Valve stem seals replacement vs. new heads

[SR185]

I replaced the valve stem seals on my '84 a few weeks ago. The seals cost about $10, but the job was a bitch to do. If you have A/C, like I do, It's almost impossible to remove the last two seals on the passenger side.

My old valve seals were the originals, and had 142k miles on them. They came out very hard and brittle. My car doesn't smoke at start up anymore.

Last week I saw a pair of re-manufactured heads on ebay for $275. I have not shopped this item, but you might be able to find them even cheaper. IF I had known they were so cheap, I think it would have been better to have replaced the entire head, than perform the valve seal job.

Another option would be to remove the heads and do a complete valve job.

Bottom line: with an old engine like mine that has never been rebuilt, had I known the valve stem job was as difficult as it was, it probably would have been smarter , and easier, to replace or rebuild the heads.

 

[Big Jim M]

Nope! Never!!!

I replaced the valve stem seals on my '84 a few weeks ago. The seals cost about $10, but the job was a bitch to do. If you have A/C, like I do, It's almost impossible to remove the last two seals on the passenger side.

My old valve seals were the originals, and had 142k miles on them. They came out very hard and brittle. My car doesn't smoke at start up anymore.

Last week I saw a pair of re-manufactured heads on ebay for $275. I have not shopped this item, but you might be able to find them even cheaper. IF I had known they were so cheap, I think it would have been better to have replaced the entire head, than perform the valve seal job.

Another option would be to remove the heads and do a complete valve job.

Bottom line: with an old engine like mine that has never been rebuilt, had I known the valve stem job was as difficult as it was, it probably would have been smarter , and easier, to replace or rebuild the heads.

A reconditioned head is likely to have 300,000 miles on it! THEN the shop grinds away the head seat and part of the existing valve to make them fit properly. Causing many more miles of WEAR on the parts.
Now the valves are set deeper into the head making the flow WORSE and the valves are THINNER from the grinding. These thinner valves are many times more subject to BURNING than they were when thicker.
A "valve job" Is a piece of shit from the getgo! If you have a problem with your head then take care of THAT problem on the heads you KNOW about! If you have a burnt valve then replace that ONE VALVE and leave the rest alone!
Big JIm

 

[85_Ranger4x4]

Depends on what they did.

Where we take heads, he isn't afraid to put in new seats. You can grind valves too, but you have to know how much.

 

[Jason]

???? I used to sell auto parts and all the heads we sold had new valves and seats. You just need to NOT buy crap.

 

[enginepaul]

I've always rebuilt heads, including re-using the old valves. I don't know about burnt valves, nor can I see any reason to do a partial head reconditioning. I don't know how many heads of various brands that I've done, but it is quite a few.

Rebuild the head when you have it off.