Valve Springs.
 

I was not aware of this till lately. Valve spring installation. Can anyone confirm this. Pic 1 has a notch, Pic 2 doesn't. Same spring.

I guess there is a bit of a notch at the top of the outer spring so as not to wear the retainer.

What matters by far is that the end is polished over with no sharp edge to be found and this is true for the inner spring also.
I have rarely over the years had a set of new springs that I did not have to pull the inner coil out of and then to my liking touch up the two ends on each spring and then rinse them off.
Call me crazy but if left unchecked such a condition can dump a good amount of fine grit into the motor.

Thanks Steve.

If you yank the inner springs out to touch them up before hand note how they are installed in regards to the coil winding.

It can be time consuming to do this, but worth it.

Ya, My understanding is the inner is wound the opposite direction from the outer.
Thanks.