Replace valve seals
Thread Starter
Burning Brakes
Joined: Aug 2006
Posts: 780
Likes: 0
From: New Port Richey Florida
Replace valve seals
getting a puff of blue smoke out of my 86 on cold start only, runs good no other issues, smoke goes away in a couple of seconds, I'm not using any oil so I figure valve seals are shot. I did the job a lot of years ago and used compressed air to hold the valves up while removing the springs, my question is I only have a small compressor probably will hold 80-90 lbs consistent pressure, will that be enough to keep them valves up, I don't want to remove the heads to fish a valve out. I've read you can feed rope through the spark plug hole into the cylinder but it sounds like a pain to me, doing the job with the compressed air was pretty easy, but at that time I was in a shop with a large compressor probably holding 140-150 lbs, should I chance it??
Racer
Joined: Oct 2002
Posts: 416
Likes: 2
From: Westfield MA
I did the seals on my '87 using a Sears compressor. I had about 90 psi at the spark plug hole. Didn't have any problems. It really helps to hit the valve spring retainer with a hammer and soft drift (brass or aluminum) to "unstick" the keepers before you compress the spring.
