Valve Stem Seals

[thesameguy]

Ye olde XR4Ti has developed a pretty powerful oil smell during decel. It's fine in the morning, but gets pretty bad once the car has warmed up at all. The oil is admittedly about a year old, but that represents about 2,000 miles so not much use. It's synthetic 10w-40, same stuff I've been using for 15 years. The head was rebuilt about ten years and 25,000-30,000 miles ago by a reputable machine shop, for whatever that's worth. The valve stem seals would be the Felpro ones that came in the head set. I'm not seeing any smoking at idle, so I don't *think* it's the turbo, but that's on the table as well. It's been so little time I've not really observed any oil loss, but the smell is unmistakable... obviously. The appearance of the smell was sudden - like last week nothing, this week consistent behavior.

I'll do some investigating before committing to work, but I'm curious if anyone has any tips for the job. I have a compressor adapter, so the plan would be to replace the seals without removing the head. I also have these things:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0012 ... UTF8&psc=1

which have been useful in the past.

Any thoughts/ideas/prayers?

[Ed Lijewski]

I'd first check for VC gasket leak on exhaust msnifold side. Doesn't take more than a drop or drip drip on hot iron for the nose to detect it.

OTOH during decel engine vacuum is highest so a poor valve seal could allow oil to sneak past it.

The valve seal R&R tool makes replacing the seals easy. No tool needed to remove/reinstall the keepers.

Felpro seals are OK. I found on my professionally rebuilt head that one seal in particulsr hasn't been fully seated downward over the valve guide.

[I have the valve seal tool.]

YMMV

[thesameguy]

There are no external leaks on the engine anywhere - it's definitely coming from the inside. Since it's under high vacuum, I think valve stem seals are the most likely but turbo seals can fail in a similar-appearing way. Usually they present under low/no load, like at idle, and I'm not seeing that which is why I'm pretty sure it's valve stem seals.

What are you referring to by "the valve seal R&R tool" - some special Ford tool, or something else?

[Ed Lijewski]

K D 3087. There are others...

Screenshot_2018-01-31-19-10-57-1.png (1.14 MiB) Viewed 6783 times

YMMV

[thesameguy]

Wow! How the heck does that thing work? The only tool I have ever used to replace valve stem seals is a little pliers-like device



Admittedly, I have zero recollection of what the valve train on the 2.3 looks like, so I could be missing a major logic component.

[thesameguy]

Oh, now I get it.



So that thing removed the retainer, then pliers for the seal.

[thesameguy]

Well, that tool is simply not available anymore. Not the KD Tools version, not the Sealey version, not no version.

Based on your experience, do you think this alternative approach would work?

https://www.amazon.com/OTC-4573-Univers ... compressor

[Ed Lijewski]

Oh, now I get it.



So that thing removed the retainer, then pliers for the seal.

It just compresses the spring. Then you manually (and easily) remove the split keepers (two half moons) and manuslly remove the seal. No skill required. Reversing; install new seal fully on valve guide; next requires a bit of deftness to reinstall the keepers with one hand as you also compress the spring with the other hand using the tool; not difficult.

YMMV

[Ed Lijewski]

Well, that tool is simply not available anymore. Not the KD Tools version, not the Sealey version, not no version.

Based on your experience, do you think this alternative approach would work?

https://www.amazon.com/OTC-4573-Univers ... +compresso

Don't know.

YMMV

[thesameguy]

Hmm... Well, since I can afford the car to be down for a little bit, I'll try the Lisle tool I already have and go to Plan B if it doesn't work out. The Lisle hammer & magnet tool was very fast even on a 24v engine, so assuming it's physically sized correctly for the 2.3's valve stems I should be able to rocket through 8 pretty quickly.

Thanks!

[thesameguy]

Because I positively hate going into work and then running into problems, I spent way too long trying to find that KD Tool... tool. It doesn't exist anymore, and neither does the Sealey VS168 replacement or two other tools that are general similar. Nobody makes this type of tool anymore, maybe because the number of SOHC engines that aren't Ford modular motors these days is about nil.

I did however find a company on Aliexpress.com that makes a replica of it. I've only made a few purchases via aliexpress, but of those I've had only positive results so I figured why not. The tool is a whopping $27 after shipping. It may not be the best quality, but 1) it's not exactly a complicated tool and B) how many times in my life am I going to use it? It's worth $27 if it saves me some time & effort.

So if anyone reads this and needs the magic tool, here's where I got mine:

https://www.aliexpress.com/store/produc ... c931BUZ8fc

I have no idea why the URL has nothing to do with the product, but hopefully that's not gonna be an issue.

T***r from Sweden says it's good, and I trust him.

[Ed Lijewski]

Looks identical to the KD tool.

[thesameguy]

Yep, hopefully works the same too!

[thesameguy]

Well, the tool is literally on a slow boat from China, so maybe in three weeks I'll know what it looks like.

I'm going to sideline the XR for a little bit and replace the transmission in a Saab instead.

[Ed Lijewski]

I bet you'll get it in ~10 days..

YMMV