one of these days before spring, i'm going to take the heads off my car and replace the guides and seals due to the infamous start-up smoke. my question is, should i replace the guides and seals myself, or pay a shop to do it. how much would tools and parts be if i were to do it myself. what are the procedures involved? any help would be great

 

you can replace just the seals your self for almost nothing the seals are like 10 bucks if that and you can ge a tool that hooks to an air compressor and blows air in to the spark plug hole to hold the valve up so you can take the spring off and replace the seal or if you dont have an air compressor you can do what the old timers youse to do and use a peace of rope feed it in to the cylnder threw the spark ploug hole turn the engine buy hand until the valve starts to lift then chage the seal when done pull out the rope and move to the next one most shops that replace valve seals use the air compressor tool and never take the heads off and their rilly is know reason to uless you are planning on getting a valve job done to the heads while they are off. Even then you can still do it your self just invest in a good Torque wrench head gaskets valve seals valve grinding compound and any other gaskets needed and do it your self if you stay at it you will have it done in a day no problem.

 

cool i have been needing to do this and was wondering just how involved it is on a third gen...i know i dont look forward to doing much on mine because of the lack of working space but then again i am too financially impaired to afford to send out the work either... so for me it is usually just to deal with the problem until i get tired of it then break down and do what needs to be done

 

hey make sure u use umbrella style valve seals. they are the best style and will hold up the best for you. Also, if you can afford it, get valve seals made out of viton, those are the ultimate. Do that and it should give you a fix that will last a long time.

 

I am paying to get mine done, i was quoted 600bux, but then I went to the garage my buddy is doing his apprentice at, and they said 600 sounds too much, oh, thats in Canadian Dollars. Another pointer though, use teflon seals

 

That seems really high. Even for CDN money. You figure you can get a new set of heads for about twice that or so. Ones that flow better with bigger valves and such. A sat of dart heads go for 800 or so? Or is it world Products?

 

use VITON seals. NOT TEFLON.

http://www.lcengineering.com/ValveTrain3.htm

thats a site for toyota stuff, but u get the point.
teflon is crappy old technology. a lot of people have wear and sealing problems with them. only use them if you want to do the job again soon.

 

Ahhh.. thanx, everyone in the local club tells me to go with teflon... I will get the viton seals as well then

 

thanks fellas, but what tools will i need to replace both the seals and the guides once i get the cylinder heads off the car to actually change them? also, how much would a valve job be and what gains would i see? thanks for all the info

 

To do just the seals, you'll need a torx driver, socket wrench and sockets, and an adapter to pressurize the combustion chamber throught he sparkplug socket, to keep the valves closed, also a valve spring compresser. Did I miss anything guys?

To do the guides, this is definately a "head off" job, you need a boring tool, air hammer to press new guides in, valve seat grinder, and valve grinder.

You need to redo your valve seats after replacing any valve guide, to ensure preoper seating of the valve.

So the answer to what advantaged you'll see with a valve job, well, if you do guides, you have to do a valve job, and a performance job will help flow. I am not sure on prices, cause the heads I did before, I did myself at the highschool autoshop