The Calster

hey guys

im new to the forum but recently i noticed a post about valve stem seals (i think this is what they were called). some one had said that if your cleveland makes blue smoke when its started then they are probally worn and need replacing. they also said that its quite cheep for the parts but to replace them is a pain in the ass. i was wondering if u guys could help me out. i my car puts out a rather large puff of blue smoke when its first started do u think these seals are the cause and how would i go about replacing them.

cheers

callum

svo347

Depending what you have available you need to remove the heads..
Otherwise you can use a compressed air attachment & screw it into the sparkplug hole.
with about 100kpa therebouts it'll hold the valves in the head whilst you compress the springs & remove the collets. Remove the spring, pry the old seal out & replace with a new one, sometimes they need to be tapped on squarely.
In my opinion you cant go past Teflon seals, last for ever (nearly)
Its really not hard to do mate you just need TOOLS

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brenx

SVO347 is spot on about the teflon seals. They are a bastard to put on. I am lead to believe with clevo heads the heads require machining to get teflon seals on. As my old cast iron heads had to be done to get a .532 teflon seal on.

Expensive little suckers also @ around $50 per set.

Brenden

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Nod

Removing the heads is too much trouble just to replace the valve stem seals and requires almost a whole gasket kit. The compressed air trick is works if the engine is in good condition but I'd make sure the piston is at TDC so if the valve drops it wont fall all the way into the bore!, you also run the risk of the piston creeping back down the bore under the pressure if its not at TDC. My preferred method is to turn to engine by hand until the piston is down the bore and insert a length of soft rope through the sparkplug hole so it bunches up in the bore. Then turn the engine (by hand) until you can feel the resistance of the rope being pushed against the combustion chamber, now the valves wont move and you have got no worries of them breaking their seal and dropping into the bore.

russxr67

you will need at the very least one of those overhead type mini spring compressor or if your good you can make a lever type compressor using curved flat bar of about 5mm thick which uses the rocker pivot as your fulcrum.if it is smokinhg bad on startup you will probably either have little or no seal left.while the spring is off check lateral movement of valve in guide to asses condition of guide.too much sideways movement means new guides.pm me if you like.im in perth as well.