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Old 07-16-2012, 02:13 PM   #1
TBGreen40
 
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Valve Springs too stiff?

Forgive me guys if I get the terminology or the actual mechanics of this problem wrong as I am not very skilled or knowledgable about the interal parts of a camshaft or just the entire motor for that matter. Which is why I want to post this question.

I had a guy(supposedly VERYYYY reputable mechanic in my area) install my camshaft from Jannetty a few months ago. I got the car back and I noticed a small rattling noise immediately. It wasn't too noticeable though. I thought it was just the way the camshaft sounded. Anyway, a few days later, I'm at a stop light, take a right, and when I slowly apply the throttle(no more than 2500 RPM) I feel and hear and loud thud followed by what sounded like if you were to take a frying pan and hit it repeatedly with a metal fork at 120 BPM for a few seconds. I immediately pull off the road and call the wrecker.

I towed it back to the mechanic's house and he claims that the valve springs that Jennetty sent were "TOO STIFF". Then he claims that consequently a valve dropped and bent along with breaking 5 rocker arms. Being not mechanically inclined enough to argue, I told him to fix it. It wasn't until after I got it back ($1500 and 2 months later), that I thought "there is no way a company as reputable as Jannetty would send valve spring "TOO STIFF" for stock parts". Can someone agree with me that it was not the springs that did this and it was some form of error on his part?
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Old 07-16-2012, 02:46 PM   #2
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either way you should not have had to spend an extra 1500 bucks...if it was the mechanic he should re-pay you and you should never go back to him again and tell all your friends... if it was the cam company then well they should be paying for the repairs...im gonna have to go with this was a mechanics fault and since you aren't as knowledgeable hes taking advantage of you... i don't know the whole story but bottom line you shouldn't be paying extra to get that fixed.
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Old 07-16-2012, 03:01 PM   #3
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either way you should not have had to spend an extra 1500 bucks...if it was the mechanic he should re-pay you and you should never go back to him again and tell all your friends... if it was the cam company then well they should be paying for the repairs...im gonna have to go with this was a mechanics fault and since you aren't as knowledgeable hes taking advantage of you... i don't know the whole story but bottom line you shouldn't be paying extra to get that fixed.
I agree, but I guess I fell for his excuse. That's what I get for expecting the best out of people.
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Old 07-16-2012, 03:07 PM   #4
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Your not to far from east Texas muscle cars in Texas. I'd take my car there if I was you. But I do agree, you should not have paid for that.
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Old 07-16-2012, 03:13 PM   #5
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Your not to far from east Texas muscle cars in Texas. I'd take my car there if I was you. But I do agree, you should not have paid for that.


I suspect he did NOT degree the came OR measure for proper pushrod length/preload and that is where the issue came from. Jannetty would never mis-match springs.

I bet you take the heads off and there will be eybrows where the valves hit the pistons.
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Old 07-16-2012, 03:21 PM   #6
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anytime you run a cam with large lift, you risk dropping a valve. its a gamble. this is why most race engines are built with aftermarket valves for added security, and you wont see hollow valves on those engines either.

go to a corvette, ctsv gto, or even this forum and look for dropped valve. it doesnt happen often, but does happen.


or


the guy did a crap job degreeing the cam as someone else already stated.
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Old 07-16-2012, 04:10 PM   #7
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IF have the the info on the springs that should tell u ever thing u need to know, but i would say the mech , is the problem if he thought they were to stiff he should have done something other then putting it back together and hoping it to be ok, if i thought something wasnt right and thought for a sec that it might cause a problem i would stop and seek futher info and find out instead of hoping nothing goes wrong , that to much time and money to have to go back and redo as a mech, but i guess if the customer pays for the mess up thats job security
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Old 07-16-2012, 06:35 PM   #8
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If the spring rate was too high, the valve would have broken or the retainer/keepers failed. While not impossible I'd say very improbable.

My guess is the mechanic did not swap all or some of the valve springs. The stockers wouldn't last long.
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Old 07-16-2012, 06:46 PM   #9
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If the cam was not dergreed should have zero effect on a broken valve spring! A cam not degreed usually is still pretty dead on unless you have a bad cam or timing setup, but for the most part they are within the ballpark. Sounds like you had a bum spring that broke right away or he installed the spring and rocker wrong some how.
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Old 07-16-2012, 07:45 PM   #10
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Originally Posted by TBGreen40 View Post
I towed it back to the mechanic's house.....
Ask yourself; why did you decide to go with a backyard mechanic to install your camshaft.....plenty of reputable high-performance shops available to install correctly & tune?????
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Old 07-16-2012, 07:58 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TBGreen40 View Post
Forgive me guys if I get the terminology or the actual mechanics of this problem wrong as I am not very skilled or knowledgable about the interal parts of a camshaft or just the entire motor for that matter. Which is why I want to post this question.

I had a guy(supposedly VERYYYY reputable mechanic in my area) install my camshaft from Jannetty a few months ago. I got the car back and I noticed a small rattling noise immediately. It wasn't too noticeable though. I thought it was just the way the camshaft sounded. Anyway, a few days later, I'm at a stop light, take a right, and when I slowly apply the throttle(no more than 2500 RPM) I feel and hear and loud thud followed by what sounded like if you were to take a frying pan and hit it repeatedly with a metal fork at 120 BPM for a few seconds. I immediately pull off the road and call the wrecker.

I towed it back to the mechanic's house and he claims that the valve springs that Jennetty sent were "TOO STIFF". Then he claims that consequently a valve dropped and bent along with breaking 5 rocker arms. Being not mechanically inclined enough to argue, I told him to fix it. It wasn't until after I got it back ($1500 and 2 months later), that I thought "there is no way a company as reputable as Jannetty would send valve spring "TOO STIFF" for stock parts". Can someone agree with me that it was not the springs that did this and it was some form of error on his part?
Comp Cams designed and built the springs, We have been using them for 3 years in over 400 Cam packages, they go in every engine we build, and your mechanic is the Only one that had a problem like this.

If You or your mechanic had any questions Either of you could have called us for Help, My phone didn't ring with questions about springs being too stiff.

NO Question this is an Installation Error, I would guess he decided he didn't want to change the springs and ran the stock springs which would be a more likely reason why your engine failed.

I am sorry you had a problem with the install.

Ted.
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Old 07-17-2012, 01:04 AM   #12
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I will agree with Ted here, I have one of his cams, self installed 6500 spirited miles, NO issues.
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Old 07-17-2012, 03:21 AM   #13
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Absolutely the mechanics fault I would go back over there and beat the extra $1,500 out of him he charged you to "fix" it and take it to a reputable shop!
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Old 07-17-2012, 06:16 AM   #14
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I would not have towed it back to him until I would have atleast pulled the valve covers off. What if you seen something obviously wrong for him to explain(and fix for free) that you would not have seen other wise.
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