Hi Sam,
I'll post a quick link to the governor spring install here... I'm assuming that is the "spring" you're referring to.
http://turbodieselregister.com/forums/showthread.php?t=73761
Bascially you can raise your governed speed using the high idle screw. Now when you use that your governed speed is raised but the normal defuel point still happens about 300 RPM before the actual governed limit.
So, for example if you have a gov speed set to, say, 3000 RPM then as you approach 3K the governor function begins to take hold roughly 300 RPM prior to that... .
Then as the gov. reduces the fueling (defuel) the rate of RPM increase begins to slow until eventually you reach your 3000 RPM limit.
You recognize this event by the "falling on it's face" feeling as you hold WOT. .
Now the replacement spring, which is designed to be used in another application with different counterweights/cam/roller ring etc just ignore's the normal governor effort to defuel. This happens because of the springs' tension. (tougher)
So in essence what happens is the heavy rate of fueling which would normally begin to be decreased more and more as you approach your 3K limit, is pretty much disregarded due to the heavier spring.
That causes the pump to push max fueling pretty well right up to the physical gov limit setting.
Since the spring is so stiff it is also pretty touchy... .
I did a runaway test on my brothers truck that demonstates this. .
His truck has a gov spring as well as some other neat little tricks done to it...
When I went to do my "runaway test" the following happened. .
As I slowly depressed the throttle toward my normal test RPM (about 2000 RPM) we reached roughly 1500 RPM and the pump started to 'give off that hint' it was gonna act funny... .
I stopped all further pedal pressure and waited... after about 5 or 6 seconds the RPM began to climb on it's own, slowly at first then quicker and quicker.
We reacted right away thinking it would just continue to run wild.
After 3 or 4 runs at this, I held the pedal a bit longer while the RPM climbed...
when it reached about 2600 RPM the governor suddenly kicked in and just grabbed the pump, stopped the upward climb and hauled it back down to about 2350-2400 RPM. At that point the governor released and the climb began again until we hit roughly 2600'ish again... and it repeated the process of catch/defuel/resume. .
Basically this shows the "touchy" nature of the other gov spring. Unlike the proper one which responds early and smoothly this new one is a bit more touchy.
I'd describe it as showing "poorer driveability" ... .
Ok, pretty long winded... . sorry. .
As for your emissions testing I had a thought this year... when I went in last time I backed out the fuel screw so far the darn thing would barely run. . literally.
I rotated the AFC to lean and made sure the starwheel was right at the top.
We are allowed a reading of 30ppm. On that previous test I turned in a reading of 26. 9 I believe.
This year I tried something different. .
I disconnected the boost tube to the AFC and plugged it off... then I dropped the timing back to just barely over "factory" index marks and turned the full fuel out 1/2 - 3/4 turn.
Off I went... I was seeing a healthy 32psi boost, little to no smoke as boost built up to 6-8psi.
The test results... ... . 14. ?ppm EASY PASS !!!!!
The surprise was that with THAT much fueling removed I only lost about 10'ish psi boost and dropped from an easy high of 1500*F on a pull to a hard to do 950*F

... ... . go figure. .
I am still running around with the truck set as above and it seems to really be "happy" with itself... course I really would like to have the "jump up a tree" response when I touch the throttle, but, for winter it works for me.
I also have a valet switch behind the seat that is going in as soon as I get ambitious... and maybe a little something that will allow me to control the full fuel setting remotely as well.....


Ok that's enough I'm tired of typing. .
Ok one last thing... it's been my experience that the POD's like to have a cleaning and reset about once every year or so. The tip design is prone to needing a bit of tweaking and reset. You might want to try having them reset to about 260-265 bar to...
pb...