Valve Spring Retainer Failure - Ford Forums - Mustang Forum, Ford Trucks, Ford Focus and Ford Cars

VenomTE50 · 02-02-2003, 03:49

My TE50 Series 3 has been diagnosed as breaking a valve spring retainer. I have travelled 3600 km. I really thought the hand assembled Tickford 5.6 would be bullet proof. I hope I haven't got the one and only lemon!!!

ebxr8240 · 02-02-2003, 03:58

How would they break? Did the keeper come out or has the rocker been hitting on keeper. ???

I'll keep my TFS Twisted Wedge track heat heads, Harland Sharp Roller rockers No trouble in 80,000 Klmrs..

harasn · 02-02-2003, 14:43

Damb! This is a one off! Haven't heard of it before. They may be hand built but people are only human. No excuse but!! Get them to fix your gearbox while they are at it.

VenomTE50 · 02-03-2003, 04:04

Hi harasn,

Do you know of a fix for the gearbox rattle at idle?

rally · 02-03-2003, 15:28

Quote:

Originally posted by harasn
Damb! This is a one off! Haven't heard of it before. They may be hand built but people are only human. No excuse but!! Get them to fix your gearbox while they are at it.

I have had this same problem in my I6 rally car. The retainer itself failed by cracking through the centre and bending along the crack. Fortunately I found the problem before we dropped a valve, which makes a big mess inside the engine.

It took a while to diagnose as the retainer can turn and at some orientations you had full lift and everything ran well, and at other times it ran like a dog, leading us to believe it was an electrical fault. Another of the retainers was cracked, when I looked at the rest of them. I replaced them all with new chrome alloy ones for a Clevo (I think), machined to fit.

I suspect that the problem was caused by the huge cam I had in the car at the time, combined with the sustained high revs the car is subjected to, leading to a fatigue failure. The cracks in the broken one certainly appeared like fatigue under the magnifying glass.