I'm just wondering about opinions on installing 1.9 modded rockers without changing the valve spings. I'm maining concerned regarding safety and not performance, which I'm sure is satisfactory for the money & time invested. ZZP says they should be fine if shift points are below 6000 RPM, but do you trust that? I know many members of the forum have these rockers - how many of you kept your stock springs?

 

on my ER Rockers I kept the stock springs and there's slight slight valve float at 5900RPM

I would definitely go the extra step and upgrade the springs, so that you can tune your shifts to 6300 where the real power is. No point in doing the rockers if you aren't gonna want the higher shift points

 

I have Yella Terra 1.9s on my Monte Carlo with LS6 springs and LS1 retainers.

I have ZZP modded 1.9s on my Regal GSE with stock springs.

My Monte Carlo experienced a broken valve spring awhile back and a near catastrophic engine failure because of it (yes, the springs were installed 100% correctly). My Regal has experienced nothing of the like

Installing 1.9s without springs will still be very beneficial. My Regal's valvetrain is fine. I was able to drop from a 3.4 pulley to a 3.25 sucessfully. I shift it at 5900 RPMs.

I shift my Monte Carlo at 6200. It's nice getting that extra bit of powerband, but installing the springs WAS a pain in the ***, and I did have a spring fail, creating even more of a pain in the ***. Plus, it was more expensive. Installing just the rockers is about a 1 hour job if you hustle and you know what you're doing. Installing rockers and springs is about 3x that, again, if you hustle. Compressing each cylinder with air, clearancing your valve spring removal tool, and hoping you don't lose compression/drop a valve is a pain.

So...it kind of depends on what your goals are. If you're looking for maximum performance out of this, do the springs (I'd recommend GM L76 springs right now, or Crowe Cams #105s). If you're looking for a simple mod that will let you pulley down or kill some existing KR, do just the rockers.

 

I also put about 30k miles on my GTP with modded stock 1.9's and stock springs and no valve float with stock WOT shift points. IMO, just don't get an aftermarket pcm that bumps the shifts way up or anything.