushrod length. so i bought a pushrod length checker and found out i had to buy .020" longer pushrod (that set the roller tip of the rocker arm dead center on top of valves...) adjusted rocker arms properly in sequence from chilton manual. and wa-la, spent all that money on this motor and bam. broken springs. not how i wanted to see this motor end up with only about 2500 miles on it... if that.

I talked to Steven at Patriot Performance and said he has never heard of any problems out of those springs and still use the same springs as of today, since day 1 of production. he said i could order another springs from him, but the question still hangs around my head. will these springs break just like the first set did? if so, how long will it take to break???

I'm so friggin frustrated. just feel like buying a wrecked ss camaro for the drivetrain or an ls3 setup. ha!