The GTA I bought this past fall did a lot of sitting in the garage for long winters. The car gives me a good puff of blue smoke out the tail pipes when I start it in the morning or if it has not run in 6-8 hours. I am suspecting that the valve stem seals probably dried out due to nonuse while in the garage and this is resulting in oil leaking by and into the combustion chamber. Does anyone have any suggestions or warnings as I get ready to replace the seals?

Thanks,
Jeff

 

Try running some searches on the board. This topic has been covered thoroughly on many posts. The most important thing you need is a way to keep the valve from falling into the bore. There are a couple ways to do it:

1. Connect air compressor to spark plug hole in the cylinder you're working on, which holds the valve in place.(Tried before- I recommend this method)
2. The rope trick- fill the cylinder with rope by threading it though the spark plug hole. (Never tried but some on the board like this trick)
3. Crank the engine so that the piston of the cylinder you are working on is TDC. The valve will sit on the piston and still have enough sticking out to pull it back up. (Tried, worked, but was very complicated.)