Valve springs from patriot to Comp. New retainers?

[Red5]

I run this vette pretty hard. Do a lot of autocrossing / road racing and drag racing. These Patroits have been great but they are 4 years old now. So I got a set of COMP valve springs. 26918-16


Questions:
1. These springs have a bigger diameter on one end. My Patriot gold titanium retainers fit the large end. And the spring seems to fit the head correctlyy with the small end down. The springs have red paint on them that you can see if they are small end up. I believe these are called behive springs.

Do they install with the smaller diameter facing toward the head? A budy of mine is telling me no. And that I need to flip the springs over and buy new retainers that are meant for these specific springs.

The springs seem to fit well both top and bottom with the big end up. But he says they go the other way.


Help. I'm not going any further with this until I find the correct answer.

[mark21742]

hey man welcome to the site!
I hate to say it, but your griend is right, the big end goes down and small end up.
I'd hit up ebay or Summit to get the new retainers