This is a long story so I will do my best to give the short version. I have a n 06 SRT8 Charger. A year ago this past Christmas, I installed CNC'd Indy heads and intake with MANLY springs (VERY important point). I bought the whole set up from Jeremy at Power Ported Performance. Installed the heads and intake myself with help from a video Jeremy sent me. Added the B&G tune and the car has been great. I found out about the Diablo Tuner just this past Christmas. Also lucked into a guy with a Dyno and the .CMR (Diablo custom tuning software) only .2 miles from my house! Put the car on his dyno and cranked the power up from 370 to 415 RWHP by only adding fuel. The car was a beast. Especially with the improved shifting firmness and increased rev. limiter to 6500. Nothing too drastic and only 250 rpm over stock. With the upgraded springs on stock cam, I should be fine right..........Fraid not :no::no:-- The picture you see is the direct result of a spring failure on the exhaust valve of the #1 cylinder (driver side). I was cruising at about 65 mph (not under acceleration) when it let go. I was on a work related phone call when it let go. I didn't really hear much. It sounded like a fan belt that broke or caught some wires. When I pulled to the shoulder it wouldn't run for long and made a fierce knocking sound. I was assuming a broken rocker or a push rod that got loose. Guess I was being optimistic! :surprise: The spring broke, sucked the valve and planted it (sword in the stone style...see the pic) into the piston. Head is done, cylinder wall just got nicked so the block is good and I think we can save the piston....(little jokie...the piston will be on my desk at work). I would have been safe with stock springs. After doing a little research, I've learned that Manly has made some upgrades to this spring set up with a "valve guide" but Josh at House of Power has a customer who just broke the same Manly spring a week ago (it had the valve guides). Comp Cams also had a problem with their "hemi" spring but claim to be aware and have since corrected it....little scary. I don't know how many others have broken Manly springs but I am feeling confident the number is way too high! I am living proof of that. No one has broken a stock spring on a stock cam anywhere that I can find.... If you have the Manly springs (all Indy CNC'd heads do) I would have the car towed to your mechanic and have the springs replaced with stock. If you have a cam, the Manly's for the LS1 seem to be the proven choice. It looks like it's not a question of IF? But rather WHEN will your springs break. Mine had about 14,000 miles in 13 months on them. Skip ahead (this happened on 1/22) and leave out some detail I will save for another thread........Jeremy introduced me to Josh at House of Power. He is going to breathe life back into my beast. Josh is great, he's got a ton of experience and better yet, he is experienced with this motor and multiple after market applications. So he knows what works and what doesn't. He can even have his customers come by and show you their rides. Anyway, he is going to get me back on the road and if their is a bright side to this saga, we he's going to put the Comp Cam's 268 in while he's in there. I may even let him put the 3200 rpm stall speed converter in. The only reason I'm on the fence about the stall converter is, this is my daily driver that I pick up customers in. I'm sure the cam will be fine but too big of a stall converter and it's going to sound like I have tranny problems.... Oh, by the way, I'm the FNG in here, so hello!
Well that sucks. My 1st cam only upgrade included Comp 918 springs. Only on for 3,000 to 4,000 miles on when whe put on the PPP/INDY MAXX heads with the Manley springs. The 918 springs already where showing cracks. I called Comp said they had mo problems. Comp called back two later wanting my used springs. I've had no issues with my Manley springs, and have a cam bigger than stock, but not huge. Maybe I've been lucky, maybe I don't drive my car as much as others do. The PPP/MAXX heads are being replaced in the very near future. I've been very happy with them.
Wow, that sucks. I'm glad to hear that you're on the mend. Going to a stroker or forged bottom end? Did your heads have spring locators?
Hate to read stories like that... at least you will have her back eventually!!! Hope it doesn't take too long! Ron went through 2 engines.... seems like it took forever!!! BTW.... Welcome to the Connection!!!
Well, 1 and a half really. lol Sorry to hear of your misfortunes, but glad you are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
C-Dub - The Protorque 2800 stall behaves very much like stock. I was expecting a lot more slip but that has been a non issue so far. I have had it on my car for about a year now. ( I do have a Magnum RT with the 5.7 vs the SRT8 ) As for cams I would suggest that you talk to FLyByU and or BrilliantBlackHemi they both have had the 268 / Hellfire cams in thier cars with Fri Econo Heads and BBH upgraded to the Fri Street Strip head. They both just upgraded to Tomahawks so I think they can give you some good feedback on what to expect. I just stuffed the Hellfire ( 268 based cam ) in my 5.7 and its a bit lumpy but nothing major, just a little giggle in the seta of your pants at idle. Good luck ! -Robert
Sorry to hear about the motor, but sounds like you are on the road to recovery. I have heard of several others having teh same issue on the Indy heads w Manley Springs.
if you want to killyour intown gas mileage get the converter. I just put mine in though and its great
I'm considering the 268 because it's the middle of three upgrades offered by Comp Cams. I've heard the 273 (biggest one they offer) and it sounds great. I hear the 268 is pretty much the same idle. I figure it may make less power at the bottom but should pick it up sooner.
Sorry about the motor, saw your ride while I was at house of power. Josh will have your ride running like champ again soon!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry to hear about this man....I have read that the initial Indy heads that first came out had some issues with the springs especially when using a more aggressive cam but I was told by a vendor that this was rectified with the Indy MAXX head kit. Guess not. I hope you get your car rollin soon and better than ever before. You're in good hands.
Please stay away from those 918 springs not only were the first batch bad the supposedly new and improved ones I would be leary of as well. I would probably use the Patriot Gold Springs next time and Upgrade the Pushrods, just my opinion. Sorry to see this. Have you looked into the Franks Racing Cams???
I won't be going near the comp cams 918's, that's sound advice. Why do you like the Patriot springs? And I don't know anything about Franks Racing Cams. I'm not finding them with a google search...
I was going to see if you checked the specs on the Frank Racing Sidewinder camshaft. I have a friend from my work who has it in his charger and he loves it. See the post below. Definitely Frank Racing is who I have been following for my Jeep SRT8. Although they are not big on the Jeep SRT8 scene, they seem to have all the bases covered on the LX Platform. I found their site online at frankracinginc.com BJ
Patriot Golds are the cream of the crop when it comes to springs in the Vette world. I have only heard great things about them and at Texas Speed and Performance that is all they will use when they are modding and LS based motor. Now from what I hear if you go that route chances are you might have to get different pushrods. Franks Racing has produced some wicked cams that show great torque thru the whole power band, they have different ones to chose from. What sets theirs apart is the attention paid to LSA and making them PCM friendly as we all know what a PITA is to tune these. Another option is one of Stu's cams
Exact thing happened with Mike a guy in my club.Same heads springs,and mph when it let go....Hope everything works out for ya..
