Valve spring question?

Do you guys take your rockers off to let the valve springs relax between weekends?

For me putting the rockers on is only about a 15 minute job, is it hard on springs to have half of them sit compressed all week?

 

We do.
Well we dont remove the rockers - just loosen the adjusters so there is no pressure on the springs...
TFX with BAE fuelheads

 

yes. after the last pass at the track, i check the springs hot, then back them all off till next time we go.

 

Not during the season, only during the off season. And I only started doing that within the last couple years.

 

I do not. I may crank it over every other weekend.

1.65 springs set up at 2.100 with 315lbs on the seat. Ti valves.

 

after last pass of night we loosen adjusters and remove push rods and keep them in order and locaton so pushrods are always in the same rocker arm

jim

 

I might start doing it now, I dont have enough travel in my adjusters, I have to take rockers off, but it still seems like a good idea.

 

Has anyone (or would anyone) that has access to a spring tester taken a new spring and one with a couple of laps on it and compressed it to lift specs and left it that way for a couple of weeks and compared the before and after free length pressure and compressed pressure?

After watching spintron videos I wonder how much a spring is fatigued by a week of static compression compared to the heat, rate, and harmonics of 30 seconds of run time?

 

I back them off before the car goes in the trailer !
The nice part if a hemi is you can flip and kind of interlock the rockers and put the valve covers back on.

 

maybe not so much the spring issue as it is for us the humidity in eastern nc
is always so high if you close the valves you close the door on humidity in the cc. always have done it whether it be on a tafc or 1 cylinder race dirtbike...making sure the valve are closed.

maybe im right maybe im wrong but an actual study would be neat!!

jim

 

Yeah We remove the rockers and pull the pushrods. Then replace the rockers and button it back up. There's more to ours being a big chief olds head

 

We also check for any excessive valve lash before we pull them. Could indicate a valve train problem. I think thats something I learned here.

 

I always pull it down after a race keeps the rats out of the motorjust kidin also a big one just talked about from Jeragster is sooooo important check them valves check your lash if it is getting tight your valves are streaching...not good...replace ,,I made a trick tool used a peice of alu. round stock machine bored it to fit over the spring then at the other end drilled it to fit a dial indecator with a set screw to hold it in and when I freshen the heads i will O out this tool and at the end of the weekend I will use this tool to check stretch.. and it works great...Dave

 

I'm a big beleiver in watching spark plugs and valvetrain clearance. They help tune and catch problems when they are still small. We check our clearances every run, so after every 12 second run we check 48 clearances (3mtrs x 8cyls x 2valves =) . For some reason my wife doesn't understand

 

Thats a VERY good idea you have there. You ought to sell the tools. We have the CNCs to pump them out right here in our corn field.

 

After each run, and every warm up, i pull the valve covers, run the valves, look over the springs. After each run, the plugs are examined and photographed.

Every outting seat pressure is checked, and the oil filter is examined.