new valve spring installation questions..????

just curious.. when building race motors...

who ever installs the NEW valve springs...   do you adjust the valve spring compressor to barely compress the valve springs enough to get the keepers in..    

or have you even thought about it.. as the air powered valve spring compressors can really put the spring into coil bind and beyond when installing them..    

would you clamp the springs in the vice or in a press and mash them beyond what the cam lift is going to do..

do you test your springs in batches .. or since some of you are buying them in multiple boxes of new springs.. do they come in batch numbers.. so they were all processed at the same time???  do you select one a few springs to test.. and not use those in motors .. or use them only for dyno break in runs..


why do i ask these things...   i have seen a few of the valve train failures that cost races...

when i worked in an engine rebuilding shop many years ago...  as i walked through the back.. the tear down guy was using a hammer and socket to knock the valve springs off the heads... with the head flat on the work bench... as he hit the valve spring to knock the keepers loose from the retainer...  it drove the valve face into the work bench at an angle..  bending most of the valves...  customers were furious..  as they had pulled heads from running motors to have them freshened up.. and they required all new valves as they were bent..    i put a stop to that practice.. but it goes on in other shops...

another tech in the head department did not use care with the air powered valve spring compressor...  he bottomed out the springs...  damaged a bunch of valve seals  as the retainer was mashed into the top of the seal..  and a few well equipped people had on the engine valve spring testers... the closed pressure was all over the place..

just forward thinking...  

As long as I have worked in shops,,either new car dealerships or independent's,,or full on racing facilities,,,I have never understood this practice.Yes,,,if you are knowingly replacing everything in the head,,including machining,,MAYBE,but even then,you run the risk of damaging something,that otherwise,,,wasn't damaged.But,,speaking from personnal experience,I have been repremanded by the powers to be at these facilties,,,for taking to much time in my tear downs.I would be using a hand operated spring compressor to remove the keepers and other parts of the heads,that were later going to be sent out to a machine shop.This practice of forcing the technicians,to do something that they normally wouldn't do,begins a train of habit that is harder to correct as time goes on.I've told many newbies,that went to work in the shops I was working in,that if it doesn't sound like a good idea,,it probably isn't.It's the same with brake work.I know guys,that when machining rotors,,,would make one pass at like 12 thousandths and call it good,and even when the lathe would stop turning and blow a shop fuse,because the circuits overloaded,,,these guys would simply,,reset the circuit breaker,reset the cut on the lathe and keep going,,which is NUTS.But these are the things that the new techs are learning because there is no one around to show them the proper way of doing things.And also,,let's consider the shops overall.It's really easy to tell a customer that they have bent valves and increase the billable hours of labor and parts,,because,,,as we all know,,,"what the customer doesn't see or know,,,won't hurt him".My problem is,,,"I KNOW",,and personally,,,I can't sleep at night knowing I performed work like that.I tell customers all the time,,unless they know of,or have a shop they can trust,,sometimes it's best just to buy new stuff,,cause there is no way for them to really know if the work they wanted done,,was done correctly,,or if it is even the same parts they took into be serviced,,but that is another story in itself.