Anybody else have this problem? I looked at the pics on shbox, and it looks like the valve stem seals should go all the way down, fitting flush with the spacer (or well, flush with the lip on the spacer).. but I can't seem to push mine that far down.. I get within about 2-3cm of there, and can't seem to push them any further.. I even tried tapping on a socket to push them down a bit farther.. but it didn't seem to have any effect..

Also, anyone have any other ideas of what might be causing my blue smoke issues? I've only pulled one of the valve stem seals off so far.. but the rubber didn't look dry rotted as I had expected.. I know the other main possibility would be piston rings.. but I REALLY don't want to have to rebuild the engine right now.

I'm getting ready to go outside and kick my car.. so far it's been one thing after another..

 

i just took a socket and tapped mine down, you can hear a difference in the sound from when they arent all the way down vs when they are. i dont remember if mine fit all the way down or not.

 

But what happens if they don't go all the way down.. won't they not seal correctly?

 

If they don't seat properly, your suck oil into the combustion chamber upon start up and under deceleration. As stated above, tap them on with a socket and you'll hear a change when they bottom out.

 

How hard to I have to tap? I did tap, but it didn't seem to get me anywhere..

How far is far enough? Maybe my hearing just sucks..

 

I put a little bit of oil inside mine before putting them on. I don't remember if they went in all the way down (I'm pretty sure they didn't though) but I also went by the sound. I definetely didn't tap hard though.

 

Did you guys change them because you were springs anyway or because you thought you had bad seals?

It looks like my seals are fine after all, and I'm thinking about just leaving the old ones on and throwing the valve covers back on, rather than wasting time replacing good seals..

What does everyone think?

 

I did them when I did springs. My engine has been sitting for 2 years so I thought it would be a good idea to do. If yours are OK, then you can leave them on. Are your old ones all the way in?

 

I thought it was, but I think my brain might be playing tricks on me.. so I can't say I REALLY recall how it was when I removed the spring.. and I really don't want to have to remove another spring with this POS kd tool if I don't have to, hehe.

Also, do you guys think that it would hurt the spring to remain compressed by the kd tool for say 24 hours?

 

No,it won't hurt.
When you shut down your engine some springs are compressed to different degrees and that doesn't hurt them.

 

Here are pictures of the seals (old and the ones I got from NAPA)

You can see the difference in diameter between the old and new valve stem seals.. I think my new valve stems might be a different size (since these are rebuilt heads with different sized valves), so I think its possible that the NAPA ones just won't fit these heads anymore.

The old seal still looks like its in good shape though.. to me at least, it doesn't look like they need to be changed (and therefore, it would seem like maybe this isn't the cause of the smoke I've been having).

There are also some pictures of my compressed springs.. for anyone who might know.. why does it look like there are three valvesprings rather than two?

Anyway, the pictures can be found here, and are seperated by the type:

http://www.rpi.edu/~roghab/camaro/

They're kind of big.. (sorry dialup users )

I hope these help diagnose the problem to some degree..

 

You have 2 springs and a dampener(flat one).
Can't tell any difference in seals and don't remember how far down they go on the stock head.

 

As stated if you use a socket you should know when they are on all the way. I know mine did not sit flush on the retainer and I thought they weren't on all the way but they were. As long as you tap them on with a socket you should be fine.

 

As stated, I did tap them with a socket, but I couldn't notice any difference...

How did you know they were on all the way, if you thought they weren't? Did they just not leak?

 

I came to the message board for advice like you did to get pictures. AND they didn't leak.