Valve seals

berettajunkie1991 · Post by **berettajunkie1991** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 2:38 am

Hi, I have a new 3.1 and my valve seals are bad because my radiator went out one day so now i am burning oil like no other any suggestions on how to replace the seals, i know they are cheap but how do i change them? any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Asylum · Post by **Asylum** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 8:20 am

Who told you that?
Overheating an engine will damage valve seals?
It will potentially damage a number of things, none of which is good, but valve seals?
You are likely much better off getting a second opinion.
In any event a couple of things come to mind.
A) If you need valve seals, you likely need a valve job, so the heads are coming off anyway.
B) It actually can be done with the heads on the car, but it's rather tricky, especially a V6, and if you drop a valve, which you likely will do, the heads are coming off anyway.
It's rather involved and requires the cylinder to be filled with compressed air while the valve locks, retainer and spring are removed.
And depending on the condition of your engine, you may not be able to hold the valves in position with air.
If the rings are questionable or the valve seats worn, you may have a serious problem.
There is an alternate method involving string, but that is just silly.
The front 3 aren't too bad "IF YOU KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING" but the back 3 are almost impossible with the engine in the car.
It would actually be easier to pull the heads, have them checked and refreshed and put them back on.

berettajunkie1991 · Post by **berettajunkie1991** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 9:32 pm

the cylinder heads are brand new refurbs and the reason im sure the rings are not bad is because the engine starts right up every time it is actually starting to burn out the starter and there is no puffing of blow by out of the oil cap or anything the oil does not smell abnormal either and i have had an well experienced mechanic say it is about he is about 95% sure that it is just the seals and nothing else so i would rather spend about 40 dollars over about 300 dollars
Also if i were to changed the vavle guides is there any special tools that i will need? one more thing these heads are rebuilt from autozone so really who knows what they did or did not do.

Asylum · Post by **Asylum** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 9:55 am

You are going to have to pull the heads.
Guides CANNOT be done with the heads on the engine.
The valves have to come out, and with all due respect it sounds like you don't know much about engines.
Engines with huge blow by will start just fine, as long as there is sufficient compression, so that is certainly no indication of ring condition whatsoever..
And I'm not sure what any of this has to do with the starter.
There is no cheap way to fix what you are describing, if in fact the mechanic you are listening to is correct.
Ask him if he can do a "leak down test"?
That will tell you very quickly where the problem is.

berettajunkie1991 · Post by **berettajunkie1991** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 1:58 pm

well the engine is brand new i built it with tight specs and i know for a fact my starter was brand new and it didnt have a problem starting until the engine was rebuilt and there was much more compression because the cylinder were bored over i was just asking if there was an easy way of taking the guides off because i want to do a visual inspection of the cylinders anyways to make sure there is nothing going on inside the motor to cause oil burning such as rings but since i know that the heads are from autozone " autozone qaulity" that could just be a factor in why it is burning oil. Do keep in mind i am only 17

Asylum · Post by **Asylum** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 7:30 pm

Here is what you need to do.
Go get a Haynes manual for the car!
READ alot. You will learn alot.
The problem you are having could be from a number of problems. Some serious, some from it simply being a new engine assembly.
But you are listening to people theorizing on what may be wrong without actually having a look.
Boring the cylinders will actually DECREASE the compression ratio in and of itself because the volume is increased, so it's a larger area with the same physical static "squeeze" in the cylinder.
The starter issue is a NON issue here, so leave that. It's either good or it isn't.
Your oil problem is mechanical somewhere and you have people guessing at the problem.
If you can find someone to do a Leak Down test, as I suggested, you will find your problem very quickly.
PM me if you want to know all the basics of doing one, BUT any good mechanic will know what it is even if they don't have the equipment to do it.
Has anyone even done a compression check?
Should be ~170-185+ but more important is that all cylinders are about the same.
You need to know what the symptoms are before you perform surgery.
Same here.
You don't know enough, so find that out and go from there.

Decipha · Post by **Decipha** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 8:57 pm

since the engine was just rebuilt did you 'seat' the rings using the acceleration technique? if not that could be why its burning oil.

berettajunkie1991 · Post by **berettajunkie1991** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 2:11 am

just did a compression test all the cylinders are within 5 Psi of each other so it ranges from 175 to 180 psi per cylinder so it is well within the 30% range so more than likely it has to be the valve seals or the guides all the plugs are nice and clean too. but now since i have done the compression test the car does not run like it should any ideas it feel like it has bad injectors but there less than a year old. and i have checked all the wire and plugs but maybe one had cracked or fractured or maybe one of the wires broke inside?

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