408 hyd roller, too much spring pressure?
Us arguing is probably not helping the OP or anyone else trying to decide what to use.
But disinformation doesn't help either.
You weighed the retainers but you forgot about the springs themselves: spring coils have mass and inertia that has to be controlled along with the rest of the valve train.
And your suggestion that we should all be using Ti or exotic light-weight steel retainers in addition to swapping out our valves and re-lining the guides and having those parts in the machine shop simply to accommodate a spring is, quite frankly, ludicrous.
If a beehive/conical spring saves weight and does the job – which I know they do, because I use them – then they are an economical solution with the added benefit of being easier on the valve-train.
They exist for a reason.
As for your first point, why would you swap out a perfectly good spring? If you build an engine with a spring and then arbitrarily swap it out, then what was the point? You should know what springs you will be using before you build. And if that doesn't work, then you go to a different spring until you find what works (if indeed the problem is the spring).
Beehives and conicals are just another tool in the box. But they wouldn't be in that box if they didn't work.
Read what I said. If this is an argument you’ve already lost. I’m hoping this is a discussion.
I’ve already said that yes, the top of a BH spring is lighter. My answer is who cares? What are we talking about? 10 grams? I don’t know. I’ve never seen any published data on that.
But what I can tell you an indisputable fact and that is valve weight is far more critical than what a retainer and the top of a spring weighs. And that’s not even close. Regardless of RPM.
You could do your BH springs and retained and I could drop the stem size from 3/8 (Chrysler junk valves) to 11/32 and get a far better return on valve train stability and life than you will with BH’s and smaller retainers?
Do you understand what I’m saying? So there is no misunderstanding me I’ll spell it out.
1. Using a BH spring to gain retainer clearance is F’ing stupid. Just like grinding on a rocker for clearance. It should NEVER be done. Ever. And to suggest that as a remedy is doing a disservice to people who don’t know any better.
2. As far as saving weight goes, you can save far more weight and win far more advantage with lighter valves than anything you’ll ever see with BH’s and those smaller retainers.
So, IMO I can’t think of a reason to use them. Unless I get to a place where I have a valve train issue that can’t be corrected with a lighter valve or a better lobe or both, then I might go down the rabbit hole of BH springs.
Other than that, I don’t do **** because Comp, or Vizard or whoever says they are cool.
