Tootie Pang

iTrader: (2)

First of all a big thanks to everyone on the board who offered wisdom. It was all very useful. The car runs fantastically better. The combo of the timing chain and valve seals is an improvement that is hard to exaggerate. No stinky exhaust, idle sits at 500 (but still misses occasionally). The powertrain just feels, sounds, and drives like new.

I have now done just about everything powertrain related on my car except take the motor/trans out and this valve seal job was easily the most difficult of them all for me.

After having successfully completed this job, I would like to offer some of my thoughts to help the next guy/gal.

My LB9 is entirely stock with 117,000 original miles. Everything I have taken off on all my various jobs on this car, save for the water pump, appeared to be original (ie old).

1. I removed all the spark plugs and all the rockers and hardware. Keep the rockers and their parts and pushrods in separate labeled baggies (1 exhaust), (6 intake).

2. Method - Air vs "Rope"

I started with the air method and quickly realized it wasn't going to work. After so many years, the keepers and retainers were stuck pretty good. The air compressor I had could generate 120 psi and it wasn't enough to hold the valve hard enough to break the keepers and retainers free. The spring tool (Pro-Form) simply pressed the spring and valve down (keepers stayed stuck to the retainer), releasing air.

The rope method is better because it provides a positive stop for the valves. A few tricks help make the rope method work really well:

• Pick a rope about 3/8" thick. It should be a hard rope, not soft and squishy You will need about 18 inches per rope (you can do two cylinders each time). No more than 24" is needed.
  
• You DO NOT STUFF THE ENTIRE ROPE INTO THE CYLINDER. Leave six inches at least hanging out, more if you don't need it.
  
• Twist slightly as you feed the rope in. It helps it lay flatter on the cylinder top.
  
• You can introduce the rope at any point other than near TDC for the cylinder. I preferred to be around BDC.
  
• You need to stuff the right amount of rope in. Too little and you may not have enough to fill the head chamber. Too much and you wont be able to reach near TDC and if you need to press down on the valve fairly hard to break the keepers free, it may just rotate the crank shaft down. Get it right and you will be within 5 degrees of TDC and valves will have a nice firm stop.
  
• Once you have fed the rope in, rotate the engine (I used my hands on the crank pulley) until your piston rises to near TDC and the rope stuffs the head chamber. I found a good turn "seats" the rope firmly (packs it).
  
• You can have two ropes to do two cylinder at each TDC. (I did them one at a time)
  
• When you are finished, you rotate the crank back at least 90 degrees and remove the rope. However, more than once, my rope got pinched by a valve (they do compress the rope when you are breaking the keepers free). To free it I used my spring compressor to to push the valve down (you need a metal plate between the tool and the valve to push on the valve stem(s), not the retainer) a little to let the rope go.

3. Tool. The Pro-Form was key. So important. Took me a little time to figure it all out. It comes apart easily to switch stud thread sizes. When you have it setup right, it locks at the lowest position to hold the spring and retainer down. It takes some messing and adjusting (I bent the tool pressing arm, or foot, to a sightly different angle a little to dial it in more exactly to my heads). I recommend using the lock nut (hand tight) to lock the "foot" to the tool so that it doesn't just "flop" around. I also needed to disassemble the tool to use it on the number 8 exhaust valve, in the in the very back, passenger side, in front of the firewall. I then reassembled to tool over the valve and was able to use it.

4. I reused my original keepers and retainers/rotators/deflectors, pushrods (all the original hardware). I was generally advised not to, but I am big believer in letting a sleeping dog lie. And I decided it would be best reinstall the stuff that came off exactly where it was. I cleaned up the keeper slots with a dental scraper and wire brush and made sure the valve stem grooves were clean.

5. Use a penetrating solvent (like PB Blaster, etc) on the keepers. Once I removed the valve covers I soaked the valves/keepers/retainers about three or four times.

6. Then to break the keepers, after the piston and rope is in position, I used a long extension and a larger deep socket (19 mm) and hit it (tapped it hard) with a hammer. I did this about five times per valve. The socket goes over the retainer and is intended to break the keepers from the retainer so that when you use the spring compressor tool, it will only take a little effort to remove the keepers.

7. I used Fel-Pro seals SS72527 for the intake and SS72877 for the exhaust. Fel-Pro confirmed I was to use the lower seals (positive for intake and skirted for exhaust) AND the upper o-rings. Use motor oil on everything (soak the seals before install), and put some around the valve stem as it comes out of the head to get some pre-lube in there.

8. To reinstall, you compress the spring and retainer/rotator and then install the o-ring into the lower groove below the keepers, then slowly release the tool to bring the retainer up and capture the o-ring and the keepers.

9. If found that often lowering the spring tool to compress the spring and retainer/rotator to finish installation of the o-ring and keepers tended to sometimes push the valve down with it (the rope method can be a little sloppy in holding the valve and trying many times to exactly align the lowering retainer around the valve stem was only sometimes successful). I simply locked the tool down and then used a medium flat blade screw driver to pry the valve gently up to access the grooves.

10. Oil the rocker fulcrum, both ends of the pushrod (make sure the center lube hole is clear), and the valve stem tip. Also pool some oil over the keepers after the valve has been reassembled.

11. Make sure you use the clear sleeves that come with the seals to install the seals over the valve stem top. You trim the length of the sleeves at two lengths. One to slip the lower seals over both grooves and the shorter one for the o-rings to slip over the first (keeper) groove and into its groove (below the keeper groove).

12. Not to toot my own horn but my damper template helped a lot with checking the crank position. Cut it out, cut it across once so you can place it around the damper (behind the crank pulley) and tape it.

13. It is very easy to lose parts. Use a magnet to catch the keepers. Look out for your seals, especially the o-rings.

In all, this sounds like a lot and it is but if you go slowly, by the end you will have it down. Overall this job took me two pretty much full days.

This is a tricky job. It is long and repetitive. I took time on the first cylinder, and proceeded very carefully and slowly. I chose No. 1 to do first since it is the most easily accessible. By the fourth cylinder I was flying along pretty good and had the routine mostly figured out.

Ghettobird52

Oh trust me there is ALWAYS something else to do!

Good luck...

Tootie Pang

iTrader: (2)

Hah, yeah, everything mechanical... now its onto the body stuff...