Im getting ready to put my engine together and i was just wondering do i really have to remove the center spring for the cam break in ? i have the TA 210s-HL cam and the cam card says to remove the center spring . i was wondering if anybody here has broken in there cam with the center spring in and if you have did you have any problems with the cam lobes or the bearings? .its a lot of work to put the spring in after break in and id have to buy that valve spring tool for 85 dollars. thanks for any help... mike
I have a spring compressor tool and setup I'll lend you... provided it is returned promptly... I'll even lend you the air compressor fitting you need to pump compressed air into the cyls. You DO have a compressor, don't you? It isn't that much of a pain to install the second spring after breakin. I just left my AC compressor off during breakin so I wouldn't have to deal with pulling it off again to get the valve cover off. If TA suggests to leave the second spring off, then I'd leave it off. Ask yourself this: is it more of a pain to spend an hour adding the center spring, or is it more of a pain to pull the engine, have it hot-tanked to remove the metal from a worn out cam, then install another cam and add the second spring after breakin because you learned that breaking in a cam with dual springs eats lobes??? PM me if you want me to overnight the compressor setup to you. I can ship it Monday and you'll have it Tuesday.
For what it's worth, I've put many engines together and NEVER just broke them in with just the outers. No cam problems..... Use proper prelube, EOS and correct break-in and don't worry about it IMO. Bruce
You may be right, Bruce. But TA Performance and Tri Shield Performance break in their engines with just the outer springs, so I'm following their lead.
i was just curious as to what other people have done . ive heard of it being done both ways . i think ill buy the tool and do it the way they want me to . its a good idea to have the tool anyway and i dont want to have any problems after all the money i spent on this motor so far. thanks for the reply , and a special thanks for being so generous with offering to lend me the tool and stuff . thanks mike
My tool is a lever that needs to hook onto a blank rocker shaft. Pep boys had the right diameter pipe, and a good job of marking the holes and the use of a drill press made the holes for the bolts.
Last year I had lifter problems on my relatively fresh Stage 2-headed motor.I agonized over removal of the inner springs.In the end I did not remove them and all went well.I did use lots of EOS,made sure the motor was well-primed and ran the thing for 20 minutes at about 2000 rpm.I put in Crane Chevy lifters on a HK Lunati cam.Another Buick friend just installed new GM lifters on his TA cammed Stage1(without removing springs) and it worked out fine.Sometimes the fates are with you! Rod
You don't happen to have a picture of that tool do you???I have always used a screw type the lever sounds much easier
