CompCams tool steel retainers BEWARE

Bill Edgeworth · 07-25-2008, 02:40 PM

Just a heads up to anyone who might buy the Comp Cams light weight tool steel retainers;
I just bought a couple of sets, the good news @ 20 grams they are 15 grams lighter than the Manley ones I was using. The bad news; they have horrible quality control and wont admit they have a problem.
I got the first set from them put them on a set of heads (just swapped out the Manly ones) and all of a sudden I had about 0.09” variation in installed spring heights. With the locks sticking out of the taper almost 1/10 of an inch on some.
I took them back off and inspected them and found that the chamfer at the top of the taper was improperly machined; they probably had a damaged cutter on their CNC machine. I called them up and told them about the problem. They refused to accept that they could possibly have an issue and in fact told me that it was very rude of me to imply that they have a quality control issue. They gave me an RMA number so that I could return them for “warranty consideration” I had to buy a second set and have them overnighted at my expense so it could get the job done.
I get the second set, same thing! So I just threw them in my lathe and fixed them myself. I called them again today and told the customer service guy I was just calling because I needed to get a message to their Q.C. department about a problem, that kind of agitated him, but he said he would pass on the information.
So if you buy a set be prepared to re-cut the chamfer at the top of the valve lock taper. I will at least give them the benefit of doubt that it is more than likely an issue in the one particular size (part 1730). After machining and hardening they are tumble polished through that process the parts get all randomly mixed up. In each of the sets I got about 1/3 were bad.

07-25-2008, 02:40 PM	#1
Bill Edgeworth Member Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Tacoma, WA Posts: 258 Likes: 0 Liked 0 Times in 0 Posts	CompCams tool steel retainers BEWARE Just a heads up to anyone who might buy the Comp Cams light weight tool steel retainers; I just bought a couple of sets, the good news @ 20 grams they are 15 grams lighter than the Manley ones I was using. The bad news; they have horrible quality control and wont admit they have a problem. I got the first set from them put them on a set of heads (just swapped out the Manly ones) and all of a sudden I had about 0.09” variation in installed spring heights. With the locks sticking out of the taper almost 1/10 of an inch on some. I took them back off and inspected them and found that the chamfer at the top of the taper was improperly machined; they probably had a damaged cutter on their CNC machine. I called them up and told them about the problem. They refused to accept that they could possibly have an issue and in fact told me that it was very rude of me to imply that they have a quality control issue. They gave me an RMA number so that I could return them for “warranty consideration” I had to buy a second set and have them overnighted at my expense so it could get the job done. I get the second set, same thing! So I just threw them in my lathe and fixed them myself. I called them again today and told the customer service guy I was just calling because I needed to get a message to their Q.C. department about a problem, that kind of agitated him, but he said he would pass on the information. So if you buy a set be prepared to re-cut the chamfer at the top of the valve lock taper. I will at least give them the benefit of doubt that it is more than likely an issue in the one particular size (part 1730). After machining and hardening they are tumble polished through that process the parts get all randomly mixed up. In each of the sets I got about 1/3 were bad. __________________ Bill Edgeworth 6471 STK