I will do that. Hoping to also take a pic or two of the original Cobra that is in his shop.

Well sadly didn't get pics of the Valve Seals, but they ended up replaceing them all with Viton seals. New intake gasket (steel core), and he found a bent push rod and oddly only 2 that were the correct length for the engine, so he replaced them all with Manley push rods.

Added a PVC valve and changed to an OEM distributor hold down clamp because the chrome one that was on the car wasn't sitting correctly. (I will not complain about either as the hold down was one of my next changes anyways.

I'm sorry to say that I believe that you will still have the original problem present, as push rods do not bend from valve stem seals and they do not cause valve stem seal retainer springs to break (not that I believe for one minute the photo you posted is of a broken valve stem seal spring). Sorry to be so direct but I think you might have been given the run around, as if we do the math we can deduce that the bent pushrod was a direct result of the valve train locking somewhere for a split second, hence the broken damper spring piece you found, and hence the issue still remains if this spring is not found and replaced.
As for having varying pushrod lengths within your engine I would be pointing the finger at the engine builder as they have no idea IMHO on how to set up an engine, hopefully the mechanic you used to rectify this checked the full pivot fulcrum of your rocker to ensure proper positioning on the valve stem, so as to not induce any side load on the valve guides..
Just my two cents worth, but I would not be giving the engine curry any time soon.

Hello Iccars

This is how i analyzed debre

Actually Joey made it easy because he posted a picture of debre next to a ruler so can use to scale the piece he found.
If u scale the piece in picture by filling in whats missing from the circular shape that it would have had, when it was in one piece it would be no bigger than .750 inch dia. and tapered end tip width of less than 3/32 or .093 inch.

I then measured the diameter of a damper spring that had lying around and came in at 1.150 inch dia. with a tapered end tip width of aprox .165 inch.

Then measureed dia of valve seal clip i had and it came in at .675 inch dia. with a tapered end tip width of aprox .062 inch.

My thoughts on what might have happened is that somehow the valve seal clip was broken during install or fatigued because of poor material and workmanship ? heat treat when made ( made in china) or a combination of and broke later. The piece shown and the rest of the clip then jammed itself between spring and locked valve train for split second thus bending pushrod.

Hi Carmine,
you can make your own assumptions on my photos attached but just to be clear, I took a photo of a 429 performance valve spring (damper) which is 1.100" in diameter and a photo of a Valve stem seal off a 429 head (non performance) which is 0.750" diameter.
Sorry about the poor quality of the photo, but what is clearly distinguishable here is that the valve stem seal radius is totally different to the spring section that Joey photographed in relation to the ruler, however the valve spring is very similar, hence my concern.
I am not trying to prove my point to be right; I am merely concerned that there is a guy out there who may do more damage to his engine because of poor workmanship - I have seen this happen so many times I feel that I am duty bound to at least try to explain why this is not right, and for the owner to take notice to get it inspected by another mechanic, as my opinion is that because no photos were taken after the repairs were done recently to replace the seals etc.. there is a fishy smell in the air and I would be asking more questions before I damaged an expensive engine..
Just one more point, have you ever fitted a valve stem seal to a head - it's the easiest task one can perform, even my 14yr old kid could do it without breaking or fatiguing a spring on a seal, and should it have broken off and jammed the valve train then there would be a physical mark on the part and the pressure would have bent it out of shape + noise etc..
Again, just my two cents worth, for what it's worth..
Cheers
Wil

http://www.clubcobra.com/photopost/d...s/image20.jpeg Hello Wil.
I agree that yes I too find it suspicious that no photos where taken.
I also agree that if it my engine I would also have it checked by second party.
Here's a different pic of a Teflon valve seal I was refuring to that I think matches joeys debree pic.
The red arrows pointing to 3 parts of the retaining clip that all seam to match.
I have seen this type of valve seal clip get damaged by not using correct dia install bushing tool
or forced onto oversized valve guides causing the Teflon bushing to crack.
As Wil has said. At the end of the day where all her to help in finding the cause of the problem
so as to help educate everyone in knowing what to look for in order to avoid these problems.

Best regards
Carmine