A short tutorial to show you, how to turn a low cost made in China valve spring compressor in a heavy duty tool, that can be used on bigger V8 engines.

I had the problem that I lost my valve spring compressor, but needed to remove the valves and springs from a Chevy 350 small block. I had to make a decision to either buy a new spring compressor that fits the V8 or try to remove it with a cheap ebay tool. I opted for the cheap tool with a price of less than 15$.
It turned out to be a bad decision, cause the spring caps were to small for the Chevy valve springs and the bail was not stable enough to compress the valves. At the end I had a bend bail. Now it was time for some modifications...

I used a threaded rod to put the bail back in it's original shape and welded a flat iron on it to reinforce the bail. Once done, the tool can handle the strength of the springs.

Now I cut a piece of ~3/4 inch length of a steel tube (1 1/2 inch diameter). I welded a thick washer on the tube and one of the spring compressor adapters on top of the washer. As you can see on the next pictures, we now have an adapter that fits the V8.

Finally, we have turned a "Made in China" product into a "Improved in Germany" tool.
Happy welding!