PI 2V 262AH cam swap: valve springs?
 

Finally had my Comp XE262AHs installed in my 02 GT late in the fall but the shop (that shall remain nameless for now) did not want to install the Comp 26113-16 springs I got, claiming they lacked the special tool needed and that the heads would have to come off to do it. I said no, don't touch the heads, just swap the cams and check for coil bind.

They zipped 'er up and dyno tuned it and got some pretty good numbers out of it (20HP peak to peak gain, 30+ I think at 5500RPM) and the car seems to run well enough. I was only able to idle and rev the thing as the day I went to see it it was wet and shitty out. On the next dry day, the car was moved from the shop to storage where it now sits waiting for spring.

Now, as winter has gone on I find myself worrying about the stock PI springs and the 0.550" lift cams. Are they going to be okay in there? Are they at risk of binding with the additional lift? I've read that the PI valve lift is something like 0.510 and 0.530 for intake and exhaust and that the PI springs were different from the NPI springs to allow for the additional lift the PI cams had over the NPI parts. Is there enough additional overhead in them to live with these Comps?

I notice Comp's website says the springs are "recommended" for the 262 and 270 cams but "required" for their 278s. I presume this has more to do with the 278s more radical ramps because the lift for all three is the same. Is this "recommended" enough to allay my fears?

The car has less than 60K KMs on it so the OEM springs are still fairly fresh. I do plan on swapping the stock springs for the Comps eventually, maybe later in the summer, but I want to know if anyone else has run this combo without problems.

IN the 2V tech section "time saving tools" i posted a link to a bunch of valve spring compressors for removing the valve springs and keeping the head on they are inexpensive and some come with the air chuck set up for pressurizing the Cylinders for the sake of not worrying about it and the extra performance gains i would change the springs and lets see some tail pipe vids!rockon:

Back, soon after it was done, I took some vids of the engine and tailpipes and, to save bandwidth, just made an MP3 of it:

http://ca.geocities.com/troz@rogers....dle-lowres.MP3

Most of the vid is of the engine but near the end is a few seconds of tailpipe. For me it's got just the right amount of lope, especially after the throttle is tapped.

As for the tool, yeah, I know of Ford's:

http://us.st11.yimg.com/us.st.yimg.c..._1937_93016470

which is why it's puzzling to me that the shop, a pretty well known one, didn't do them. I supplied them the box of springs when I dropped everything off...

The car sounds nice have you really stood on the throttle yet? Do you get any Valve float at high RPM?

You should be alright,but for long term,not to sure.I would think after time the stock valve springs will tire out.
Another thing i would be conscerned about maybe is coil bind.But quite a few guys have those comp cams XE262AHs with there stock vavle springs without issues.
Would be nice if they followed up on it after a season to see if all is still good,or even few years later.
By the way,it sounds really good. thumb:
I see you got noisy valve train noises aswell.My VT stage II's have the similar noise. smack:

That's sort of what I'm hoping to hear, that others have done this and haven't had problems. If the coils are binding, I'd expect something would break very quickly.

I do plan to have them done at some point but I would like to get some driving in first before sending her back under the knife again.

Yeah, that's actually why most of the vid is underhood. I has a very diesel-like character to the noise. I was thinking that if the valves are opening sooner and there's some additional overlap that some of the different character might simply be that I'm hearing some "blow down" noise in the intake.

Sadly, I haven't actually driven it yet. The work was done back in early December. I'd taken the car for the cam install and winter storage. When the cam work was done I went to see and hear it (and make the vid) but it sat in their shop the whole time as it was too wet out to take it for a spin.

In the past I've rarely taken the car past 5500 and even with the new cams I don't plan on doing that very often. Hopefully the factory springs will be able to control the valves up to 5800 or so until I can get the Comp springs in there. Even then, I still won't beat on it as the rest of the bottom end is still bone stock.

Yeah,that is the best way to describe it,...diesel sounding!!smack:
Hope it works out for you. thumb:
As for shifting,stock i would shift at 6000 rpm(that is where i ran my best e.t's),and now at 6200 rpm after cam swap,but that is at the track when dragging. firejump:

Agreed ive takin mine to 6500rpm lots thats where my rev limiter is set with no valve float but found my ET was dropping off so i set for a 6000 shift and i get the best times!thumb:

You can get by running the stock ones for a while, but I would advise to change them out when you can. You'll find the seat pressure start to decrease, leading to the valves to float, and killing upper rpm power. It will be fine for some time, but something you should look into doing down the road.

As for the valvetrain noise, some is expected, because the more aggressive profiles have varying ramp rates, causing the valves to smash open, and slam shut. However, if you get the "sewing machine" sound, changes are the lifters weren't bled down properly. Best thing to do in this instant is to take them out, bleed them down, and let them soak in oil for 24hrs, before reinstalling.