The problem is when the spring breaks the retainer is small enough to fall all the way to the guide, this cannot happen with a standard retainer,  however I do know the benefit of the lighter retainer and the shape of the spring.

How small is small? What diameter of retainer are you talking about?

I have yet to see a quality beehive break and we have run them hard.  I have seen more spring breakage with multi piece springs.  Single with dampers,  Duals, Duals with dampers. 

http://ford-y-block.com 

20 miles east of San Diego, 20 miles north of Mexico

Just asking? I was under the impression on a Y-Block, that the intake ports being done to polish, was not a good idea on a street engine, as it can contributed to fuel mixture seperation or fall out.. Yes, no?..  
 This would seem to be born out somewhat from Ted's cylinder head  testing, published in Y-Block magazine issue #156, of several sets of heads, done on his  test Mule. It was interesting to note that the "ECG stock  heads" out performed "all" 9 sets of the original modified heads to 3500 RPM.  And overall power of the other modified heads varied very noticeably..  In addition, 2 sets of Mummert's heads were tested and only the stock set out pointed slightly the the stock "G"s to 3500 RPM. ..  


Paul

You are correct in that a textured finish is required on the intake ports to create a boundary barrier in which to keep the fuel from dropping out of suspension in the air/fuel mixture.  It may not be obvious in the pictures that Joe posted earlier on that textured finish, but it is there.  When it comes to low end performance, port sizing is a big player as flow velocity is a determining factor there.  I’m sure Joe can elaborate much better on the finer points regarding this.

Lorena, Texas (South of Waco)

I have never "polished" an intake port in anything.  I rough up the intake ports with either a 36-50grit cartridge roll, or carbide, or on iron heads, sometimes I leave the stone grind surface as is.  I do polish the exhaust ports in most heads.  I also rough up the intake portion of the combustion chambers  and polish the exhaust side to some extent.  Current "wisdom" seems to trend to using a carbide rough finish on the ports and leave them rough.  Funny thing is that every "high end" engine that I see the CNC'c ports on has them nearly mirror smooth from the CNC process.  I used to get a lot of heads from racers back east that came off Roush, Yates, Nascar, others that the intakes had a very smooth finish on the ports.  Those heads usually flowed at or near 400 cfm for the SBFs.  I am with John on the beehives being very dependable if you are using an aftermarket brand such as PSI, or PAC.  Joe-JDC

JDC

Porting basically is "averaging" an existing port to maximize flow and keeping the velocity up so that the fuel does not come out of suspension and cling to the port walls and run into the chamber or cylinder in rivulets.  The key to increasing flow is to speed it up without creating depressions or turbulence areas in the flow path.  If you open up the throat and don't get the intake tract opened to match, you will actually slow down the airflow.  If you open up the intake manifold to gasket size, and open up the head to gasket size but don't open up the intake port to the valve seat, you created a huge low pressure area, and flow will decrease until engine speed rises enough to overcome that low pressure area.  "Line of sight" becomes a critical issue for best flow characteristics.  Shortest distance between two points is a straight line, and when porting, think line of sight from port to valve stem.  Remove material to get closer to the straight shot to the back of the valve, and you will pick up flow.  Bigger does not always increase the airflow, either.  Air needs to be prepared to turn over the valve seat, and that is why there are several angles in a good valve job.  The problem with the Y head is the turns make this almost impossible, and takes some finesse to get the flow up to potential of the port size.  Just increasing valve size does not always increase flow since it may shroud the combustion chamber wall.  Getting air to swirl into the combustion chamber and keep the fuel in suspension is a real problem with the Y due to part of the combustion chamber being outside the cylinder bore.  I studied under a Master Porter who worked for a factory race team.  We had 14 engines that we kept ready to rotate into the cars at a moments notice.  Those heads and intakes were ported, sent back for re-casting to the ported shape, ported again, sent back for re-casting to the new size, and then ported again for race day.  We eventually had heads that were virtually race heads "as cast".  Porting requires a lot of specialized equipment and takes time to get the finished product to be competitive.  Joe-JDC  

JDC

The Pac 1283 springs are rated for 0.600 lift; I will be under 0.500. A broken spring can be due to other factors, not necessarily caused by a defect in design, materials, or manufacturing of the spring itself. 

Here's a shot of what the finish looked like on the G heads I sent to John Mummert.  I realize this is exhaust but the intake was the same. This is before it went to the dyno. I don't believe Mummert offers this service on iron heads anymore since he has aluminum heads to work with. BTW I am very satisfied with this work. And at the time of the dyno test (about 10 years ago) All the dyno and machine works folks were very impressed and asked a lot of questions about what was done and by whom. Really made the difference in my engine they said.

       A  L  A  N   F  R  A  K  E  S   ~  Tulsa, OK    

Bird55, you're right. According to John's site, he no longer ports Y-block heads. Did you opt for his "Street Port" or "Performance Port?" Were your heads flow-tested? Displacement, compression, cam choice, carburetion, gearing? How do you like it?