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do I need new valve springs???


260ZRED

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1982 2.8 Turbo. Been sitting for 5 years. Got it running decently just now, going to be putting the motor in my 260 soon!

 

Should I replace the valve springs? The head is a P-90. Compression is good on all cylinders (about 130-136 ish) My friend says its a very good idea because when a car sits for so long the springs deform and get weak.

 

Let me know what y'all think. I know it cant hurt but is it necessary????

 

also, should I try running synthetic oil after a while or stick to reg. oil??

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I'll disagree.... Pull valve springs and measure against Nissan spec. Replace as necessary. After five years sitting, I would expect a few to be short.

Then again, unless you are going to rev the nuts off it, it is unlikely that you will hit valvebounce anyway, and the installed heights aren't all that accurate - you need to play with collets and retainers for that... So - if you stick to normal redline, you can keep the current springs.

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This is a friend who's opinion I trust and value very much, but I just never heard of such a thing, especially on a Z! He's saying the springs have sagged and lost some of their spring-iness, so the valves will not close or open per factory specs, but less, therefore decreasing the performance and parasiting the power of the motor. Sounds pretty bad to me, but I frequent this board often and haven't heard of this problem..

 

Can I get more people to chime in please... !!!!

 

If I'm going to go to the trouble of pulling one of the springs off, doesn't it just make sense to replace all of them already?

 

But thats an extra 130?? dollars that I could be using for an IC or fuel management, etc..

 

I'm not planning to rev it past redline, or close to redline for that matter. It won't even be my daily driver, just a weekend and night cruiser. :)

 

thanks for any advice guys.

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I've already given my opinion once but for a comparison. My race car sits untouched for about 7 months out of the year. It has for the last 7 years. Pulls to 7.5k no problem.

 

Alot of cars sit in storage or motors sit in junkyards and have no spring issues. A spring will fatigue from cycling before it wears from sitting in a head compressed. Call a spring manufacturer( Comp, Schieder, ect.) and ask to speak to a tech.

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You are wasting your time doing anything with the valve springs. If it is running decent, leave them alone. I bought a junkyard L28ET that had been sitting at least 5 years, and have had no problems at all with the long block. Spend your time doing the swap.

 

Pete

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