[waddell87]

Originally Posted by 87Regal3.8SFI

Wow, never have I heard of a valve spring that could be squeezed with one hand. They must have been very weak.

If I may ask did you remove your heads to change the springs? Or did you bring the piston to TDC and fill with compressed air to keep the valve up while using a valve spring removal tool?

Guess I'm 2 up on you then. Plus i've worked rigs for 21 yrs so probably have bit more hand strength than the avg. joe. but yes, they, not all, were quite weak.

Just remove valve covers. spark plugs and use hose from a compression tester kit. Plug in air and away you go.
I ordered Kirbans Valve springs and remover tool. Nice price.68 bucks. We did have to modify the tool to work. It was solid around so you couldn't press down on the spring to remove the keeper. easy fix though, just waste of time because I didn't notice it right away. By the way make sure you have a spare rocker arm on hand or a piece of pipe the same size with holes drilled in it to fit the tool on, to attach too head so you can compress the spring with the tool. Basically their tool is an old rocker with a S pipe. I used another pipe because i didn't want to remove my rockers in case I broke the little plastic tabs that hold rocker in place. S piece is used for leverage. Passenger side is...You guessed it... PITA, last one anyways. Small hands would help.Don't push too HARD on spring or you release the air and the you WILL have to remove your head to get the valve out. Hope I made some sense and it helps you.. Gnttpe.org has a piece written on it too.

Big difference tho..Holy Cow. I can't wait to see what mph i'm getting from the 1/8 to the 1/4. I was getting 18- 20mph gain before. hopefully 25+ now.