I'm having problems with these Web Cam valve springs, they won't fit over the valve guide boss in the cylinder head or fit the spring retainer. I made some measurement of the parts:

Web Cam Spring ID: 0.925"
Stock Spring ID: 0.972
Valve Guide Boss OD: 0.935"

I was told that these springs would fit without machining the heads. I had the parts store (Bow Wow of Lynnwood, WA) call Web Cam about the problem, they said to send 'em back for inspection.

Did I get the wrong springs? Is there something I'm missing?

I'm re-camming a friends '75 914 2.0l as a wedding gift. I chose a Web Cam grind # 86 with 0.423" lift and 270 degrees duration. I bought the cam, cam gear, lifters, and springs from them assuming it would all work together without problems. He's got Weber 40 IDFs on it. We dropped the motor and tranny last weekend, all was going well until this came up.

TIA,

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I bought a set of springs from aircooled.net that had the same problem. I sent them to Kevin and they work fine on his heads. You may have to get another set or measure the boss and have Web compare springs.

Hi
I bet you its the wrong part in the right box type of deal.

I have the same cam #86, carbs, Euro slugs....hes gonna love that setup, cool wedding gift.

later

Thanks guys, I hope you are right and the springs were wrongly packaged. I sent them back to Web Cam this morning. I was hoping to put the engine back in the car this weekend but it looks like it may be a week or two resolving these springs. I hope I remember how to put this car back together then.

The springs Brett sent to me took some finese to get over the boss. They work fine, especially since when they're compressed they get a bit bigger on the I.D.

Work them over the boss.

I can force them over the valve guide boss, but there's no way they're gonna fit on the spring retainers. Did you use the stock retainers or aftermarket ones?

Aftermarket retainers.... I didn't even try to fit the old retainers over the new springs.

Using stock retainers with ANY aftermarket spring is a recipe for disaster... The added tension generally pops the valve keepers right through the retainer and costs you an engine.

Here are the rules.
-cams that are not stock (no matter how slightly altered from stock) ALWAYS get a better valve spring than stock.

Better springs ALWAYS get better retainers to compliment them.

In my store I'm no longer selling just camshafts with lifters, from now on the cam, lifters, pushrods, springs and retainers to get the job done right- this will include H/D rocker studs with 8mm nuts for the guys running/needing dual springs.

This area of the engine is by far the absolute most important yet misunderstood and misconfigured part of the assembly.... 90% of all engine failures with a TIV are valvetrain related and most of that is because of incompatible parts.