As most of you know, the first generation Packard V8 valve spring retainers were too soft. When the engine was revved to valve float/lifter pump-up, sometimes the keepers would pull through the valve spring retainer and drop the valve into the cylinder. When this happened at 5,000 RPMs usually the piston broke up and the rod holed the cylinder wall.
Literally every standard shift 1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk I've ever torn down showed evidence of at least one, sometimes two disasters.
I recently stripped an engine which was just a few revs from catastrophe. The keepers had almost pulled through the retainer. Notice the marks on the outer rim where the rocker arm body had been hitting and the marks in the center where the rocker tip had been hitting. How it held together was a mystery.
Packard valve spring retainer photos FWIW, Packard Engineering began specifying hardened retainers somewhere late in the process, but few engines have them. A file test will determine which you have. The early soft retainers cut easily with a file, whereas a file will skate on the later hardened retainers.
jack vines
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