Thoughts on valve springs.....
 

Anybody have good or bad things to say on running a set of Patriot Gold's versus a set of Comp 921's or Manley Nextek springs? My cam is small (by today's standards), it an old MTI B1 grind 558/558 with 221/221.

I'd post this on LS1tech, but I it would turn into a sponsor war and get locked down.

Input is appreciated.

Thanks

I have a set of Patriot Extreme's in my heads and have no complaints. I picked them up new for $160 in the FS section of tech.

I dont have the Patriot spings but I haven't heard anything bad about them.

i haven't heard any issues with them either. they are on my heads that are on my table :lol:

oh and lloyd elliott swears by them (very popular porter in the ltx crowd)

I ended up posting the question on LS1Tech and after having a long conversation with John at Scoggin Dickey, learned a few things about valve spring manufactures and their products. And my engine guy confirmed this after I spoke with him as well.

First, any of those springs would work for my application. Patriot offers the sweet price based on the volume of stuff they sell. Economies of scale in action.

Second there are only two companies that make their own springs in-house and therefore have complete control of the process. They are Manley and PAC. Everyone else is buying there stuff from somewhere else. They might be doing their own R & D, but they are outsourcing the process. If the budget was there both guys definitely leaned toward a PAC or Manley spring.

So that begged the question why don't you see Manley mentioned on the boards? (PAC you see quite a bit and they seem to be the upgrade from the Patriots if the $$$ is available.)

And the answer was that Manley doesn't cater directly to the public and don't offer their stuff on-line direct. They are old fashioned in their marketing and rely on their network of shops/builders etc. to push their product. Manley stuff tends to run slightly higher in price, but they control the entire process in-house in their Lakewood, NJ facility.

That's what I learned today and decided to go with Manley Nextek dual springs, Ti retainers, machined locks and new spring seats. 8 new intake valves (Race Series) were also ordered up so I should have the heads back this time next week ready to go.

Ya know what's really expensive? Hollow stem valves, WOW. The price jump for those babies was huge, too much for me and too little ROI.

yea you can go direct to manely to get stuff if you need it... i know right where its at in lakewood... my boss knows a guy who has worked for htem for years and he gets stuff all the time from them. Jesel is also located in lakewood just throwing that out there. Good info to know though... thanks!

If you want I could get you prices on the Manley valve springs, retainers, keepers and valves.
I have seen a few problems with PAC springs breaking. I have 921s in the GTO and in the trailblazer with a high 23x duration cam with 600 lift on them for a 2 years on the goat and 6 months on the trailblazer with no issues.

I appreciate the offer, but the guy rebuilding the heads is going to get me the stuff, and gave me a pretty good deal I think. He beat the pants off summit's prices and was pretty close to what Scoggin-Dickey quoted me.