Valve stem seals. Help please.

[davidjepson]

My mates GTIR engine is starting to smoke a bit and hes been told its possibly the valve stem seals. What sort of job (price and time) is this and how long would it take a good garage to do it. He doesnt want to get ripped off..

 

[pulsarboby]

they can be done with head in situ but it can be a mare of a job due to the double springs.

most if not all garages will quote you with head removal so not gonna be cheap!
i would make 100% sure its not your turbo or ring problem first, generally if the stem seals are worn it will leak oil into cylinders overnight which will cause smoke on startup but once thats burnt off it should be fine.

 

[davidjepson]

from what he said it does it a little from startup and if you give it a few rpms it does it more.....any more help wud be good pulsarboby..DJ

 

[gtir_pimp]

check the turbo for excessive play by taking the induction pipe off that goes from the air filter to the turbo. do it when cold to avoid burning the fingers and try and wiggle the shaft to see how much movement there is. shouldnt be any really though. also if theres oil on the inside of the induction pipe and turbo then the turbos on its way out.
also try a compression check

 

[pulsarboby]

think arons just about covered what i was gonna say tbh.
rule out the other possibilities first before you start lashing out your wedge, but my bet is it will have either done a ring or ringland or if it smokes coming off boost then more than likely to be turbo seals gone.

 

[davidjepson]

The induction pipes are bone dry. We have looked at this already. The turbo has done no more than 1000 miles. The the engine was rebuilt about 7000 miles ago and was rebuilt with low comp pistons etc etc.

The Cylinder reading are:
Cylinder 4.... 8.2 bar
Cylinder 3.... 9.1 bar
Cylinder 2.... 9.7 bar
Cylinder 1.... 9.7 Bar

Test was done with a quite cheap tester..

The car runs, idles and goes fine with no problems at all.....

 

[pulsarboby]

that no4 cylinder looks rather suspect to me, thats a fair old drop compared to no's 1&2, i would carry out a wet test to see if the comps come back up similar to others, if so then you have a definate prob there!

 

[davidjepson]

What do you mean by a wet test boby? DJ

 

[Trip]

The induction pipes are bone dry. We have looked at this already. The turbo has done no more than 1000 miles. The the engine was rebuilt about 7000 miles ago and was rebuilt with low comp pistons etc etc.

The Cylinder reading are:
Cylinder 4.... 8.2 bar
Cylinder 3.... 9.1 bar
Cylinder 2.... 9.7 bar
Cylinder 1.... 9.7 Bar

Test was done with a quite cheap tester..

The car runs, idles and goes fine with no problems at all.....

Cy4 seems little low compared to the others, the adjacent cylinder (cy3) is slightly low too. Could it be a matter of head gasket slightly knakerd on the cy3 and 4 side ?

leakdown test would check the valves.

 

[gtir_pimp]

no3 is down a bit too. cylinders are suppose to be roughly the same bar/psi or the difference no greater than 6 or 7 psi isnt it? which means cylinder 1 and 2 are about 145psi (ish) and 3 is more like 130 and 4 115psi! thats a big difference regardless of the low comp pistons. all my cylinders are 155psi. so it sounds like the rings on 3 and worse on 4! engine rebuild time if it is!

 

[Trip]

try a wet compression check. I think by wet, boby meant to put some oil in the cylinders (from the spark plug hole) to obtain a better seal. And do remember to open the throttle whilst doing the test.

 

[davidjepson]

Are you supposed to open the throttle when you do a dry test also? because we didnt. we took the plugs out, took out the fuel pump relay, run it upto tempurature and cranked it over 4 about 10 seconds. The pressure was quicky obtained.. Is that ryt? DJ

 

[Trip]

always keep the throttle wide open.. dry or wet.

 

[davidjepson]

Would it make a lot of difference to the results if the throttle was left closed like we did? Thanks. DJ

 

[culzwright]

my pulsar smokes a little sometimes, when its idiling blip the throttle up to about 5000 rpm, then when it drops the revs some blue smoke puffs out? doesnt do it tho when you just accelerate normaly? ive bin told valve guide seals too?

 

[gtir_pimp]

not sure if having the throttle closed makes much difference but you are supposed to do it with it open so if i was you i would do it again. even if it was the valve stem seals and the head has to come off to do it, then it still wont be cheap! head gasket wont be cheap and engine rebuild 2-3 times more expensive than that! as a rough guide a head gasket change on a pulsar could be £800!! alot of people like to take the engine out to do it. there is something called k-seal which is supposed to repair leaky head gaskets,cracked heads, etc. could give it a go!

 

[pulsarboby]

ok as trip said, that is a wet test!
and yes throttle should be kept wide open in order to obtain a true reading and create no vacuum, but the readings will still approximately be the same.
also make sure you remove all the plugs before doing comp test as it can mess up the readings if you have a cylinder leaking into adjacent cylinder (which is a possibility here).

try doing the test again, let us know the readings, then do it with a spoonfull of oil down each plughole and note readings then!


btw aron that k seal is good stuff but wont work on a forced induction engine with steel gasket if its blowing. the other stuff is better (seal up from the states) but that wont work either, will only seal small cracks in head, block or coolant system. better to do the job properly

 

[davidjepson]

Yes we did take all the plugs out.. Will try the test again 2moro (wet and oil) cheers for everyones help. is it looking like a rebuild or could it be the valve stem seals? DJ

 

[pulsarboby]

do the test and we'll let you know once youve posted results;-)

 

[davidjepson]

Thanks. will report back 2moro. DJ