Anyone ever do valve seals w/engine in car?

1987stangman · Oct 6, 2009

I was planning a PI swap this winter, but I have decided to spend the mod money on my Fox for now, hard to justify mods on 2 mustangs to the wife, you know. My 96' GT has 170K on it and I would rather just find a new motor or rebuild what it has but it runs great still but the from idle at a stop light smoke is starting to annoy me. Trick Flow sells a spring tool for 30 bucks that is supposed to allow you to service valves on the mod motors with even the cam still in place so I figured I would give it a try. I have rebuilt many heads on the 5.0 but never with the heads still on the engine, much les in the car still. Anyone ever do it?

Shiroelex · Oct 6, 2009

I have. They make a threaded adapter that screws into the spark plug hole where you connect an air line to so it keeps the cylinders pressurized. That way you can remove the keepers and springs without your valves falling into the cylinders. I skipped that crap and used an old method of mine. I thread soft rope into the spark plug hole and turn the crank over by hand until the pile of rope presses against the valves. Good luck doing the seals closest to the firewall. If you don't feel like waiting for the tool from Trick Flow, you can always rent the spring compressor from Murrays/O'reillys or Autozone.

nickmckinney · Oct 7, 2009

Its a tight squeeze, I will never do it again. Plus the guides are probably so loose that the new seals will go maybe 30K miles before leaking again.

patman0911 · Oct 7, 2009

I did mine a few weeks ago with the Trick Flow tool. None of the auto stores or rental stores around me had the OTC or equivilent tool so I ordered the TF from Summit.

It is pretty straightforward and can be done in your driveway by yourself but it is a tedious and frustrating job due to the lack of working space around the cam towers and caps.

The valves close to the firewall are indeed the worst to get too and especially the last valve on the passenger side (and the first on the driver side but at least there's space to work there) because it's almost completely boxed in by the cam towers leaving almost no room to manuever to get the keepers in. If I was doing it again, I might remove the hood for better access to the last set of valves.

Taking stuff apart was pretty easy and went quickly. A magnetic grabber popped the keepers out easily. A small pair of needle nose vise lock pliars made getting stubborn old seals out easier. Putting things back together was a real bitch though. There just isn't much room to guide the keepers into place and I thought I was beat several times. I eventually got better at it though. I magnetized a screwdriver to put them in with because the grabber was way to strong to not grab on to everything steel or let the keepers go I did get one in place somehow.

I'm not entirely sure it wouldn't have been easier to pull the cams to change the seals instead. Would've been more tearing down and bolting back together but the actual changing out the seals probably would've gone much smoother. Now that I've done it once though, I could probably do it again much quicker.

Make sure you have a breaker bar for the spring compressor and not a ratchet because the big ratchet heads will catch on the cap clusters and bind and you'll have to use an extension in some places which will put a good bit of sideways tourqe on it and make it likely to slip out. I also recommend a cheater bar so that you don't need so much force to hold the spring compressed while you're screwing around with keepers.

Good luck!

1987stangman · Oct 7, 2009

patman0911 said:
I did mine a few weeks ago with the Trick Flow tool. None of the auto stores or rental stores around me had the OTC or equivilent tool so I ordered the TF from Summit.

It is pretty straightforward and can be done in your driveway by yourself but it is a tedious and frustrating job due to the lack of working space around the cam towers and caps.

The valves close to the firewall are indeed the worst to get too and especially the last valve on the passenger side (and the first on the driver side but at least there's space to work there) because it's almost completely boxed in by the cam towers leaving almost no room to manuever to get the keepers in. If I was doing it again, I might remove the hood for better access to the last set of valves.

Taking stuff apart was pretty easy and went quickly. A magnetic grabber popped the keepers out easily. A small pair of needle nose vise lock pliars made getting stubborn old seals out easier. Putting things back together was a real bitch though. There just isn't much room to guide the keepers into place and I thought I was beat several times. I eventually got better at it though. I magnetized a screwdriver to put them in with because the grabber was way to strong to not grab on to everything steel or let the keepers go I did get one in place somehow.

I'm not entirely sure it wouldn't have been easier to pull the cams to change the seals instead. Would've been more tearing down and bolting back together but the actual changing out the seals probably would've gone much smoother. Now that I've done it once though, I could probably do it again much quicker.

Make sure you have a breaker bar for the spring compressor and not a ratchet because the big ratchet heads will catch on the cap clusters and bind and you'll have to use an extension in some places which will put a good bit of sideways tourqe on it and make it likely to slip out. I also recommend a cheater bar so that you don't need so much force to hold the spring compressed while you're screwing around with keepers.

Good luck!

Well, at least I know someone else has done it with success. I have not got the tool yet but it's on it's way and I will try to tackle this weekend after next. I have my Fox to drive so so rush. Thanks for the help guys.

Anyone ever do valve seals w/engine in car?

1987stangman

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Shiroelex

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nickmckinney

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patman0911

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