How to Compress Valve Springs
Valve springs are a part of virtually every internal combustion engine to regulate fuel intake and exhaust. Unless they break or you need to do an internal engine modification, you would never have to worry about compressing, changing or replacing any valve springs. Because an internal combustion engine is made to exacting standards, a specific type of tool is made to both extract and replace valve springs, and without this tool, it will be nearly impossible to compress them for service or removal.
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Instructions
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Locate a valve-spring compressor to purchase or rent. Many are available at hardware or automotive stores for a nominal rental fee. Although there are several types, they basically function the same way.
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Prepare your engine to work on your valve springs. Small engines can be placed up onto shop work benches. Vehicle internal combustion engines can either be worked on in the engine bay or the valve train can be removed from the engine and placed up on a shop or work bench.
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Mount the valve-spring compressor onto or over the valve spring that needs to be compressed. There are many various types of compressors. Some screw into the engine block, some clamp onto the side of the valve-train body, and some are free-hand devices and merely clamp onto the valve-spring mechanism.
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Begin to turn the valve-spring compressor nut or screw once it has been mounted correctly. On free-hand devices, which will act much as when setting the tension on locking pliers, squeeze the handles together.
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Turning the required valve-spring compressor screw or nut will slowly compress the valve spring. Squeezing a free-hand valve-spring compressor will do exactly the same thing. Once the spring has been compressed, the snap rings that hold it in place can be removed and the actual valve spring itself can be serviced.
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Tips & Warnings
Although it may be possible to use other methods to compress valve springs--pliers, screwdrivers, channel locks--there is a substantial probability that by using these crude compression methods, you can damage the spring, the mounting or the valve guides. If any of those areas sustain even the least bit of damage, catastrophic engine failure is a very real possibility.
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