Valve stem seals?

[Supraman]

I'm about to buy my second Supra, but it's burning oil on startup and deceleration. The piston rings are brand new, and the turbo was just rebuilt, so I'm pretty sure the valve guides/stem seals are bad. I have heard that the head does not need to be removed in order to replace them, and am wondering what an average price for a job like this would be. While I'm trying to advance mechanically, I don't want to attempt something like this myself.

If anyone has had this done, or happens to know a ballpark price range, any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks,

-- Scott Goodson

 

[mrnickleye]

Go to (don't call) a couple of recommended shops in town and get some quotes. I believe there is a labor time in the book.

 

[rakkasan]

I'm about to buy my second Supra, but it's burning oil on startup and deceleration. The piston rings are brand new, and the turbo was just rebuilt, so I'm pretty sure the valve guides/stem seals are bad. I have heard that the head does not need to be removed in order to replace them, and am wondering what an average price for a job like this would be. While I'm trying to advance mechanically, I don't want to attempt something like this myself.

If anyone has had this done, or happens to know a ballpark price range, any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks,

-- Scott Goodson

That depends on how much the mechanic knows about 7M's. If the repair manual states to remove the head (I'm not sure if does or not), but knows how to replace them with the head on, it should be cheaper or vise versa. You'll just have to shop around & see what you can find in your area.

 

[americanjebus]

yea but then again when they look at our cars and the work involved to get to hte valve stems they look at the entire throttle body intake system and i was quotted for 6 hours of dissasembly alone just for a tune up! and when some charge a good $50 an hour i look at my mechanical work with eagerness because now i can take the sucker appart down to the cams in less than an hour.

if you wanna learn read and try just opening it up and looking at what your getting into before you try to change them.

 

[chriso]

It can be done on the car just be careful you don't drop a valve down. I've read about people using compressed air to hold the valves closed and even threading a rope in the cylinders while doing the stem seals. BE CAREFUL !!! :x:

 

[Supraman]

Thanks everybody. I couldn't resist, and went ahead and bought the car. I'm in So-Cal and it's in Phoenix; I should be picking it up this Saturday.

I found the tutorial on SOGI, and think I'm going to take off the valve covers to evaluate the real difficulty. One deciding factor is if I can determine the bad seal(s) without replacing all twenty four--the story is that the car has had the headgasket replaced recently, and had a full valve job at the time, so the assumption is one or more of the seals was torn or improperly installed. I'm hoping I can detect the cylinder that has oil leaking in it by removing the spark plugs and checking for oil after the car sits for a day or two...

Thanks again; this really helps me in my decision of what I'm going to do...