Jamescw

I have a 87 4KS with 302K on the engine. It is blowing smoke occasionally and when it does smoke it smokes alot. I have heard you can replace the valve stem seals without lifting the head off. Anyone with some help on this topic would be much appreciated.... or email me at Jamescwbc@yahoo.ca with any advice. Thanks, ill try and post a pic when i figure out how.

austinado16

You'll need that cool VW/Audi valve spring compressor tool, or make one.....or buy the generic one. It's 2 towers that bolt to the cam towers on the head after you've removed the cam. A long bar goes between the towers and then a crowbar like goodie depresses the valve springs.

You'll need to use either compressed air, or a rope to hold the valves in place since or they'll drop into the cylinder.

The rope trick is cool: Simple remove the spark plug, lower the piston a bit, feed in a bunch of rope and then rotate the piston back up again and smash it against the rope. Put he car in gear to keep the engine from rotating and set the e-brake.

Buy the viton seals, not the nitrile rubber ones.

And congrates on 302K! I'm at 369 and counting.

Jamescw

and...what about replacing the exhaust manifold gasket, iam gonna need to do that very soon. Any ideas on the best way around that.

austinado16

It's actually 4 seperate gaskets. When you buy them, purchase the German ones, and not the Brazillian ones. Get the manifold surfaced at a machine shop to, because it'll be warped at cylinder 3.

To remove it, my recommendation is take off the intake and work from above. You might find it easier to get at the intake manifold allen head bolts from underneath though.

Use P.B. Blaster or Liquid Wrench or Mouse Milk (www.mousemilk.com) on the exhaust nuts and let them soak for a while before you attempt to break them loose. Break a stud off in that head and you're in for a ton of fun.

I also highly recommend you buy a stud extractor set and replace the exhaust studs. If you have been driving with a blown exhaust manifold gasket, the heat and flame will have crystalized the metal and if the stud(s) is not already broken, it'll either break when you take off the nut, or it will break when you tighten the new nut down. Do yourself a favor and do this job only once the right way.

The brass exhaust nuts with the crimped self locking head are the only way to fly. A standard nut will just come loose after a few heat cycles and you'll be right back where you are now.

Lastly, I highly recommend you use the black exhaust system paste that NAPA sells in the big white (toothe paste-like tube). This stuff makes a superior seal. Better than anything else, including hi-temp silicone.

Oh, one last hint. Put a rag over your exhaust down pipe so you don't have to watch your socket or exhaust nuts drop down into the abyss!

Jamescw

Thanks for the advice, I cant wait to get the work done as the car is mint, I just need to fix these problems which are bothersome.

AUDIocee

Several years back, my car used to smoke while decelarating, I figured time to do the valve stem seals. Did that job 5 years ago... the car still smokes, turns out it was the rings. Do a compression test, see if you need new rings.