Like many other guys with 03 hemis I have broken a valve spring at 185000 miles. After researching on here I have found that the best fix for the best price is to put in 16 new 6.1 hemi exhaust springs. My question is do i have to do new push rods also or can i just leave the stock 5.7 push rods. I see alot of other guys are doing new pushrods at the same time but they never really state why. Any help/suggestions with this project would be awesome. Thanks.

 

NO. Leave the original 5.7 push rods in place.
The 6.1 rods have a different base circle, made for use with aftermarket cams such as a 6.1 cam or a 260 or 280 etc.
Only put 6.1 push rods in, if you intend to upgrade the cam too one of the above at the same time.
TBH, your that far into the engine at that stage, that many on here would say now's the time to upgrade and get a little more giddyap!!
Weedahoe has a video tutorial on how to replace the cam. It's also a very useful (cheers Weed) video showing how to replace the springs.
Do a search on his page to find the tutorial.
Hope this helps?
Al.

 

Thanks got the info buddy. I'll look up the video for sure.

 

Alright, yesterday I got out and worked all day on changing out the valve springs over to the new 6.1 springs. The job was actully pretty easy just very time consuming. I do have some hints thought for people who are goin to try this. I tryed the rope in the motor method and the air pressure method and I found the the easiest way was to do neither. Save time by not messing with that stuff. When you set the cylinder at TDC the the valve is only able to fall about 1/4 inch so you don't have to worry about it falling into the cylinder. And as long as your valve seals are still good they will actully hold the valve up while you compress the spring around it. Any time the value kept sliding down I just used a magnet to hold it up.

 

At 185k, I would have changed the valve stem seals also. They pull off on pop back on.

What did you use to change the springs with?

 

Your right I probably should have changed the seals. I bought the crane cams hemi spring tool. I wish I could have built my own tool cause it's probably $10 worth of metal and bolts but I'm in the army and had to get rid of a lot of my metal working tools in our last move.

 

I replaced the push rods and valve stem seals, as well as all sixteen springs. No sense in doing all that tear-down and not replacing those three components.