I get so busy working on new profiles and new products that I forget that just because I tell you my springs, cams, pushrods, and rockers are the best on the market that sometimes I need to slow down, research all of the data I have gotten and release it to you the public so that you can make up your own mind. I forget that everybody in the past has just told you their stuff was the best and didn't show you. Some of them might have even meant their stuff was the best in the Ford v8 gas world but just omitted gas and v8 part and just left the best part. I know this type of advertising is not going to cut it, neither is the pie charts and fluffy because I said so and my name is Gale crap.
When I started the Trade up to Hamilton Program, it was mainly a marketing tool. After I started looking at all of the stuff that people had been running, the specs new , and the specs after 50,000 miles I realized I might possibly have the best research tool to date on cummins valvetrain parts. Here is some of the data i have collected, some interesting facts, and some observations and specs on Hamilton products. Also I usually don't post names but all the stuff I am going to write is already out in the open just not all in one post.
When I started buying springs in the past they were expensive as hell first of all. Second no one would answer any spec questions. They would just say they are exactly what you need. I askd some f-1 dealers(no names) what seat pressure they had and just got the run around. I ordered a set from ats and just got what i guess was an acura spring with a bunch of shims. After I measured seat pressure it was 2lbs more than factory. At the nose it was about 10lbs more and coil bound before the factory spring did. I Looked at the bullydog spring kit at almost $1000. I did some research before I decided to buy, I talked to Farrell at PDR on a trip to B.C. and saw a set of Bully Dog springs that a customer had sent in with a head. When we measured they were almost 180 lbs at the seat. Can you believe people actually ran that stuff? Wow. The only thing that saved them was that oils had a lot more zinc back then! Next PDR finally got on board at 140lbs of seat pressure. With the zinc level in oils at the time 140lbs was no problem. To get 140lbs of seat pressure a thicker wire had to be used. This was no problem at the time but as cam profiles grew in duration and lift, stress on the cam lobe went up exponentially. With the thicker wire and higher lift coil bind started to become more of an issue. Next up was the F-1. They had a little more seat pressure than factory(around 85-87generally) but their main benefit was in the fact that they could handle higher lift cams and that they had less overall mass than other performance springs. The springs when new are decent and are definately an upgrade. They are a little weak on pressure for the profiles I run but they are ok. Now after looking at traded in f-1 springs I started to change my mind on them. Some of the new set I recieved had only 85-87lbs on the seat(not the 93lbs advertised) this is not much of an improvement over factory. A few sets that had a few miles on them were around 83lbs. and one set I recieved had less than factory. This is when the extra shotpeen and nitriding processes pays off........after 50k+. At $650 they were highway robbery. I started looking at other options and different manufactures. I talked to a few manufacturers that said that the 4.6l ford springs would fit and that they were a bit of an upgrade. Since they were already available tooling costs wouldn't be an issue, and the cost would be less, since they were already mass produced. I looked at them and then decided to go with a totally new design that had as many performance features as we could put into them. They laughed and said ok if you want to. I didn't think about what others were doing. But after further research it was obvious what was being done. Don has always said more seat pressure was not needed but now he is raising it. If he had a locked in design this would not be changing.
After looking at all of the springs that were traded in, here is pictures and some of the pressure data that I have found.
http://i240.photobucket.com/albums/ff203/zacheryhamilton/DSC01302.jpg
from left to right is
Stock, F-1 used, F-1 new, HD110# used, HD110# new, PDR used, PDR used
seat pressure(1.38"), seat pressure at 1", and heighth at coil bind.
Stock-78-82lbs,162lbs, .871 -879"
F-1 new- 85-87lbs,205lbs, .805"
F-1 used 65lbs!, 154lbs, .791"
HD-new 108-111lbs, 242lbs, .779"
HD-used 106lbs, 239lbs .778"
PDR-used 134lbs, 285lbs .888"
The most damning evidence was the fact that the old f-1 springs had such low pressures. But to be completely fair to F-1 this might have been an old design, The new ones supposedly have slightly higher pressure. Also the Hamiltons tested had about 25,000 miles on them. I did not know the number of miles on the PDR springs but I believe they started life at 140lbs, the stock springs had about 40,000 miles on them.
The Hamilton 110# springs coil bound at the lowest heighth, because of the larger ovate wire with less coils.
This is a preliminary comparison that only accounts for the valve attributes at rest, we are in the process of having high-speed filming done to show all of these springs at 5000rpm with a performance cam profile.An interesting side note is that at 5000rpm on a 4stoke internal combustion engine, the valve opens 41.6 times per second! This is why it is so important to have the best spring you can.
Thanks,
Zach Hamilton
More data to come!
