276 stroker from 35 years of parts

[GB SISSON]

Originally Posted by Bored&Stroked

It is always best to test the particular springs that you have in your hand. I've seen them vary all over the place.

I have a hydraulic pressure gauge (from Jegs) that I put in my mill to determine the installed height. Is really a cool tool and I have used on many engines!

Attachment 539091

On your engine, you'll find the full-length non-rotator type springs, retainers, etc - will be easiest to find/locate. If you have a bunch of springs around, if you get a tester than you can go through them and see if you can "make a set" that are all close to the same installed/open pressures.

You need to make a little "checking spring" - out of something light that allows you to put together an assembly for each valve, install it in the engine and measure the resulting spring installed height - then you know what to do as far as shims from there.

Thank you for all this info. This afternoon I decided to put some of this new knowledge to use and so I found an unused wheel cylinder in a box on a shelf. I took it apart and drilled and tapped the brake line bore to 1/8" pipe and threaded in an oil pressure gauge. I reassembled the cylinder 'under water' in a tupperware container filled with brake fluid as I figured it would be hard to bleed. I set it on the drill press. A quick test using a deep socket in place of a valve spring showed very responsive reading fron 0 to 80 lbs. I thought I had something I could use but had to go in for dinner. Now I'm thinking about 40 psi... is that the same as 40 lbs on a scale? Oh well, I'm learning new things and that's what makes me happy. Hoping to have some free time tomorrow to further investigate my apparatus.