I did the searches... read GM book, and decieded to spend my Saturday replacing my Valve Seals. Here is what i learned:

1. If i EVER do this again, i'm going to start with the passenger side, and do the valve closest to the fire wall. ALL of the others were easy compaired to this one. No where did i read about "beware of the 8th cylinder". What a pain in the a$$.

2. If i ever get a chance to meet any of the 3rd gen engineers, i'd like to meet the guy who decided to put all the crap around the passenger side valve covers, so i can kick him square in the *****. Then maybe kick him again for putting air injection in.

3. Remember the tips that you read in the posts, and take your time. Once i got going, it was a pretty easy task. Hook up the air,take off a rocker, tap the springs to loosen up the keepers, put the spring compressor on, compress the spring, take out the keepers, pull the old seals, clean up the valve, put on the new seals, put some grease on the top of the valve, put the spring on, put the keepers in and let the grease hold them there, decompress the spring, put the rocker back on, check for valve lash. NEXT.

4. If you ever wanted to put on new valve covers.. now is the time. You don't want to have to pull these damn things again.

5. Its also a good time for a tune-up. Your already taking out all the spark plugs.. might as well put new ones in, with some wires, and cap and rotor.

6. Make sure you have the right tools. The jaw type spring compressor was really great, except for that #8 cylinder. The handle wouldn't clear the damn heater box or trans dipstick. I had to bang the handle out and use vice grips to turn it. Other then that it was great... just compress and leave it compressed till your ready to put it back on. The compression tester i got was a nice little kit from craftsman... a bit pricy but it came with everything you would need to do the valve job and compression test just about anything, and a nice little case. I got some dial calipers to try ede's method of measuring the distance from the top of the stud to the top of the bolt for the rockers, but i found that it wouldn't fit on some of the valves unless i pulled the runners, and i wasn't looking to do that. Wound up marking a socket with a sharpie and just counting the nut off.

7. If you live in the city... tell your neighbors you know its an all day job. Otherwise they think you don't know what your doing even though they don't even know what your doing, and make jokes about how they bet your car won't start when your done.

Other then that... just take your time and have fun. I love working on my car... it takes me away from all the other things and puts me in a different frame of mind. I love saying i do my own work, and i saved my self the dough from taking it to a mechanic.

Thanks for all the advice that you guys have given to previous posts... a little searching before the task made it a lot easier.

 

So instead of taking the heads off, you just put compressed air in the cylinders? Interesting, never thought of that. How much PSI did you crank it to. Is there a special fitting you need?

 

You can also feed some nylon rope into the spark plug hole then manually turn the engine till the piston comes up and the nylon rope will hold the valve up for you.

 

tell you something i learned 2 weeks ago about valve seals. wanted o ring and umbrella seals for a engine i was building. went to town. they only had umbrella seals. went to next town and got both. went home and started assemblying the heads. got to last head and figured out i was short 2 umbrella seals. so had to go back to town to exhange the umbrealla seal that only came with "6" seals, because i wasn't going to take the first head back apart for the other 8 seals and still have a package short. they exchanged it for me with any questions. i should have questioned it when i got the seals. the box had greasey finger prints on it, should of opened it and counted seals there before i left.

 

Lol...I say this at least once a month for every vehicle I own

 

Yeah... i had to go to three parts stores to find all the things i wanted... and the guy from the one parts store gave me 10 spark plugs for my car. Didn't realize this till i got home, and found that a package contained 8, and he gave me two singles.

When i asked for valve stem seals from one place, they just gave me the o-rings. I told them i was looking for a set of the postive ones made by Felpro and they looked at me funny. I went to another store after that.

As for the air in the cyl, a lot of the compression kits come with air fittings on the line going to the cyl, and you just have to take out the valve and hook it up to the air pump. I had mine set to 30 at first, and it seemed to be working well, but i was worried about losing a valve and figured 40 wouldn't hurt it any... every little bit helps. I also used a switch connected to the starter to rotate the engine so that i could 'seal' the valves i was working on at the time rather then using a buddy to hit the key. You'll hear a little bit of air escaping, but you can hear the difference between a valve being open and both being shut. That and you can see it with the valves.

The car runs well, no probs, but promptly after getting back in front of the house, i hit the brakes, and lost all my pressure. Hear a hissing coming from the back, and see fluid all over the ground near the driver side rear tire. Took it off this morning, and found the steel line rusted and sprung a pin-hole leak. I was hoping for a bad rubber line last night.. but now it looks like i have to either order a whole new line, or try to cut this one and re-double flair it. Might try the flare first, and order a new SS line so i can get to work and back for now.

Guess while i'm at it i can put my new Braided SS lines in to replace the stock ruber ones.

I figure this is what i get for having the other job go so well... `

 

I tried to change the seals about a year ago and gave up after one. I am changing cams again along with speedo gears so this time I just pulled the motor/trans to get at them. I think it will be easier this way

 

lol.. one of our members (JIm XX IROC" has in his sig line "Weekend projects, aren't"

Always have to keep that in mind

 

Looking to do the same project on my 88 GTA 5.7 TPI soon.. the oil burning has gotten too bad, and it is sooooo embarassing. I'll have to use the nylon rope method.

The only dilemma I have is with the umbrella seals (positive type seals)... are there any modifications to put these babies on the guides? Are they for both intake AND exhaust? They may seem to be stupid questions.. but my haynes manuals don't help me at all... and no forums can really help me... I am worried these umbrella seals are just going to lift off the guide after the first turnover of the engine..

 

you can use a clean silicone spark plug wire too.
Eric B

 

I used the postive fel-pro set for the intake for both the intake and exhaust valves. Just have to buy two intake sets. Comes with the postive seals, and the rubber o-rings. No modifications. Compress the spring, take off the old one (if its there), clean up the area, oil up the new one, slide it on, put the spring back on.

Sounds so easy huh?

 

Thank you... thats all I needed to hear!!! I can do this stuff, but sometimes theres that little thing that no one mentions. How much did that felpro kit cost ya?

 

I think they were 13 at advanced auto parts, and 10 at autozone. Had to go to both to get both sets.

 

so, just to clear things up.. you used the intake positive seals for the intake and exhaust valves? And you're car's not using any oil now I assume? That sounds cheap man.. I can't wait

 

Man thats why I am changing mine. I hate when I start my car and I get a cloud of smoke. I totally throws my thirdgen into the "******* junk" catagory. One time I had people laugh at me lol.

 

There is a specific set for the exhaust and intake I thought? For mine there was.

 

Well.. thats why I wanted to clear it up.. cause I thought the valvestem diameter for the exhaust and intake valve were different,

Hmmm.. which reminds me... anyone know the stock specks on valve stem diameters?

 

I think the intake ones were 11 bucks and the exhaust ones were 8 something. As for the stems being different I couldn't tell ya man. On my 86 LG4 they appear to be the same.. but maybe not.

 

yeah... when I rebuilt a set of heads in highschool (ummm.... 11 years ago??) the two stems were different, but not visibly.. like maybe a tenth of an inch or so.

The problem is, here in canada, I have a bunch dumb parts stores that have no idea what to do if the part is not listed in the OEM replacement section. I NEED SPEED SHOPS!!! LOL

 

Is it actually possible to replace the valve seals (with the engine in car) without applying air or sticking rope through the spark plug holes? I heard you can just rotate the crank until each cylinder its at TDC. Let me know your thoughts.