Why would someone do this??

[travis]

This isn’t the first set of ford heads I’ve seen like this...some sort of top secret speed secret?

D0OE 351w heads, supposedly 8000 miles on them, and the engine ran like crap. Stock sized valves, screw in studs, and springs that measure about 1.268” diameter, 1.82” installed height, .015” shims (thankfully). The factory spring pocket is about 1.43”...these springs have clearly been walking all over the place. The shims are polished and worn almost all the way through. There is no sort of spring locator..they are just free to move around. Luckily the shims protected the spring pockets.

Someone knew enough to machine for studs and guideplates and it looks like they did a good job. Is this “normal” for street stuff?

[groberts101]

This isn’t the first set of ford heads I’ve seen like this...some sort of top secret speed secret?

D0OE 351w heads, supposedly 8000 miles on them, and the engine ran like crap. Stock sized valves, screw in studs, and springs that measure about 1.268” diameter, 1.82” installed height, .015” shims (thankfully). The factory spring pocket is about 1.43”...these springs have clearly been walking all over the place. The shims are polished and worn almost all the way through. There is no sort of spring locator..they are just free to move around. Luckily the shims protected the spring pockets.

Someone knew enough to machine for studs and guideplates and it looks like they did a good job. Is this “normal” for street stuff?

I think some people don't know to locate the spring.. and others don't have a clue as to what happens to the shims(hardened or not) over time as the spring dances around and rotates. I'll admit to learning some of these things the hard way many years ago.

[mag2555]

One would hope that the shop who did the work for guide plates had no hand in specing the springs and on the assembly !

[Ken_Parkman]

Had a race shop do that to me years (decades?) ago, back when I did not know the difference. That taught me the difference. Now have my own tooling, and everything gets a locator.

[user-30257]

Because sometimes we do machine work for people that have no idea what they are doing.. ie your basic part replacement tech. Or mechanic as they like to be called.

And then people blame the shop that did the machine work and not the assembly.