Changing valve stem seals is worth it!

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FCD

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Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain
Some of you might remember in August i changed my stem seals because the car was burning lots of oil.
The old seals were absolutely trash, they were more like hard plastic than rubber.
I have not had to add any oil to the engine for a while now, i was toying around with trying Valvoline VR1 20W50 oil but i might actually go to Shell Rimula R4X 15W40 HDEO, now that it burns way less oil.
2016-12-28_09-30-39 by Capri Driver, en Flickr
 
This is one of the best posts I've seen on here in a long time! I favour proper fixes over band-aids and this is exactly that
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Wonder how long I'll wait to see someone change their RMS before trying Maxlife? Lol

Yours is a pushrod engine? So I think you only had to remove the rocker covers?
 
Originally Posted By: Olas

Wonder how long I'll wait to see someone change their RMS before trying Maxlife?


My son and I are planning to do just that in our 1984 F150: replace all of the gaskets and seals. the engine currently is an oil-soaked mess.
We are also replacing the leaking radiator and heater core instead of adding stop leak. (ok, we did add stop leak just to get the truck home - it was a 300 mile drive - with my AAA Motorclub card handy...)
 
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Originally Posted By: BigD1
Did you remove the head?

No, just the rockers and pushrods.
Yes olas it's a pushrod solid flat tappet engine.
Originally Posted By: BigD1
Congrats to the OP on keeping and maintaining the 1975 Capri !

Thanks! It's been in the family from new and it's great to keep it going.
Russell hommage 8/6/16 by Capri Driver, en Flickr
 
The job cost me only about 20 Euros for the seals and 2 rocker cover gaskets, a friend of mine who is a mechanic let me use his valve spring compressor and with the help of a friend we had it done in about 8 Hours? The hardest part to do i found was to get the keepers seated correctly in the grooves, a lot of swearing was involved.
 
Did that many years ago on a SAAB V-4 motor. I recall fitting a air compressor to each cylinder to keep the valves from falling into the cylinders. It cured the smoking problem.
 
Originally Posted By: redbone3
Did that many years ago on a SAAB V-4 motor. I recall fitting a air compressor to each cylinder to keep the valves from falling into the cylinders. It cured the smoking problem.

Well, it isn't quite a Saab motor, they were made by Ford in their Cologne plant in Germany.
I didn't need an air compressor, all i did was just raise the piston to TDC and i did not have any problems.
 
I was real close to doing the valve seals on my '85 GMC this week, but am doing home repairs and cleanup around the house/shop instead. I hate to go through the trouble to get the VC's off in the truck when the oil cooler lines and main seals are leaking and it really just needs to come out of the truck for a complete re-seal as well as new vacuum lines and a carb. rebuild, while the tranny is being rebuilt. But that's a $1,500 dollar, week long proposition, and I'll just live vicariously off other people's posts for another year until that can happen.
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One thing's for sure, that Schaeffer's 7000 10w30 has no qualms about flowing - in or out of the engine.
 
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Originally Posted By: FordCapriDriver
Originally Posted By: redbone3
Did that many years ago on a SAAB V-4 motor. I recall fitting a air compressor to each cylinder to keep the valves from falling into the cylinders. It cured the smoking problem.

Well, it isn't quite a Saab motor, they were made by Ford in their Cologne plant in Germany.
I didn't need an air compressor, all i did was just raise the piston to TDC and i did not have any problems.


Might have worked that way for me, but I didn't want to take a chance. Air compressor eliminated the risk of a valve falling into the cylinder.
 
No. No. It's all been done wrong. You were supposed to use Maxlife on 3month/3k mile intervals until the consumption stopped. Maybe even a few "oil additives" could have helped
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Sarcasm aside, its great to see you fixed the problem (and DIY too!) rather than relying on "band-aid fixes," as another poster said. Is there much point changing your oil, think in the past you stated a preference for 20w50 due the Spanish temperatures, although I could be wrong.
 
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