I haven't been on here for a while because I haven't had time to work on my Volvo. I need to replace the valve guide seals but there are 2 different sizes for sale, 6mm and 7mm. What is the correct size?

 

 

Just curious - why do you think you need to replace your valve guide seals? There is very little oil in that area. (most would want to replace seals due to an oil burning problem)

 

Yep, burning oil. I did a dry and wet compression test and the numbers were all around 180. When I have the car idling you can see the smoke from burnt oil. The last time I had a smog test it failed because of the smoke.
I did check some other suppliers and it looks like this engine takes the 7mm seals.

 

With a bucket tappet covering the top of the valve, there is very little oil in that area that could drain down the valve stem and get past the seal. With rocker arm style valve actuation stem seals can easily be a problem since there is usually lots of oil splashing around to lubricate the rocker to valve connection. There is no splash in that area with a bucket tappet.

If it's smoking at idle I would suggest the turbo is letting oil into the exhaust - hopefully due to something as simple as a problem with the PCV system causing too much pressure in the crankcase. (rather than worn turbo shaft seals or bushings) I have seen high pressure cause smoking many times with both redblock and aluminum volvo Turbo engines.

Have you devised a method to replace the valve stem seals with the head on the car? (it's going to be a lot of work to not solve your problem!) If you are going to remove the head to accomplish that task, you will probably need to replace guides also. (my machine shop commonly replaced exhaust guides on most of the heads I sent to them)

 

As a repair professional I think your video should include a disclaimer that none of the symptoms or ‘diagnostic’ procedures gives any credence to the effectiveness of valve stem seal replacement to eliminate smoke and oil consumption. An engine that has those symptoms probably has valve guides and piston rings that are worn and contributing as well. Yes the replacement of the stem seals is the cheapest option in the list of repair procedures so a customer with a worn out engine is very likely to ask for replacement in pie in the sky hopes it will at least slow the problem. What needs to be clearly understood is that replacing the stem seals on any modern O H C engine at retail is NOT going to be inexpensive and if the problem continues you’re expensive guess will go unheralded to the rebuilder to be thrown away. Sorry but I had this conversation many times in my career, never will received.





snaptube vidmate