I putting new valve seals in my 84. I got new intake and exhaust seals and got the plastic umbrella type for the exhaust. I pulled an exhaust spring off and noticed the exhaust seal in the car looks like an o-ring sort of. It is just round and slides over the valve but on the outside of the o-ring it has 2 little flanges comming off the the sides of it.

Did I get the wrong exhaust seals or should I be using the umbrella stlye seals in the place of the originals?

 

I did this on a previously owned 87 but on the advice of someone here I bought an extra set and used the umbrella style on both intake and exhaust.
Let me see if I have a "before" pic so you can see what it looks like prior to the job.

 

This is the best I could find. This looks like a pic of the first one I installed.

 

Use both.....I bought some rebuilt heads off of Ebay for my 85, and it was smokin' bad after I put it together. I bought some umbrella type valve seals and went to install them, and found out I was missing the o-rings. They are kind of a pain to install, but no more smokie.

 

Yea that's what I have for the intake seals. The exhaust seals that came out are an o- ring type seal and the new ones are a white/ yellowish plastic seal that goes over the valve and over th seat. I need to know if I can use the plastic ones instead of the o-ring style

 

You can use whatever type turns you on. I am using the positive stop type . Viton by Thomas.

 

Ok at napa they also show a rubber umbrella style like the hard plastic ones too. So there are three styles I can use the hard plastic umbrella. Rubber umbrella and o ring. Which should I use?

There is also the o ring that goes on the valve shaft. I got them. That in not the issue.

 

Ok at napa they also show a rubber umbrella style like the hard plastic ones too. So there are three styles I can use the hard plastic umbrella. Rubber umbrella and o ring. Which should I use?

There is also the o ring that goes on the valve shaft. I got them. That in not the issue.

 

Here's what I did on my 88. LINK

No more puff of smoke on startup and runs like a champ.

Ron

 

valve seals are one thing worth going to the dealer for. on my 96 the exhaust and intake were physically interchangeable but the exhaust seals were a different color and presumably of a more heat resistant material. just too much confusion in the aftermarket.

 

Absolutely unnecessary. I just changed the seals on my 96 LT4. It had positive stop seals on int and exh. The only hangup is that the OD of the valve guides is a little non standard.

I was doing a valve job anyway so I had the shop turn the valve guides down to .530 which is a standard readily available seal.

I would use the dealer seals (can you say expensive?) only if the valve guides are a strange size like mine. Premium viton seals on int and exh.

Eddie

 

Get 2 sets of Felpro SS72527 Viton intake seals

 

Nice write up Ron, very informative to someone who needs some info. Nice job.

So I got them done yesterday. When it comes to the exhaust seals the weird part was the No 1 cylinder had an o-ring and an umbrella (not counting the o-ring in the groove). Seeing Rons pics, I believe it was a umbrella with a o-ring in it like the white one in the pics. The rest of the exhaust were the plastic umbrella type. And they were different on top of that. Some were red and some were white. Also with the intake seals they were different, some were black and some were blue. Needless to say, someone monkeyed around in there and did some weird stuff. They are all done now withe the Fel-Pro intake and exhaust seals.

I will look into some of the other types mentioned in teh future when I rebuild the engine. For right now, I just wanted something better so I dont get the puff of smoke on start up. The car has 145K on it so I am on borrowed time and will probably need to rebuild the engine in the near future. I will re-evaluate the eingine condition when I hit 200K. So far it does not burn a lot of oil, maybe 1 quart every 2500-3k miles, which I think is not too bad considering the abuse that car gets. I am running Mobil 1 and changing every 5k miles so that my be helping.

Thank you all for the info, it is very helpful.