408 hyd roller, too much spring pressure?

Rat Bastid said
So let’s think about this. You build your engine with the correct straight spring, and use a quality retainer and such.

Then switch to a beehive. What do you gain? If you gain RPM then I would go back and look at what was wrong with the straight spring.

Because I have weighed a 1.500 Ti retainer, a lightweight steel retainer and a beehive retainer that was suggested for the same cam and there wasn’t 10 grams between them.

I can tell you that dropping to a .310 stem from a .342 valve is far more important than that little weight you may save with a BH spring and retainer.

And then you have the option of Ti valves. Valve weight is far more critical than retainer weight (within reason) and what the top of a BH spring weighs.

That’s why I always ask what do you gain. I’ve probably already read the ST links above but I will go back and read them to refresh my memory. I’m betting they didn’t just drop on a set of beehives and rotate the earth.

Us arguing is probably not helping the OP or anyone else trying to decide what to use.

But disinformation doesn't help either.

You weighed the retainers but you forgot about the springs themselves: spring coils have mass and inertia that has to be controlled along with the rest of the valve train.

And your suggestion that we should all be using Ti or exotic light-weight steel retainers in addition to swapping out our valves and re-lining the guides and having those parts in the machine shop simply to accommodate a spring is, quite frankly, ludicrous.

If a beehive/conical spring saves weight and does the job – which I know they do, because I use them – then they are an economical solution with the added benefit of being easier on the valve-train.

They exist for a reason.

As for your first point, why would you swap out a perfectly good spring? If you build an engine with a spring and then arbitrarily swap it out, then what was the point? You should know what springs you will be using before you build. And if that doesn't work, then you go to a different spring until you find what works (if indeed the problem is the spring).

Beehives and conicals are just another tool in the box. But they wouldn't be in that box if they didn't work.