[Brian M]

What is the expected life on valve guides/seals? The cam is .560/.585 lift, 246/256 @.050, spring pressure is 165/382.

 

[gork1rogues]

What material are both? Bronze, teflon, etc...

 

[forthman]

The geometry of the valve train has alot to do with life of the guides.

 

[Brian M]

I dont know what they are, the reason I am asking is that I am having a lot of smoking coming to a stop, like I decelerate and a cloud then passes me. It may be the oil left from when my oil pan leaked, I just wanted opinions on wether or not I may have to replace the seals -- I have about 10-15k miles on the motor now.

 

[My427stang]

You'd have to ask Larry what kind of seal he used, but if it was a Teflon seal, you probably should upgrade, if indeed the smoke is coming from the pipe

Teflon is hard, relatively, and over time eventually loses its shape around the valve. The best setup now is a positively located Viton seal.

 

[Brian M]

So the smoke is indeed coming from the pipes, but only under hard decel and braking. Usually just a big puff comes out when I stop, no smoke at idle at all. Once in a while I'll get a bit of smoke if I start it up after sitting for 15 minutes or so.

To me it sounds like the seals? I would think that if it was the guides it would smoke at idle as well?

 

[My427stang]

Well, guides / seals, really cant say from that. You ARE getting oil past the guides, the question is, which is the thing causing it?

1 - Plugged oil return
2 - Bad seals
3 - Bad guides

If it were me, I'd pull the valve covers, if the returns arent plugged, put air to the cylinder (some guys use rope) and then replace the valve seals. You MAY find a loose or broken guide, if you do, too bad for you, head has to come off, but Larry went through those heads, so my guess is blocked return or bad seals

You need to know ID of the springs and OD of the guide, so you may have to take it apart, then order seals, but BY ALL MEANS go with Positively located Viton, they'll last and seal better

Some like these (but you need to know your dimensions) they are soft, long lasting, and seal MUCH better than stock unmbrellas and MUCH more longer lasting than a hard white Teflon seal

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ULTIMATE-STREET-STRIP-VALVE-SEALS-11-32-VITON-U-S-MADE_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQcategoryZ107063QQitemZ170000141747QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

 

[Brian M]

I'm guessing its the seals, especially give the life of the motor. Larry drove it about 1500-2000 miles in a few years, and I have drove it 10k already. I expect the sitting caused the seals to dry out, and now going into fairly heavy use they decided to leak.