[Dan Stryffeler]

Thanks Jerry,

I will be pulling off the valve covers this weekend to take a look. We laid the broken part on top of the new valve stem seal, (pictured above), and its pretty much a perfect fit. The steel retaining band is .035" thick... I estimated the radius by laying the broken part on a series of gauge pins until I found a pretty good fit, but who knows what that little piece of shrapnel has been through, so it might have gotten flattened out a little bit.

If I don't see a mashed valve stem seal, I continue to look at the valvetrain and the spring that you mentioned.

Thanks!

Dan