first off it sucks that happened but good you caught it before anything bad.

ill eat my words if someone shows the proof but id say all retainers are made from titanium alloy. most likely 6al4v which is your '6061' of titanium. yes its hard to machine, but its much easier to turn in a lathe then it is to mill and drill. these little parts turned in a lathe are prob cake to make once you get your setup right. as for why it failed, titanium is really funny when it comes to cracks or inclusions. one little imperfection in the surface can lead to failure. with that said and dealing with CNC machines and aerospace materials 50+ hours a week i would lead to believe either an inclusion in the material to begin with, or tool failure on that part which at the time may not have scraped it but maybe burried a piece of carbide that you cant see and in turn made a crack.

whatever.. we dont need to CSI this, thats their job to find out what went wrong. good they are taking care of you though

 

If he was that surprised at it breaking, I would be asking for 16 new retainers. It could have been a bad batch. What's the batch #?

You also might ask him if you can send it in so they can inspect it. I've never heard of a Patriot retainer breaking.

 

you're very lucky that the locks held on there . . . where's the rest of the retainer?

 

it was down inside the inner spring wedged in there... thats how the locks held... idk how the did but im glad they did...

 

new spring and retainer came in today.... purrs like a kitten!

 

So...can u describe the sound it made a little better? Did it sound like a something busted, or just a noisy valve train that needed adjusting? I ask as I've dealt with both! I have the same springs in mine (~8k so far), and I know stuff breaks as I busted a Comp rocker (and got the same response from the tech guys - "...thats NEVER happened!")

 

kinda sounded a lil like and old cummins diesel... like a clacking noise....

 

What were you doing when you first noticed the noise? Cruising, part throttle, decelerating?

Were the springs shimmed at all?

 

Wow, I hope this was a fluke thing!

I bought Patriot cam package for my build, dual springs, Ti retainer, 7.400 hardend PRs, locks and cam!

The reassuring thing is they stood behind it; main reason I bought from them!

 

No shimms... i noticed a small noise at first cruising but in the cab it sounded like an exhaust leak... first time i heard it loud was when i cranked it to go run an errand...