22RE Valve Stem Seal Replacement
08-22-2010, 05:35 PM
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22RE Valve Stem Seal Replacement
My 238k 22RE was blowing a bit of blue smoke coming off idle, and consuming about 1.5qts of dino juice between changes, so I decided it was time for valve seals.
...and I was looking for an excuse to drop an EB 261 cam in there, but that's beside the point.
I'd seen a couple mentions in threads about doing the valve stem seals without removing the head, but nothing definitive - seemed like a lot of folks were warning you might pop the HG if you pressure the cylinders to keep the valves up while doing the job, and so on, so I figured I'd just go for it and post back results.
The verdict: it works great.
Long story short, I cut some spacers about the same height as the rocker arm assembly out of some 1/2" conduit that I had kicking around, and used them to run the head bolts back in and clamp the head down a bit once I'd removed the rocker assy.
I did have to ream out the conduit a little bit to get it to slip over the head-to-rocker-assy dowels.
After I had the head good and clamped down with the bolts and spacers, I hooked up a compressor to a compression tester hose with the Schrader valve removed, and pressurized the first cylinder. Slipped on my shiny-new Carquest valve spring compressor, picked out the keepers, and off came the valve spring giving access to the seals.
The seals came off easy enough; the new ones going on were a little more fiddly. I only had the cylinders aired up to about 10PSI, so I couldn't press on the valve stem much without dropping it into the great black abyss of doom. I solved this by oiling up the seals so they would slide easier, and very carefully working them onto the stem, then gently pressing them on with a #3 common screwdriver.
Note: take a minute and plug all the oil passages in the head with rags or something, especially oh, say, that left rear drainage passage. It's just in the perfect spot to swallow a valve spring keeper if you were so clumsy as to drop one back there. DAMHIK.
Bottom line: I won't know for a few weeks if my oil consumption is down or not, but my little puff of smoke on takeoff is GONE!
The old seals were in rough shape, should've done them long ago.
And thus far, no sign of head gasket destruction.
Idle is much smoother, though how much of that is due to the new cam I can't say.
If I did it again, I would want a bit more pressure in the cylinders to hold the valves up - 10PSI was pretty weak. Not too much more though, no need to risk HG bustage. Even just 20PSI would make sliding the new seals on the valve stems way less sketchy, without going crazy with pressure.
Hope this helps someone in the future considering doing valve stem seals without pulling the head.
...and I was looking for an excuse to drop an EB 261 cam in there, but that's beside the point.
I'd seen a couple mentions in threads about doing the valve stem seals without removing the head, but nothing definitive - seemed like a lot of folks were warning you might pop the HG if you pressure the cylinders to keep the valves up while doing the job, and so on, so I figured I'd just go for it and post back results.
The verdict: it works great.
Long story short, I cut some spacers about the same height as the rocker arm assembly out of some 1/2" conduit that I had kicking around, and used them to run the head bolts back in and clamp the head down a bit once I'd removed the rocker assy.
I did have to ream out the conduit a little bit to get it to slip over the head-to-rocker-assy dowels.
After I had the head good and clamped down with the bolts and spacers, I hooked up a compressor to a compression tester hose with the Schrader valve removed, and pressurized the first cylinder. Slipped on my shiny-new Carquest valve spring compressor, picked out the keepers, and off came the valve spring giving access to the seals.
The seals came off easy enough; the new ones going on were a little more fiddly. I only had the cylinders aired up to about 10PSI, so I couldn't press on the valve stem much without dropping it into the great black abyss of doom. I solved this by oiling up the seals so they would slide easier, and very carefully working them onto the stem, then gently pressing them on with a #3 common screwdriver.
Note: take a minute and plug all the oil passages in the head with rags or something, especially oh, say, that left rear drainage passage. It's just in the perfect spot to swallow a valve spring keeper if you were so clumsy as to drop one back there. DAMHIK.
Bottom line: I won't know for a few weeks if my oil consumption is down or not, but my little puff of smoke on takeoff is GONE!
The old seals were in rough shape, should've done them long ago.And thus far, no sign of head gasket destruction.
Idle is much smoother, though how much of that is due to the new cam I can't say.
If I did it again, I would want a bit more pressure in the cylinders to hold the valves up - 10PSI was pretty weak. Not too much more though, no need to risk HG bustage. Even just 20PSI would make sliding the new seals on the valve stems way less sketchy, without going crazy with pressure.
Hope this helps someone in the future considering doing valve stem seals without pulling the head.
01-29-2013, 12:11 PM
#4
Seriously?
I'm sure it held up just fine...unless he used a 1000+ psi compressor...AS IF!!!
Besides he says quite clearly he only used 10 psi(but might use 20). Which if true, would be NOWHERE NEAR enough to cause an issue(in either case).
Combustion / Expansion Stroke
This stroke is where the spark plug ignites the air/fuel mixture, creating very high cylinder pressure which rise very quickly. Peak cylinder pressures near TDC (where spark occurs) will be in the range of 300 psi for engine's at light loads, to 1000 psi for production engines at full power to 1500 psi or greater for race engines. This is where the engine's power comes from, as it forces the piston down. As the piston goes down, the cylinder volume increases which reduces the cylinder pressure. When the piston gets to the bottom on the cylinder (BDC) there may only be 100 to 500 psi in the cylinder.
This stroke is where the spark plug ignites the air/fuel mixture, creating very high cylinder pressure which rise very quickly. Peak cylinder pressures near TDC (where spark occurs) will be in the range of 300 psi for engine's at light loads, to 1000 psi for production engines at full power to 1500 psi or greater for race engines. This is where the engine's power comes from, as it forces the piston down. As the piston goes down, the cylinder volume increases which reduces the cylinder pressure. When the piston gets to the bottom on the cylinder (BDC) there may only be 100 to 500 psi in the cylinder.
Besides he says quite clearly he only used 10 psi(but might use 20). Which if true, would be NOWHERE NEAR enough to cause an issue(in either case).
Last edited by MudHippy; 01-29-2013 at 12:16 PM.
01-29-2013, 06:20 PM
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WTF? I am asking a serious question. Since everyone says not to do it this way because you can move the head when you remove the rocker bolts. Just do a search and see what they say... I wasn't asking you anyways. I was asking Mountain Goat.
10-10-2016, 06:11 AM
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22RE Valve Stem Seal Replacement
The method works great, the key is having 4 or more spacers (height of rocker arm head bolt channels) that allow you to clamp down the head using the head bolts. I used a length of 1/4" cord run into each cylinder in the low position after which I rotated the crank to compress-up the piston onto the cord bunch. This keeps the valves in place firmly with no worry of the valve dropping when you are using air pressure. Have not noticed any head gasket issues and blue puff of smoke is gone from startup and going off-idle.
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10-13-2016, 02:27 PM
#9
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Sometimes some folks get lucky, but bad practice is bad practice.
Hell, even the space shuttle only blows up every 50 launches or so.
No mechanic who has to stand good for their work would consider doing things this way.
I know my machines deserve better treatment than this, and they get it.
Hell, even the space shuttle only blows up every 50 launches or so.
No mechanic who has to stand good for their work would consider doing things this way.
I know my machines deserve better treatment than this, and they get it.
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