I've been under the impression that beehive valve springs were a relatively recent type of valvespring. Last night I tore down a 394 Olds, and was surprised to see beehive springs in what seems to be a stock 1964 motor. How long has this type of spring been used in auto engines?
Dunno the entire answer to your question, but the 215 Buick and Olds engines also used them during their run from 61-63.
I used them in the late sixties/early seventies on left turn motors.. But back then we ran them upside down so we could use a stock Chevy 1.25" spring seat with the larger Pontiac style retainers. I have seen the behive spring used in 1940's industrial engines.
I believe Comp cams has a new Conical spring, supposed to be stronger and not break in the first few coils where there is a high load [breakage] in behive springs..Oops, high jacked but FYI. I used to find all kinds of what looked like pretty old engines at the scrap yard, lot of weird combos..I doubt if there is any thing that hasn't been done way back..I found a Flathead inline that had rocker arm roller cam followers in place of typical cylindrical lifters..Can't believe I spelled cylindrical with out spell check..
I had a set from comp in early 90s for a hydraulic roller cam , the customer didn't want to have the spring seats enlarged & years later they're the latest harmonic dampening "gadget" for circle trackers. Called my connection up at comp cams & yep those were originally intended for no machine installs but when flipped upside down, they became a new market tactic. Aimed at the "trick of the week crowd". Obviously it's not new to the market when the old Olds 394 had a set. Flux
I don't know about performance engines but they have been using them since the 30s that I know of. Like old Desoto or packards I think.
Some old 1900 chug buggies had them. The top of the spring was so small all they had was a pin at the top. I believe the more modern reason was to damp out harmonic vibrations.
i saw a set on a 1915 air plane engine. it was all original with exposed rocker gear that was manually oiled along with rockers that had grease zerks. the owner pointed out the beehives saying they were not new technology.
I think the two main reasons for beehive style springs are: 1) Reduce harmonic issues since the spring does not have a set harmonic frequency. 2) Smaller lighter retainer to help reduce valve mass. They may not be new, but the advantages may be still being utilized.
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