Valve Stem seal job?

[Call the midlife!]

@Call the midlife!
appreciated.
Ok for a bit then if that's the case

I reckon they'll let you know when they're ready 👍🏻

[thetyrant]

@thetyrant

out of interest, what miles on that engine?

105k and looks quite good inside apart from seals, no real wear on cam lobes or journals and valve clearances I checked measured in spec, only checked a couple but will do all once back together however its always run pretty quiet.

[Ardent]

I thought it looked clean.
I imagine quiet satisfying knowing its done.

[shnazzle]

I hate you. 

I've now got valve seals on the brain. The gaps calling me from outside

[Call the midlife!]

I hate you.

I've now got valve seals on the brain. The gaps calling me from outside

Not sure if I've got a spare set left, can't remember if I sent a set to Spit or not with the spring compressor...

[Carolyn]

I hate you.

I've now got valve seals on the brain. The gaps calling me from outside

If it ain't broke....  Is she using oil?

[shnazzle]

I hate you.

I've now got valve seals on the brain. The gaps calling me from outside

If it ain't broke....  Is she using oil?

Besides the point! It's knowing those gaps are there

[thetyrant]

I hate you.

I've now got valve seals on the brain. The gaps calling me from outside

If it ain't broke....  Is she using oil?

Besides the point! It's knowing those gaps are there

I wouldn't worry if not using oil as C says, even on my car with those slack seals the was no gap visible when on the valve just not as much tension as the new ones, if you worried take manifold off and have a look in ports for any seepage like I had.

Just to add to this, below is picture of the port side of valves from cylinder1 that seal pic came from, looks probably best out of the 4 with no obvious oil on valve itself, be interest to see what seals look like on cylinder 2 which was worst for visible oil.

You cannot view this attachment.

[thetyrant]

Still on with this, was delayed by loosing the collet/keeper and also im now back at work so less time to work on car,  i have another keeper (huge thanks to kind members on here so last night finished cylinder1 seals and springs/buckets all back on

Will get on with other cylinders this week so hopefully back up and running by the weekend, iv sorned the car now so no panic.

[Akayfortyseven]

My 1zz burns oil, whats the best way to check if its valve stem seals? This looks like a job I could do to be honest!

[thetyrant]

My 1zz burns oil, whats the best way to check if its valve stem seals? This looks like a job I could do to be honest!

There are a few ways to test for stem seal wear but no simple 1 test that says for sure they are worn, mine was a visual check when i removed the exhaust manifold as you can see the exhaust valves and mine had oil seeping down them as per my pics on 1st page of this thread

Does your car smoke ?   and if so when does it do it ?  stem seal wear usually gives smoking after coasting off throttle then hitting accelerator but its not a definite test, the piston oil control rings are more common cause of oil usage/smoke on these and many think im wasting my time with stem seals, however its cheap enough to do (especially if you can do it yourself like me)  so im giving it a go as they are certainly leaking oil.

[Akayfortyseven]

Thanks for the reply. Cars on 90k, smokes when you blip the accelerator. Changed PCV for new genuine and also using a thicker oil, but still burning. Im aware its most likely the piston rings but if I replace them in the future I may as well do the stem seals. I have done the valve cover gasket in the past, so i just continue dissassmbling until I get to the point where I can insert the rope and remove the old seals?

My main concern would be the cam chain and getting that back properly!

If the tools are still 'in the group' when I get round to it it would be definately something I could do.

[Carolyn]

My 1zz burns oil, whats the best way to check if its valve stem seals? This looks like a job I could do to be honest!

Tyrant is right.

There's no sure way to tell if it's seals, or rings, or both.  Have someone follow you while you change down fairly hard and use engine braking ('on the over-run').  If there's blue smoke - that's oil going past the valve seals.

Unfortunately, most oil burning in our engines is down to stuck oil control rings, which is an engine rebuild job to fix.

If you're taking the engine out and apart to fix oil control problems, the best time to do the seals is when you have the head off the engine and on the bench.

The special tool, btw., is not club property!

[Akayfortyseven]

My 1zz burns oil, whats the best way to check if its valve stem seals? This looks like a job I could do to be honest!

Tyrant is right.

There's no sure way to tell if it's seals, or rings, or both.  Have someone follow you while you change down fairly hard and use engine braking ('on the over-run').  If there's blue smoke - that's oil going past the valve seals.

Unfortunately, most oil burning in our engines is down to stuck oil control rings, which is an engine rebuild job to fix.

If you're taking the engine out and apart to fix oil control problems, the best time to do the seals is when you have the head off the engine and on the bench.

The special tool, btw., is not club property!

Yeah, its just if I ever did the pistons, id most likely to the seals as well, so it makes sense to at least try this if its easier to do.

Ah, sorry, I thought it was something that members could use! No worries. By the way Carolyn, I think I met you a couple of years ago at Rutland MR2, I was getting a replacement bumper and bonnet, you had a silver MRS with a snazzy kit on it I think?

[Carolyn]

My 1zz burns oil, whats the best way to check if its valve stem seals? This looks like a job I could do to be honest!

Tyrant is right.

There's no sure way to tell if it's seals, or rings, or both.  Have someone follow you while you change down fairly hard and use engine braking ('on the over-run').  If there's blue smoke - that's oil going past the valve seals.

