Hello. I replaced my head gasket 12 years ago. The machine shop I used told me to leave the camshafts in the cylinder head and bring it to them assembled. They hot tanked it, cut the gasket surface and returned it to me and told me it's all set. $400 was the charge but that supposedly included new valve seals and cam seals. I reassembled the vehicle and started driving it everyday.
Just shy of 3 months go by and I noticed a little puff of blue smoke at startup, intermittently. I think gee thats odd, the engine never did that before, and I thought I had new valve seals. Years go by, I'm driving the car steadily but there were a few years the car sat unregistered. I still managed to start the car every 2 weeks or more during that time. Over time, the smoking got worse, to the point one day im driving under light load/throttle and then coast to a red light. Well the giant cloud of blue smoke that followed at the red light was alarming. I couldn't believe the engine wasn't misfiring it was burning so much oil. I took off from the light with heavy boost and the smoke disappears leaving only clear exhaust behind under 8 lbs of boost. That day I knew something was wrong.
The car sat. For years, I was still starting it up every now and then. I started accumulating the parts and tools needed for the job. I bought blue viton valve seals. I bought a nasty valve spring compressor that fit 7M valves.
Yesterday I finally took it apart and what I found shocked me. Every other valve on the exhaust and the intake side, had a different valve seal. There were 2 types in my head. One was made of black "rubber" and were completely deteriorated, with one pushed up on the valve stem, it wasn't even press onto the valve guide anymore. They seemed very old. The other type was made of a reddish/brownish "rubber" and were a in a little better shape relatively speaking. They were so hardened onto the guide, it took ALOT of prying to get them off. In all there were 13 brown and 11 black valve seals, and they were oriented, like I said one after the other, on the same cam side. Every cylinder, the 2 intake valves had 1 black and 1 brown and the 2 exhaust valves had 1 black and 1 brown. One cylinder had 2 brown seals.
Is this a joke the machine shop played on me?
Just shy of 3 months go by and I noticed a little puff of blue smoke at startup, intermittently. I think gee thats odd, the engine never did that before, and I thought I had new valve seals. Years go by, I'm driving the car steadily but there were a few years the car sat unregistered. I still managed to start the car every 2 weeks or more during that time. Over time, the smoking got worse, to the point one day im driving under light load/throttle and then coast to a red light. Well the giant cloud of blue smoke that followed at the red light was alarming. I couldn't believe the engine wasn't misfiring it was burning so much oil. I took off from the light with heavy boost and the smoke disappears leaving only clear exhaust behind under 8 lbs of boost. That day I knew something was wrong.
The car sat. For years, I was still starting it up every now and then. I started accumulating the parts and tools needed for the job. I bought blue viton valve seals. I bought a nasty valve spring compressor that fit 7M valves.
Yesterday I finally took it apart and what I found shocked me. Every other valve on the exhaust and the intake side, had a different valve seal. There were 2 types in my head. One was made of black "rubber" and were completely deteriorated, with one pushed up on the valve stem, it wasn't even press onto the valve guide anymore. They seemed very old. The other type was made of a reddish/brownish "rubber" and were a in a little better shape relatively speaking. They were so hardened onto the guide, it took ALOT of prying to get them off. In all there were 13 brown and 11 black valve seals, and they were oriented, like I said one after the other, on the same cam side. Every cylinder, the 2 intake valves had 1 black and 1 brown and the 2 exhaust valves had 1 black and 1 brown. One cylinder had 2 brown seals.
Is this a joke the machine shop played on me?
