Found a piece of metal on the drain plug

[Tim L]

I found this metal Piece on the drain plug. It looks like the end of a valve spring. What do you think? Is it safe to run the motor if this is part of a valve spring?

[cgarr]

Looks like a quarter to me!

[1982911SCTarga]

We all should be so lucky to have our Porsches spit out quarters rather than consuming cubic dollars.

The other item does look like a section of a valve spring.

Brian

[john walker's workshop]

broken springs can chew up spring seats, stem seals and the top of the guide, not to mention the poor performance thing, so pull the covers and check them out. usually one of the uppers. if you can depress the rocker arm with your fingers, with some effort, it's broken.

[Quicksilver]

You don't have to tear down the motor to do valve springs so just fix it. Find the broken spring and then get the motor rotated to a point where both valves are closed. They make a fitting to hook an airhose up to the spark plug and the air pressure will keep the valve in place.

Then it is a pretty straight forward deal to depress the retainer and swap out the spring.

[Tim L]

I'm thinking if it's just the tip of the spring it's going to be hard to find the one that's broken. Is there a tool to depress the spring with the heads on?

[304065]

Tim,

As you might have guessed, Porsche makes a special tool for this, called a "P7C." It's available from Baum Tools (Wayne doesn't sell them AFAIK). This allows you to compress the spring on the car and remove and replace the spring and keeper. Fairly simple, but I wouldn't think you could do it with the engine in the car, maybe you could? The versions are different intake vs. exhaust, get both to be safe.

Another good idea is to get a HAZET 3428, this is a compressed air adaptor with a 14mm thread and a quick-disconnect, so you can hold the valve against the seat with air during the R&R process.

Act quickly: Lime Rock is 22 days away! Good luck!

[2.7RACER]

Wayne sells both the intake and exhaust tool for compressing the springs while holding the valve in place with air pressure.
Got mine last month. Used it with the motor out. It worked well.

[Tim L]

Thanks all, for the excellent information. Should I go ahead and replace all the springs or just fix the one? I'm thinking since I’ll have to pull the motor I should just change them all.

[cgarr]

Do you think you can check the installed height? I got a set of heads once that had several broken springs and the installed height was way too tight.

[BrokeMyCar]

Could also be the edge of a valve seat?