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The block and heads are fine. The valve stayed in the head but got mangled pretty bad. So far there is no signs as to what may have caused this unusual retainer failure. It will be back together shortly. The head and piston now have a little character to them, but for the most part it will be OK. Im still wodering what could have caused this retainer to fail. The engine is using a hydraulic roller lifter that doesnt have very much spring pressure, relatively low max RPM and no coil bind issues. Is it possible that he simply had a bad retainer? These retainers seem to have a good reputation. I guess even the best parts will fail at times. Rons a SUPER smart guy and he will get down to the bottom of this real soon.



The retainer is going back to Comp for material analysis. It sure looks like brittle metal to me, the way it shattered like a piece of glass. I rarely see retainer failures, & this is first tool steel one I've seen. I've had couple sets of heads come in with moly retainers on roller springs that were broken similarly before, kind of spiderweb of cracks all over them. & saw a Ti retainer with the entire bottom step of it where the locks sit in just break right off on a circle track head that came in a few months ago.

I've used those LW Comp tool steels on alot of high spring press applications (up to about 800 open) including both of my own cars, with no issues. I've got about 9200 miles on the set in my Road Runner on a small solid roller spring (215 seat 550 open) I will continue to use them in future, I think it's an isolated deal. He got real lucky that the valve stayed intact, it's a testament to the quality of a Ferrea Comp Plus valve.