Valve Seals

[coltarms]

Has anyone here ever replaced valve seals? I'm getting blow by smoke and I want to do the valve seals but I really don't want to pull the whole head to do it. The manual only talks about doing it with the head pulled. Is it possible to do this without pulling the head? I'm not worried about all the cleaning and grinding and measuring of the valves and chambers, just replacement of the seals.

Dave

[xirdneh]

[quote="coltarms"]Has anyone here ever replaced valve seals?

yes you can do it while the head is on the car
you will need one of those spring compressers that are made for this
harbor frieght had them for around 18 bucks
most parts stores have them too (20-36.00)
you will need to remove valve rocker assy
maybe even the camshaft to make job easier

make sure piston is at top of stroke for each clyinder you do
that way if the valve gets away from you it will not drop into cylinder
if that happens you will be pulling the head (which is not that big of a job anyway)
most people who do it this way blow air into the sparkplug hole to keep valve from dropping.

if your car has a lot of miles on it and is using oil (a quart or more every two weeks) its probably not because of the valve seals
also on the high mileage/using oil cars that i have pulled heads on, the back side of the valves (especially the intakes) have a huge glob of carbon buildup that must restrict air flow

[2wagons]

I agree with xirdneh, it is easy to do with the head on, just follow the FSM. Watch out for those keepers, they are easily lost, use a shop towel around the valves. Use a little magnet to pull the keepers out. You can take an old spark plug, break off the ceramic end, and have an air line adapter welded on. You can put this in the sparkplug hole and pressurize the cylinder- works great. I ran a couple of cans of GM top cylinder lube/cleaner through the engine to help get rid of the carbon buildup on the valves before changing the seals. I noticed a drop in oil consumption from 1 qt per tank (200 miles) to 1 qt per 1000 miles! Watch the torque settings, you can easily break a bolt on the cam shaft tie downs- don’t ask me how I know

[Typrus]

Go look up my Seafoam treatment perhaps? I'll go bump it up in the Repair area.
I hear the (Valvoline?) throttlebody/carburetor cleaner is some powerful stuff.

If that won't help, then dun ask me what would.