I have a 1988 GTA 5.7 TPI and on startup it smokes and only on startup. Will a set of new seals fix this without having to put new guides in($$$)? And how much should i expect to spend on seals, installed? Any help please. I hate starting the GTA up next to a guy in a vette, if you know what i mean? Big puff of smoke. Thanks Richard

 

Yep, Valve seals. If you do it yourself around $70 for the good ones.

 

I have never done them before, are they very hard to do? I am pretty mechanically inclined, so if you could explain putting seals in i can do it, thanks Richard

 

Here is a write up I did a year ago

Go ahead and remove all spark plugs..
you will need to rent the following:
Valve spring compressor (I perfer the two armed claw, part number 27011 at autozone... free rental.)
and air fitting for a hose, so compressed air can give force against the valves.
obviously you will need to remove your rocker arms and push rods, get them out of the way for now... make sure you make some sort of organization try or box to ensure they go back in the correct order.
now you should be looking at some valve springs...
it is a good idea to buy new ones, i bought some from compcams for $50 bucks and were very nice...
Plug your air fitting to the first cylinder you are working on.
The claw compressor has two arms one is slightly longer than another which means it is perfect for springs... connect the arms about 3/4 the way down the spring and line up the tool and tighten... keep tighting until spring is relatively loose... then push the spring down and lightly tap the end of the valve and the valve locks should pop up, get some needle nose pliers and pull them away... loosen the compressor and the spring will pull right out with the retainers...
At this point you will be looking at a valve an oring and a valve seal...
If you started at the first valve regardless of what side you have started on the exhaust valve...
they are as follows for the heads
[ E I I E E I I E ]
The very tip of the valve there are two grooves... the top one (which is for the valve lock) and the second, which should have an oring...
pull the oring off, they are usually brittle and break right off.
Now for the valve seals... the exhaust valves have a small umbrella looking seals those pull right up, so do so.
when you go and buy parts you will have to obviously buy the seals...
there are intake seals and exhaust seals... they all come with orings too.
you will also need to buy some moly grease.
now get your exhaust seal, rub some grease inside it pretty good and the bag of seals should have a small clear valve tip cover... slide it on the end of the valve...
rub the valve steam with some light grease and slide the valve steam seal over the valve stem...all the way down. Pull the sleeve off and install an oring on the second groove.
now hopefully you bought new springs.
grab the spring and dip the top in grease and then put the retainer back on and make sure that is greased up too... put some grease on the bottom of the spring as well..
Compress the spring with the compressor... slide the spring on, take your valve locks and put a fair dab of grease inside them... this helps with installation...
the valve lock is sorta like a trapezoid... the bottom is smaller than the top.
put one half of the lock inside where the stem is and move the spring around if need be till it clicks in... same for other side.... then pull up on the spring to test it.. decompress spring and voila! you have one if 16 done... lol
the process is the same for intake valves, except they have a different style seal...
This is best of my knowledge... not saying i know much but there you go.
-Cale

 

Cale, i am pretty darn sure i can do this, your explanation was great. I will wail until spring to warm up a bit then give it a shot, shouldnt be a problem though. Hey what does a shop normally charge for this? Thanks again Richard

 

Maybe a couple hundered, perhaps more. This is time consuming... but worth it. You save money, and gain knowledge/ experiance.

 

Thanks cale, you have very knowlegable to me, Richard

 

I am not really smart. More or less, been there done that you know?