OK, so I am rebuilding my motor B18B, turbo, EMS, port and polish B18B head. I am having a problem deciding on springs/retainers. Joe Alaniz (who is doing my headwork) told me to replace the inner springs and that would be fine. I could rev to 9K (on a LS)???? I am not sure I would want to try that, but he says it works.

Others are telling me that a spring and titanium retainer set is the only way to go. Only options are portflow and crower for the b18B. This seems right to me. Beef up the springs and retainers since everything else is as well.

The Type R guys are having trouble with their titanium retainers. Having to check and change them out rather frequently. I do not want to have to rebuild my head more than once. Some of the Type R guys are swapping out their titanium retainers every 6 months or so. This is with crazy high redlines and big cams though.

What should I do? What brand of springs and retainers do you recommend? Thanks in advance.

Ferrea

Crower valve train is great too, as well as skunk2.

Portflow and Crower are the only two companies I have found that manufacture springs and retainers for the B18B.

what about manley

I have heard horror stories about crower's head stuff like broken cams, broken retainers, etc. Go with portflow.

i have always heard bad things about the Crower Cams.......how about Gude cams?

web springs

i can attest to that personally. Broken exhaust cam, which destroyed my entire motor (sleeves and all).

A good friend of mine had a crower titanium retainer seperate itself, wrecked his entire motor - on CTR cams.

I would use portflow or web

Is it true that you have to replace Ti retainers every 6 months? That would suck if so.

Web Cam makes a good set. Just remember if you break a retainer and drop a valve, your gonna screw up your whole motor. Do it once and right the first time. Eibach makes a really bad *** spring for your car too but they are pricey.....Mike

You're right, Eibach does make a killer spring setup........Crower contracts them.

Also, if you're looking to rev and LS. Don't go past 8500, the rocker arms can't handle it. ARP rod bolts would be a wise bet for the bottom-end. A personal preferenace would also be GS-R/z-10 girdle, to help keep vibration down, and the lower-end under that added stress.

Just FYI, the LS rods use the same rod bolts as the weaksause d-series rods. GS-R's have 1mm long rod bolts. 8mm(LS) Vs 9mm(GS-R). I'm in the process of making my LS capable of 8K rpm. That'll be plenty for me. I've got a GS-R girdle conversion, ARP rods bolts, Crower Springs/retainers, and i'm waiting my 62402T turbo cams to get here. At the same HP, raising the redline a grand can drop at least 3~4 tenths on your 1/4, power some decent cams in while you're at it and look out!


[Modified by Speed PHreak, 2:25 PM 6/10/2002]

I use Ferrea spring, retainers, and valves. No complaints. I have gone as high as 9500 on 20lbs twice and even bounced off my rev limiter in fifth gear while racing on the freeway at 11lbs. It's expensive but worth it!

Dont tell me that stuff...I picked up crower rtainers and springs...and I am saving up some more for the valves....the crower stuff sucks? I though they were suppose to be the head honchos. Which valves do ya recommend for a gsr head?

ive seen a lot of broken crower cams, but i dont know about the other stuff.

ttt

Anyone try Crane yet? They are cheaper than the Crowers and crane has been around for a while.

As far as I have seen with the Crower cams breaking, only the vtec cams have broken. I never heard a case of nonvtec cams snapping.

And how hard is it to put the gsr girdle on the LS motor. I would like to do this when I rebuild my LS.

Thanks
on me for not searching

It was a real long time ago, I doubt if you would have found it anyways.

About the head, who has info on titanium retainers vs. stock retainers? TIA.

Anyone used WebCam's stuff?

My write up on the GS-R girdle in the LS block plus some links to other archives on the LS/GS-R girdle deal

Enjoy.


[Modified by Speed PHreak, 12:31 AM 6/14/2002]

Well my motor was put together by a quality shop in SoCal, they used Crower Ti retainers and just guessing Crower dual springs. I've heard crap about the cams, but never the springs retainers. If you plan to spin the motor that high be prepared to do valve adjustments all the time, the LS rockers will not tolerate it. I plan on spinning mine to 8k once everything is tuned and ready to go. BTW, who does Joe Alaniz work for or is he on his own with people just using him to do work on there heads, name rings a bell. Later Allen


[Modified by abraunb16, 9:49 PM 6/13/2002]

I found a page that supposedly sells Ferrea springs and retainers for the B18B.