Potent68

....valve springs that is.



After reading all the stories of breakage, and with my '02 being a very early '02, I didn't want to risk hurting it. With less than 10k miles on the odometer I replaced the yellows. I went ahead and threw in new valve guide seals for good measure.

Gratuitous shot of the car outside.

ZEEZERO-6

Fastest COLOR

02BlownZ06

Nice ride! That fix is first on my list. Do you mind me asking how much it cost?

Potent68

Not at all. I got the springs and valve guide seals for about $130. It cost me a little more than that because I bought the air hose adapter ($12) to keep the cylinders pressurized while I did it as well as the valve spring compression tool ($80).

Georgies

Great looking z! Whats the tool called to keep the cylinder pressurized? Also which one did you get?the compressor too?

Thanks

Potent68

Here's the tool that I used. It's the Lisle 19700. I had to add the right adapter to it so I could connect it to my air hose. My compressor is a big stand up unit that I've had for years.

Georgies

Thanks alot bud! How many psi did you use ?

I ment the spring compressor tho lol !

Potent68

Lol, my bad! As for the air pressure, I'd have to fire up the compressor and see where it's set. I set it years ago and use it for all my air tools so I'm not sure off hand. As for the valve spring compressor, "Proform 67605 Valve Spring Compressor".

bwill03z

Great looking car. That was the first thing I did to my 03

MY03C5Z

Nice job, I replaced mine with new gm blue springs shortly after I got it 5 years ago. Very good insurance and peace of mind.

MBVette

How hard of a job is it? Ive never done that before, but watching videos online makes it seem pretty simple.

Potent68

Thanks! After reading the stories of broken valve springs, some of which took out the engine, I wasn't about to risk it. Now I can have fun without having that nagging concern in the back of my mind.

Potent68

It was super easy for me but I was a mechanic when I was younger. I'm not sure how challenging the average person would find it to be. Frankly, the biggest pain for me was getting the new (stiffer rubber) air line threaded into a few of the spark plug holes.

MY03C5Z

Hardest part for me was getting the spring retainers out and back in without dropping any into the abyss of the engine bay, lol. I only dropped one and thankfully I found it. I'm no pro mechanic but I have worked on a lot of cars over the years. I used the air hose method to keep valves up, it was a good time to do plugs & wires too. You WILL screw up an old plug wire using this method if wires have never been off, I messed up a few. This was my first time working on a LS engine, way simpler job than older style gm engines. Since you don't have to worry about tdc when tightening the rocker arms, just torque them down to 22ft lbs and done. On a difficulty scale of 1-10 I'd rate this job a 5.


.

Georgies

Do you have any good write ups?? Also, what spark llhgs and wires did you get?

MY03C5Z

I used NGK tr55 plugs and MSD Red ls wires. Here are a few very good links that should cover almost any questions about the job:

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...nt-w-pics.html

https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...or-how-to.html

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MBVette

of course I just changed plugs and wires so I will have to get into that damn #7 again if I want to do this.

MY03C5Z

You shouldn't have that much trouble getting new plug wires off. It's the original ones that have been on there 15 years that are a pain to get out intact.

laurent_zo6

Changing spark plugs and wires.pdf

AmbulanceDriver

The biggest pain in the butt