Has anyone here done this? I know it involves removing the cams, pressurizing each cylinder as it's worked on and then compressing the spring. Wondering what tool to use to compress the spring, and will air pressure alone be strong enough to keep the valve up? Thanks for any input.
Yes, you can do it. Yes, it's much as you describe. Yes, there are tools to compress the spring. Yes, air pressure is enough to keep the valves closed.
Don't bother.
If you're really losing significant amounts of oil through the valve guides, new seals will only help for a few weeks.
The guides wear, then allow the valve stems to move, thus wearing the seals. If you just replace the seals, without stopping the movement (with new guides) of the stem that ruins the seals, you'll be back where you started (minus a hundred bucks or so) in a remarkably short time.
I've never seen valve guides (or seals) bad enough to warrant a cylinder head overhaul.
If you're suffering high oil consumption or smoke in the exhaust, I'd suggest further diagnosis.
If you have neither high oil consumption nor excessive smoke, I'd suggest leaving the worms in their can.
Jim, thanks for your input. I know at least 2 seals are bad because I had to put them in bad (parts placed ordered wrong ones, had to get the car back on the road for work), that's why I'm headed in that direction. If it isn't the seals I don't know what it is -- it's not the turbo (replaced), it leaks a little in a few places but not enough to account for a quart every couple hundred miles of city driving. Based on your input I'll do a compression check first but I'm pretty confident the engine is in good shape. Boy would I love to fix this oil issue....
yeah, i'm in the same boat, massive oil consumption. My turbo is new(GT28) and i know exactly where my oil leaks are (mostly around the filter mount & level sensor), but i'm also smoking like crazy. I did a compression check and all figures were within 10-15psi of each other, so i don't think it's the rings. God I hope i didn't screw something up with the turbo, but it sounds normal, so I'm hoping for the best with that. I heard that bad valve seals would dump massive amounts of oil out, so i'm thinking that may be your problem.... now if i could just figure out mine ...
If you're burning that much oil through two valve seals, it will show on the plugs.
Oil filters and oil pressure senders can leak that much without showing on the motor. Often you can see it on the undercarriage behind the filter. Oil coolers can leak too.
Jim, the plugs are not black but they are grey encrusted. Could this be oil residue? Or maybe I should ask more directly, what does oil on the plugs look like on these cars?
Bad PCV system valve can cause excessive oil burning. The little plastic boost blocker valve in the small diameter vacuum/pressure hose from the throtle body or intake plenum to the PCV fitting on the cam cover is about $10 and worth checking and replacing.
Jim, the plugs are not black but they are grey encrusted. Could this be oil residue? Or maybe I should ask more directly, what does oil on the plugs look like on these cars?
Use a magnet to remove the keepers, use a dab of grease on the grooves in the valve stem to hold the keepers in place during re-assembly.
I hope it all works out for you.
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