All Small Six Viton valve seals

[Invectivus]

I'm in a frustrating place. I had my head machined for Viton seals, seals were purchased, and seals were installed. I'm unsure if they were the same seals because my shop sucked. It wouldn't be an issue but I mangled half of them prepping for paint because my attention to detail was non-existent.

I was losing my workshop and trying madly to get the mustang running in my last month, and so I had to buy a couple different replacement sets. I bought a VI set which looked lovely at .530", to find out my head was machined for .500". The installed set had a metal body but with Nitril(?) all inside, while the replacement set was just a metal body. I had a devil of a time getting the all metal units not to pop off when I was installing the valves, they just seemed to not grip well. Now I'm worried that even though the plain metal bodied seals are holding on, that with thermal expansion they'll pop off, and get crushed, wedged, and/or shredded, and ruin my engine.

Am I being overly concerned about those metal bodied seals? I can't take my head off (car is parked on the street) but I might be able to sneak half a dozen springs off and maybe swap seals if I'm sneaky and do one or two at a time. The car is dry, no gas/oil/coolant ATM. But I'd rather hear something comforting and save the effort and anxiety. I just don't get those metal bodied units.

 

[bubba22349]

I'm in a frustrating place. I had my head machined for Viton seals, seals were purchased, and seals were installed. I'm unsure if they were the same seals because my shop sucked. It wouldn't be an issue but I mangled half of them prepping for paint because my attention to detail was non-existent.

I was losing my workshop and trying madly to get the mustang running in my last month, and so I had to buy a couple different replacement sets. I bought a VI set which looked lovely at .530", to find out my head was machined for .500". The installed set had a metal body but with Nitril(?) all inside, while the replacement set was just a metal body. I had a devil of a time getting the all metal units not to pop off when I was installing the valves, they just seemed to not grip well. Now I'm worried that even though the plain metal bodied seals are holding on, that with thermal expansion they'll pop off, and get crushed, wedged, and/or shredded, and ruin my engine.

Am I being overly concerned about those metal bodied seals? I can't take my head off (car is parked on the street) but I might be able to sneak half a dozen springs off and maybe swap seals if I'm sneaky and do one or two at a time. The car is dry, no gas/oil/coolant ATM. But I'd rather hear something comforting and save the effort and anxiety. I just don't get those metal bodied units.

Hi Invectivus, I do share your concern on having the correct Valve Stem Seals. Once you have found another set of the correct .500 Valve Stem Seals, its not going to be very hard to change out those Valve Stem Seals for the correct ones, 2 at a time. Below is the Info from an old Post I did that tells how to do it with very few Tools and other items. Good luck

Replacing the Valve Guide Seals with the Head still Installed on the Block

On the Replacement of the valve stem seals, yes you sure can do this job with the head still on the engine and installed in the car. It’s a fairly quick and easy job that I have done many times over the years on many different engines most often with very good results. The exception though is if the valve guides are also worn excessively, if you have good compression readings then you’re probably going to be fine installing a set of new Valve Seals. However it's good to at least check it while it's apart by trying to move each of the valve stems in their guides (after the spring and retainer is removed). You will only need a few hand tools, plus a spring compressor, and the new set of valve stem seals. My spring compressor is a KD that I bought many years ago it's worked on every engine that I ever needed to do a valve seal replacement on, it resembles this one but sure there are many other’s that are also made like it.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B091CRRGD5?th=1&psc=1&language=en_US

Optional equipment that will help speed up the process is an air compressor and an air Chuck Fitting that fits into a spark plug thread adapter.

Fastest way of coarse is to use compressed air if you have access to it, but if not there is also the "Old School Way" that will work great. With the engine set at TDC on the Compression Stroke for the cylinder you are going to replace the valve stem seals on (Both Valves Up). The reason for this is if something should happen with the Piston down the hole you could drop a valve into it, at that point you would be forced to pull the head off. With the "Old School" Rope method the engine is set about half way between (BTDC and TDC) use some cotton type rope (old time clothes lines used this) you could probably also use some other type ropes too like Hemp or maybe even a nylon rope of small Dia. like 1/4 or 3/8 however it's much stiffer and harder to work with. Feed the rope into the spark plug hole as tight as you can push it in by hand. Then turn the engine up towards TDC compressing the rope tighter.

Before this you start of course by removing the valve cover, after that you have to remove the rocker shaft assembly, push rods, and remove all the spark plugs to make it easier to turn the engine over by turning the fan or with a socket on the crankshaft bolt. On removing the rocker shaft assembly start by loosening the two bolts in the center first and then working outward from there loosening the bolts a little at a time like one to two turns then go back to center and repeat again. I like to keep all the push rods in order so they will go back on the same lifter and into the same rocker arm too. This will save you some time with the adjustable type rockers not having to reset them after reassembly.

Note: That if you are using compressed air be carful the air pressure can move the Pistons and turn the crankshaft around, to help with that it's probably better to also put the other spark plugs back in place except for the cylinder your working on, that will add some resistance. But if your car happens to have a manual transmission then you can then just put it in gear and set the parking brake (try reverse or first for the most leverage).

 

[John Ha]

I'm sorta late to the party but I changed valve seals a few years ago (although it was on a 351W V8). I used my compression tester hose (it has an end that screws into the sparkplug hole and a fitting that I adapted to mate with my air hose). It worked really well to keep the valve in position while I removed the keeper and spring to replace the seal. I rented a valve spring compressor at the local O'Reilly's. It worked really well too. It didn't take long at all once I got the first couple done and got the routine down. I did leave all the other plugs in while I worked on a given cylinder. I was also a bit "sporty" (maybe "dumb") in that I didn't rotate the engine to bring each piston to the top of the bore before removing the valve spring but I would follow @bubba22349 's advice to do so - it could save you a bunch of frustration and pain.

 

[drag-200stang]

I do it sporty too. I am more worried about losing a keeper down in the engine. rags rags rags.

 

[78_200_C4]

ENGINETECH S2969 Guide Outer Diameter 0.500 inch

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