spitfires
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Dropped a valve (ouch!)

To: spitfires@autox.team.net
Subject: Dropped a valve (ouch!)
From: John Weale <tyre@u.washington.edu>
Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 21:32:30 -0700 (PDT)
        Well, my Spit took offense at my recent obsession with emissions
stuff, and dropped a valve to remind me that there is worse than a high CO
reading.  A valve spring broke and the valve dropped into the cylinder.
The engine is solidly jammed.  Has anyone had this happen to them, and if
so what repairs did you require?  I ask because if it is likely just a
piston replacment, I'll dive in and fix it in my apartment parking lot.  
If it is probably going to require a rebore and a new head, I'm going to
have to find a place to store my Spit for a few months (long term parking
in the Bay area -- there's a fun thought) until I get the money and time
to attack it properly (in the form of a full rebuild -- if I gotta rebore
one cylinder...).
        Needless to say, I'm a bit unhappy about this. I have a reciept
showing the head was replaced professionally 10k miles ago (in '92) with a
$300 'rebuilt cylinder head', so I was *not* expecting a $3 spring to
disinegrate and kill the poor girl. In the unforseen future when I again
have a running spit, how often should these %$#! springs be replaced
(in miles or years?)?

Arg!

John Weale
1980 "British Racing Orange" Spit-fireless

---======================== John Weale(tyre@u.washington.edu) ==========--- 
The world does revolve around engineers... they pick the coordinate system.



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