Well, just had to share my joy at how easy this job was. Started about 1 PM and finished at 7:30 PM with a few breaks.

Used the simple pry bar which worked well once I pulled the carb for clearance and basically run it down as far as it would go on the stud. I just rotated each cylinder in firing order to TDC, fed a little rope in for insurance and went to work. As a plus with this method, I set the valve lash as I did each cylinder.

Replaced the Crane teflon seals with the Edelbrock viton seals. I was actaully able to pull a couple of the seals off by hand so I am hoping this will solve my oil burning problem. I actaully had a couple that were not stary on the guide by sliding up the valve stem. Funny bit of info, I did some research and found out that the Crane seal is designed for guide diameter of .531 inches but the Edelbrock is designed for a diameter of .530 inches. Since these are Edelbrock head, I knew the new seals would fit. But I wonder if the difference was enough to cause the seals to move.

Anyway, I have now resealed the intake and installed new seals. If I am still burrning oil I will have to conclude that the rings have not seated yet (motor has less than 1000 miles). Now the problem is that the weather here sucks so the Vette stays inside.

Oh well, just had to share and now for a .

 

Any additional details you can provide in changing valve stem seals
would be helpful as I need to do this job also. You mentioned
rotating the engine so each cylinder was at TDC. Can you
explain how you did this? If you watch both rocker arms when
they are both up and even is this how you determined TDC?

 

Mark,
I have a Fluidampner that is marked every 90 degrees and an ARP balancer bolt that has a built-in 1/2" socket. So, I put a long ratchet into the balancer and rotate it so that the 0 mark is lined up with timing pointer. This is either #1 or #6 TDC and I have the dist marked for #1. So, I now have #1 at TDC on the firing stroke with both valves closed.
Then, I removed the rocker arms, and pushrods. With the piston at TDC, the valves can't drop more than 1/2" inch especially if you feed a little rope in through the spark plug hole. I then used a $9 pry bar valve spring compressor to compress the springs and remove the keepers. The pry bar attached to the stud with the rocker arm nut which I cranked down a bit to help compress the spring.
Replaced the seals, reinstalled springs (once again, cranking down on the nut holding the pry-bar), and reinstalled the keepers. Since the cylinder is at TDC on the firing stroke, both lifters are on the base circle, so I dropped in the pushrods, reinstalled the rocker arms and adjusted the lash. Since I have roller rockers with poly locks, lash is easy to adjust.
Then, rotate the crank 90 degrees to bring the next cylinder in the firing order to TDC and repeat. So, I did 1-8-4-3-6-5-7-2 in that order.

I was actually pretty nervous about doing the job but it was actually pretty easy. I did look at the screw type of compressor but the arms at the bottom were too short since I have dual springs.

Hope this info helps.

Forgot to mention that I also have electric fans so access to the balancer is easy (though the VBP stiffner bar does get in the way a little ).