As a young crew guy I had always been taught to pull the pushrods out of our funnycar motors when sitting for extended periods like over the winter so as to keep the springs from loosing pressure. One of my full time racer pals thought this was ridiculous, so to prove it, after the World Finals one year, he pulled apart the heads, pressure tested one spring, then clamped it in a bench vise at virtually coil bind compression. Made a big show of testing and then writing the spring pressure on the vise with a sharpie. It sat untouched for about 3 months. The week before leaving for the Winternationals, he unclamped the spring and tested it, there was absolutely no pressure difference at any lift point. Now, these were springs did see close to .800" lift and we weren't even 400 lbs on the seat yet, but you get the idea. Still, I can't tell you how many guys who came up doing it continue the practice to this day - and we have WAY better springs.
