Right/Left Wound Beehive Spring Mystery. 3

[Torquey]

Today I was lining up a collection of ovate beehive valve springs (because I have that kind of time) from a Ford 4.6 DOHC 4-valve motor. While doing this, I noticed that roughly half the springs were wound to the right and half wound to the left. Is there any good reason why Ford would specify springs wound in different directions? These are not nested springs... they are the single OEM springs from Ford. I looked at a couple of brand-new heads and all those springs seemed to be wound the same direction. My guess is that some machines wind right, others left but it's all the same to Ford. Is there more to this?

 

[RossABQ]

These are the Ford Racing springs I saw, they do not appear to be beehive. Maybe stock are beehive, hi-lift racing are not? Neveer been inside a mod-motor, much more of a 5.0 guy!

http://www.summitracing.com/parts/FMS-M-6513-T46/?rtype=10

 

[CH5OH]

ornerynorsk:the tought of the gasses to rotate was not because they're exposed to the spring (i know that).Just thinking of the velocity of the gasses, when the inlet valves opens, exceeds the velocity of the piston (diameter of inlet port being much smaller than diameter of piston).
As the gasses start to rotate when filling the cylinder, I assume they follow the path, choosen by the first molecules entering the cylinder, easiest for them would be to follow same rotational direction as the valve.
but than again, the counterwound beehive mistery may as easy have to do with different after market supplier,...

 

[ivymike]

...but the rotation of the valve is a small fraction of one revolution per lift event...

 

[Deltona]

I don't think any spin on the spring contributes much to the valve.
An interesting clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=019Jyn9oB5k

 

[thundair]

I doubt that the springs from Summit or as pictured.
When did you see a racing spring without a inner dampening spring?

I don't know anything but the people that do.

 

[AboveRedline]

The direction of the spring winding is specified on every valve spring blueprint. I fall into the valve rotaion direction group

 

[ivymike]

what is the direction of valve rotation supposed to affect?

 

[Deltona]

"what is the direction of valve rotation supposed to affect?"

My opinion is nothing, It's just incedental.

Is it a good thing that the valve to seat contact differs all the time? Maybe for equal wear or seal?

Kind of begs the question, what would happen if we fitted square or oval section valve stems and guides, not very practical from a production point of view, but maybe you could then shape the back of the valve in some way to aid airflow in a certain direction.....

 

[patprimmer]

A grove in the stem and a guide pin in the guide would be fairly easy but pointless as you do not have to prevent the valve from turning to create swirl. The purpose of the valve turning is to create even wear and maintain a good round concentric surface to maintain a seal over a long time.

To create swirl, groves in the back of the valve head similar to the vanes on a centrifugal pump would do it, but once again, to what purpose.

Regards
Pat
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[ornerynorsk]

The rotation is for even wear/even seating and to help prevent severe coking of the valve underside near the lands.

 

[SomptingGuy]

Yeah, we've all got that bit (even wear). Just waiting for someone to explain why left vs right rotaion needs to be specified on a per-cylinder or per-bank basis.

- Steve

 

[dgallup]

How certain are we that the left and right springs only differ in the direction of wind? I expect there is probably some other difference such as spring rate etc. and Ford used the direction of wind as an easy visual way to distinguish between the two.

 

[ivymike]

that was my suspicion too... (1 Feb 10 14:49 )

 

[patprimmer]

I agree also. There is no technical reason for different wind direction, therefore the logical reason is identification. I thought colour coding was the traditional method.

Regards
Pat
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[SomptingGuy]

I've seen a lot of painted clutch springs, but valve springs? I'm probably completely wrong, but I just don't recall seeing them on all then stripped engines at work.

- Steve

 

[dgallup]

Painting costs extra, hand is free.

 

[Tmoose]

Which application used the beehive springs ?
The few I looked ( 1998 Cobra, Lincolns ) at would use a Sealed Power VS1631 which is not beehived in the pictures on line.

 

[FoMoCoMoFo]

I've seen lots of valve springs where a stripe or dab of color
is used to ID. I don't know what the wind direction is about.

Torquey; In the OP you say "roughly half" Does this mean It's not precisely half as you'd expect if say, larger valves got a higher rate spring?

 

[franzh]

I have a set of valve springs sitting on my workbench at home for my Edlebrock heads for my 66 Mustang. They have a white and voilet stripe on each spring. I suspect they are for production tracing since etching or otherwise marking valve springs is not practical.

Franz

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[dgallup]

Lots of springs are painted or dyed. After all, you can only distinguish between 2 springs with coiling direction so if you have more variety you need something more. But you do pay extra for the identification.