Question about and problem with beehive valve spring retainers
 

anyone have problems with the retainers for beehive springs breaking? cutomer lost a motor after the retainer pulled the center out and let the valve drop. I have heard some dont like this type of spring due to this issue but is it some thing that has been fixed for am I safer rebuilding it with conventional springs and retainers.
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what brand retainers ? my bet would be a cheap chinese part...even though may have been purchased as a "brand name" part...that junk is everywhere and so much of it is garbage, they don't care what they use to make the crap as long as it looks like it supposed to even though it was a speced part...

I've seen several sets of beehive springs break on marine engines. I won't use them.

that's what worries me. I didn't build the engine and have no history on it. it is a stroked mk4 to 496, scat crank and all the valve train seems to be Comp Cams. the cam is 11-443-8 which is 110 lobe sep. 540/560 lift 242/248 duration at .050. there is not much left of this one so most everything will have to be replaced and I think I want to swap out the beehives in the the other engine to a conventional spring. I don't think I want to reuse these cams either so I will be looking for something better, big heavy boat that I don't think was turning over 5100.

Comp,

What side did you have issues with, intake or exhaust? What were the valve sizes and weights? Was there any fretting displayed on the remaining valve/keeper/retainer assemblies?

Bob

Hi Bob, thanks for chiming in. it was the intake valve, valve is a Ferrea f1232p which shows the following
Intake Valve
Head Diameter: 2.25
Stem Diameter: 11/32
Overall Length: 5.471
Tip Length: 0.25
References: 12" Super Flo. +.250
I have not pulled the rest of the heads apart but this valve and parts all look great other than the snapped off retainer and the rather healthy bend in the valve. the only other numbers on the cam are UOG787 -06 is the 06 the year by chance. only thing I know about the motors is he bought the boat, used it a few times, my friend was with him and they called and said this motor lost 4-500 rpm. I told them to shut it down as something is wrong. they kept going and called a couple hours later and said the same motor was losing oil pressure, told them to shut it down and idle to the ramp. they said they were going to try to go back to the ramp, it didnt make it and now the heads, intake and valve covers are all that can be saved. what are your thoughts on this cam? the one is damaged and I dont thing a cam good to 6100 is good for a heavy boat that never see's more than 5200 or so. when I get the go ahead I want to see about you doing some cams for it.