[DMAC]

Going to have a crack at doing my stem seals today.

Question is. The seals I have a slightly different colour. Does this signify whether it is an inlet or exhaust seal? Ones grey and ones reddish.

Will take pics and post how I go. Trying to do it without taking the head off.

[royce]

dunno about the colour, red might be viton and higher temp? you dont really need seals on the exhaust side anyway, there is no vacuum to suck oil in

can be done with the head on, you have an overhead valve spring compressor? I like lowering the piston down and stuffing some thin rope in the plug hole then raising the piston back up so the rope squishes against the valves to hold them in place

[DMAC]

Thanks Royce.
I was going down the compressed air road but the rope trick sounds the go. Going to see if I can make a spring compressor. Will do the inlet side first and see how it goes.

[royce]

air works well but you spend a lot of time trying to get the piston lined up and then if you bump the valve the air all runs out anyway and it still drops

[DMAC]

Built the over head spring compressor. A bit dodgy but functional.

Now the hard part.
Man it is hot outside.

[royce]

Free sticker if you take pics and do a how too

[DMAC]

It's all just turned to custard. Funny that.
Put the soft string in.
Brought it up on the compression stroke.
Compress the valve spring and the valve stays put.
Get the tweezers grab the first collet.
Slippery little sucker. Gone.
Worry about that later.
Umm lots of hardware still in place. For the life of me I can't get the valve spring off with the rocker in the way and if I did It's going to be tight access for that valve seal.

Argh well I gave it a shot so off with its head.

I'll still post pics and do a how not too.

LTM21 has got the radiator out, and exhaust off already.

Hope I find that collet.

[BAZZOOK]

Many moons ago when I had the energy I braised a pipe fitting to a gutted spark plug to pump air into the cylinder. Did valve seals on a Valiant. Worked a treat. Saved pulling the head off

[royce]

use zipties to pull the rocker gear out of the way and a magnet pickup tool to grab the collets

[Scrawny]

BAZZOOK wrote:

Many moons ago when I had the energy I braised a pipe fitting to a gutted spark plug to pump air into the cylinder. Did valve seals on a Valiant. Worked a treat. Saved pulling the head off

I used a similar tool when I did the stem seals on my sis-in-laws Corolla. I also just used offset spanners to get the collets out

[DMAC]

royce wrote:

use zipties to pull the rocker gear out of the way and a magnet pickup tool to grab the collets

Too late. Head came off and all done.

Some pics of how I went.
For starters this is my workshop. Plenty of ventilation.

Roughly lined up the angle of the valve to the handle.

Wallah, one valve spring compressor.

As I said went down hill from there so I umm LTM21 whipped the head off.

Removed the dizzy.

Loosn all the rocker screws.

Remove the rocker rod screws.

Slide out the rods and place rockers and springs in order.
The Rocker rods can go in either way so make sure you place it the way it came out. If you forget check the oil galleries line up prior to putting it back in.

Working with Royce's string suggestion I placed a wad of rags under the valve I was going to remove the spring from.
Compress the spring and remove the collets. I used some tweezers for this.

Gently work the stem seal off.

I used a 12mm socket to gently tap the new seal into place.


Then put everthing back in reverse order.

[steak_knife]

Nice work, I tried & failed to explain to some one how to make a valve spring compressor like that.

[royce]

I like that compressor, I am going to make one for a mini I have to do soon

[Scrawny]

Good job guys. Have you got a better photo of ya tool? Did you get it running? Any better?

[Damo]

ScrawnC wrote:

Have you got a better photo of ya tool?

Geez Scrawn, you're not backward in coming forward are ya?

[Scrawny]

Damo wrote:

ScrawnC wrote:

Have you got a better photo of ya tool?

Geez Scrawn, you're not backward in coming forward are ya?

I knew someone would comment. I'm not subtle

[DMAC]

ScrawnC wrote:

Good job guys. Have you got a better photo of ya tool? Did you get it running? Any better?

I'll post up a better pic son.
Got to get a head and exhaust gasket. Hopefully Ripco has one on the shelf. Would like it back together before the predicted rain.

I'm hoping it will fix it otherwise its gotta be the rings.

[Rito]

Did a ring around to check prices of VRS gasket kits friday..

Ripco- $209.00

Auto Pro- $150.00

Super Cheap- $70.ish

Autobarn- wouldnt answer the phone

Not sure of the brands but $140 difference?

[DMAC]

Rito wrote:

Did a ring around to check prices of VRS gasket kits friday..

Ripco- $209.00

Auto Pro- $150.00

Super Cheap- $70.ish

Autobarn- wouldnt answer the phone

Not sure of the brands but $140 difference?

Ha Ha.
Only needed the head gasket and exhaust gasket. All up $43.00
Helps to know the guy behind the counter.

[DMAC]

ScrawnC wrote:

Good job guys. Have you got a better photo of ya tool? Did you get it running? Any better?

Okay here's some pics but no comments from Damo about my tool. I know its rough but I just wanted it to work. Took about 30mins to make with a grinder and mig.







Pics of setting the timing.
Cam pully align with top indent. Ignore my arrow its just there to make sure the timing belt went back the same way. Its backwards as to the way it actually goes.



Bottom dot aligns with mark.


Put timing belt on. wind the crank around twice clockwise. All rocker screws have to be loosened. This is to ensure the timing belt tensions correctly. After this tighten the tension plate and tensioner pully.

Turn the crank so the camshaft pully is now pointing down and the crankshaft pully dot aligns again.


Check the cam lobes are pointing down.

Exhaust lobe.


Inlet lobe.


Dizzy goes in with rotor in this position.


Adjust valave clearances as per manual. Section 3-8 Page 107

[steak_knife]

Nice work son, love a tool made for the job.

[eldo]

excellent job, maybe a write up on how to make the tool. royce you had better get that sticker ready

[DMAC]

Forget the sticker. Didn't fix it. Its still as smokey as before!!! Maybe just a little better.

It did start up first kick, and runs smoothly. It did idle fast but I had just done up the throttle cable a little tight.

Now at the decision making time.
Do I just put up with it.
Do a rebuild of the block.
Do the 1.6 efi conversion. (My preference)

Problem is I have to jump through hoops with the Transport Department for LTM21 to drive it when he gets his "P"s if I go with the 1.6 conversion. Can't have a Blue plate modded engine without a letter of approval. Just hassle factor I suppose.

[losfer]

maybe the valve guides are worn ?

congrats on having a go anyway

[Che]

Here's the problem I face in cylinder #3, all the other plugs look OK. I really want to rebuild my spare motor, but right now money is too tight to do it all at once.



What would it cost to get a single valve stem seal sorted at a shop? No way I can do this sorta thing with the tools I have.

[Scrawny]

I think you'll be hard pressed to find someone willing to do it. That's a lot of effort and really only half the job

[DMAC]

Scrawn wrote:

I think you'll be hard pressed to find someone willing to do it. That's a lot of effort and really only half the job

X2. As you may have read in the thread it still didn't completely fix the issues. It was a good learning experience though.

PS. Thats a nasty looking spark plug.