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Actually.. I know of more than a couple of curved neck ZE's that take quite a bit of abuse and are raced.. yet they havent had the same failure either.

I have heard it is best to swap out the retainers and valves before installing the ZE, to get a better life out of it, but what Valves and Retainers do I use?

You dont really need to replace the valves.. nothing wrong with them really.. its the valve retainers that have the problem. And if you buy a set of valve retainers for the KLDE (ford Probe GT V6) those are much beefier and wont have any issues. Plus they are cheap.. usually less than $25. Though since you will have the heads off most likely to do this job.. a valve job wouldnt be a bad idea.. just depends on how much cash you have and how anal you are If the engine is going to be severely abused.. maybe try and find sodium filled exaust valves. But they wont be cheap.

Tunes67

I have had the retained break on me twice. One on a straight neck and one on a curved neck heads. Both broken at low rpm's the straight neck at cruise at around 2800-3000rpm on the highway and the curved neck at idle. I've talked to just as many guy over the years that have split retainers at low rpms as have had then split at high rpms or just after a hard run. This goes back to the early days of the -ZE swaps and the use of the -DE retainers as a replacement. I ended up having a local trade school machine a couple set of retainers from 7075 in exchange for some surplus aluminum billet laying around our machine shop.

Yoda wrote:I have had the retained break on me twice. One on a straight neck and one on a curved neck heads. Both broken at low rpm's the straight neck at cruise at around 2800-3000rpm on the highway and the curved neck at idle. I've talked to just as many guy over the years that have split retainers at low rpms as have had then split at high rpms or just after a hard run. This goes back to the early days of the -ZE swaps and the use of the -DE retainers as a replacement. I ended up having a local trade school machine a couple set of retainers from 7075 in exchange for some surplus aluminum billet laying around our machine shop.

I guess you were swapping the springs with it too (de over ze) since de retainers are small in diameter than ze's (intake only)

Yoda wrote:This goes back to the early days of the -ZE swaps and the use of the -DE retainers as a replacement.

What do you mean? The engines dropped valves even with DE retainers?

DE retainers have no history of cracking and breaking like the ZE retainers do. If it has occured it has been so rare that we havent seen it on the boards before. (At least I havent anyway) But there are places that make "performance" retainers as well. Could always go that route when building.

Tunes67

Someone find someone who has dropped a valve in a curved neck!


Im swapping my retainers to k8 retainers.. i hope thats not a bad idea. Im swpping to kl31 cams in a few weeks. I rarelyu drive my mx3 now since it got replaced as a daily driver by the sloclipse.

Ill take pics of the valve train..


Another note WOW those retainers completely broke in half... WHY?..

never had valve problems...

hgallegos915 wrote:Another note WOW those retainers completely broke in half... WHY?..

They're weak, probably light, too. Mainly I think this is due to ZE being intended for automatic transmission, which is more gentle on the motor than manual. Once people drop it into their manual car, and start driving it...it puts stress on the parts that weren't meant to take the stress. You know, rev a little more here, stay in gear a little longer there. It accumulates, and so the retainers snap. It's unlikely that a single high rev makes them break, instead they get worn down over time and break when they're ready, which is why a lot of people had them snap at low RPM and even at idle.

hgallegos915 wrote:Someone find someone who has dropped a valve in a curved neck!


Im swapping my retainers to k8 retainers.. i hope thats not a bad idea. Im swpping to kl31 cams in a few weeks. I rarelyu drive my mx3 now since it got replaced as a daily driver by the sloclipse.

Ill take pics of the valve train..


Another note WOW those retainers completely broke in half... WHY?..

I don't believe they will fit Hec.
ze springs are large compare to de and k8. IMO without seeing it the retainer willl probably be too small to use with a ze intake spring.
get some measurement of the k8 retainers (intake and exhast and we will compare, I have all the specs for the ze springs

I got a question. I hear that replacing KLZE valves with KLDE valves is a good idea because KLDE valves are able to take alot more beating.

I hardly ever hear people with KLDE engines mess up any valves.
Also, would it be a good idea to get a KLDE engine out of a junkyard, then replace the heads and I/M with some from a KLZE engine? If I am right, the cams are more agressive on a KLZE aswell?

Juans_93_MX3 wrote:I got a question. I hear that replacing KLZE valves with KLDE valves is a good idea because KLDE valves are able to take alot more beating.

I hardly ever hear people with KLDE engines mess up any valves.
Also, would it be a good idea to get a KLDE engine out of a junkyard, then replace the heads and I/M with some from a KLZE engine? If I am right, the cams are more agressive on a KLZE aswell?

I believe the klde ans klze valves are the same.

getting a junkyard klze and swapping klze heads and all the other klze stuff will be more expensive then buying an actual klze.