Re: Valve Springs

[Dave Lawson <dlawson@ball.com>]

>The valve springs were not replaced when they did the original rebuild of
>the engine, but why should they habe replaced them?  The head only had
>about 30K on it.  I don't know if Abt put in new springs when they rebuilt
>the head, but when Sport Wheels measured the spring stiffness of the old
>springs (those that survived!) and compared them to a stock spring from a
>10V turbo motor, they said that the old springs were about 30% LIGHTER
>than stock!  This leads me to believe that Abt used the stock springs when
>they built the head, and Audi upped the spring pressure in later model
>years.

So the stock valve springs that John was comparing were from a late model 
10V turbo?

>Yes, as a matter of fact he has, but he's never seen a complication quite
>as bad as mine.  He thinks that Audi springs from the early days
>tended to break more than the later ones, as evidenced by their having to
>repair more heads with broken valve springs on the earlier model turbo cars
>versus virtually no problems on the later models.

At what mileage on the earlier cars are these valve springs breaking? As you 
can see I am beginning to wonder if I will experience this in the future.

>These lubricants wouln't happen to be Teflon based, would they?

They mention a 'Teflon  like' substance for oil-shedding applications. Other 
compounds listed are moly-tungsten-disulfide for the low friction 
self-lubrication dry film,  nickle/chrome/aluminum/yitrium for thermal 
barrier coatings and copper oxides/vanadium for heat dissipating.
 -
Dave Lawson  dlawson@ball.com