Unfortunately, most oil burning in our engines is down to stuck oil control rings, which is an engine rebuild job to fix.

If you're taking the engine out and apart to fix oil control problems, the best time to do the seals is when you have the head off the engine and on the bench.

The special tool, btw., is not club property!

Yeah, its just if I ever did the pistons, id most likely to the seals as well, so it makes sense to at least try this if its easier to do.

Ah, sorry, I thought it was something that members could use! No worries. By the way Carolyn, I think I met you a couple of years ago at Rutland MR2, I was getting a replacement bumper and bonnet, you had a silver MRS with a snazzy kit on it I think?

Yes -that was me.  I do lend the tool out, but it's a one-off specially made tool, so it's quite precious.  I just don't want it being sent from one person to another without it being returned to me first.

Next time I have it back, I will copy it, so it's not the only one in existence.

[thetyrant]

Thanks for the reply. Cars on 90k, smokes when you blip the accelerator. Changed PCV for new genuine and also using a thicker oil, but still burning. Im aware its most likely the piston rings but if I replace them in the future I may as well do the stem seals. I have done the valve cover gasket in the past, so i just continue dissassmbling until I get to the point where I can insert the rope and remove the old seals?

My main concern would be the cam chain and getting that back properly!

If the tools are still 'in the group' when I get round to it it would be definately something I could do.

Its a MUCH bigger job than doing valve cover gasket, have a look at my pics earlier in the thread but its basically valve cover off, cam chain off, cams out then you can get cam buckets out to access the valves, not particularly difficult as long as your mechanically minded and have all the relevant tools, but as you can quite literally ruin the engine doing this job you need to be confident you have the ability before starting. 

Ive fully rebuilt a cylinder head (off the engine) for another car i had so its all pretty familiar to me, biggest concern was doing this without removing head using the rope method etc but slow and steady it seems to be working... so far, that said ive only done 5 seals out of the 16 so not counting my chickens yet!

Im sure on mine its going to help reduce smoking as i can see its been leaking into ports, but whether it cures it completely we will have to wait and see, im not holding my breath but if it does i will be over the moon and even if it just reduces it to acceptable levels it will give me time to ponder next plan of action.

[Akayfortyseven]

Good luck anyway! I recall when I changed my exhaust mani that there was oil there actually.

[thetyrant]

Got rest of cyl2 seals changed and all back together tonight after work so im half way now

If you had oil in the exhaust ports then good chance it was coming down valve seals, but as above might not just be that, below is picture of my worst leak which is cyl3 and next one im going to tackle.

You cannot view this attachment.

[thetyrant]

Last 4 seals changed tonight and all ready to drop cams back in but thats tomorrows job...... hope it all times up ok and then runs as sweet as before... but with less/no smoke!

[thetyrant]

OK update from today, got cams back in and all timed up which was a bit of a bugger about! but i got there in the end   turned it over a few times with coils disconnected to get some oil up into cams then once connected she fired up and ran sweetly

Car is sorn'd so cant really test it fully but it does seem to of stopped smoking from minimal tesing ive done so far, fingers crossed once i get chance to test it more its fixed... or at least improved enough to not warrant an engine change just yet.

[thetyrant]

Couldnt wait until next month so taxed it today and took to work this morning, stopped in layby on way there after it was nicely warmed up to give it a good rev and watch exhaust, no smoke visible which is a result! but i will run it as daily for rest of week keeping an eye on things and see how oil level goes but so far so good

[Joesson]

Couldnt wait until next month so taxed it today and took to work this morning, stopped in layby on way there after it was nicely warmed up to give it a good rev and watch exhaust, no smoke visible which is a result! but i will run it as daily for rest of week keeping an eye on things and see how oil level goes but so far so good

Encouraging news!

[thetyrant]

OK another update now ive got some more miles on there and also had chance to work engine a bit harder, normal driving and in town etc no signs of blue smoke at all which is great, however if you really work the engine hard at high revs there is some blue smoke coming out which increases the harder you rev, not terrible but its there and shouldnt be any so a partial result as i expected really, i didnt expect the stem seals to cure it completely as after all this is 105k mile engine which has a known weakness in piston design!

Where do we go from here, well im going to run it around for awhile see what oil consumption is like now, if it doesnt really use it when not thrashing it (which i rarley do on road) i will try to just not think about it and keep a close eye on levels until my next trackday and then see what its like there.
Also made enquires with Mr Sloan about a good used 1zz he did have available but its probably gone now, also pondering a 2zz swap but no real panic to do anything at moment and car runs nicely enough so just going to enjoy it

[Ardent]

@thetyrant

Do you know what your oil consumption was before?

Mls/mile

[thetyrant]

@thetyrant

Do you know what your oil consumption was before?

Mls/mile

I havent monitored it that closely really its just previously i never really had to put oil in and then i started noticing it needed some recently, at Croft track earlier this year when still turbo'd it used probably a litre over the duration of he day which was only maybe 100 track miles, of course track miles are much harder than road miles though with lots of full throttle, ive done maybe 80miles this week so since i did stem seals and its moved down a little on dipstick but as you know its not the easiest thing to read accurately!   will keep a close eye over next few days and see what happens.