Hello all,

My car smokes when it's started runs great after that, so I'm assuming that it needs valve seals. I figured that I would do the guides as well. My plan of attack was to pull the heads and take them to a machine shop to have a complete valve job done. I talked to my mechanic friend and he said not to do it because the car has 100k miles on it and that it will just introduce more problems with the rings thanks to the higher compression the valve job will give me. Is this accurate? What should I do?

 

To the best of my knowledge, a valve job alone would do nothing for compression, maybe if you have the head milled you would get a tiny bump in it but otherwise I dont think so. The only harm done would be to your wallet .

 

Are you just looking to get rid of smoking when you start it, that's the crappy o-ring factory valve guide seals.....just replace the valve guide seals, and it will stop.....use umbrella style seals, not stock o-ring crap ones. you can change seals with heads on motor using compressed air to hold up valves. Have you mechanic friend help you , you'll have to take valve springs off.

 

I figured I would do the guides as well in case they're egged out a little. That way the new seals will be able to last as long as possible. I didn't know there were two different types of seals, thanks for the heads up.

So in other words, I have nothing to worry about with doing the valve job?

 

No it will not hurt your engine.
Seriously, if sealing valves is going to damage a bottom end, then it's past time to freshen up the bottom end.

 

If you're going to take heads off and do all this work....it might not be much difference in price to purchase some aftermarket heads....maybe some used ones....but I wouldn't waste all that money on stock heads....