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Engine valve seals

Mitch on Fri October 03, 2003 1:29 PM User is offline

Year: 1966
Make: Ford
Model: Mustang
Engine Size: 289
Refrigerant Type: R12

I started out just replacing a leaking water pump on my wife's Mustang, but when I removed it, I found that the aluminum engine front cover was corroded away quite a bit after 37 years, and I wasn't real happy with the oil consumption either so I decided to pull the entire engine for a look. About 100K miles ago, I did a valve job and installed new rings and bearings.

The Mustang has AC service valves, so I was able to isolate the compressor, recover the R12 in the compressor and remove it without recovering the entire system.

When I dropped the engine pan, I found a handful of what looked like hard black plastic pieces. Turns out the shards were the valve stem seals that had hardened like a rock and had been beaten to pieces by the valve springs. Only one or two seals were still intact on the valve stems. Apparently, they do work when intact though. Look at the difference between an intake valve that I found with no seal and a valve with an intact seal.

k5guy on Sat October 04, 2003 12:08 AM User is offline


That's what happens when you let your wife drive the good car.


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Send me e-mail

Bigchris on Sat October 04, 2003 9:34 AM User is offline

If I tried to blame that on my wife she'd say "Its just love handles".

NickD on Sun October 05, 2003 4:25 AM User is offline

Wonder where my 1967 Mustang is at now? When I sold it in 1972, it had a zillion rust holes in it. Kind of like a delayed air condition system that got colder (especially in subzero weather) with age.

Never was a good idea to put rubber and plastic parts in an engine, or in an AC system either as far as that goes. They dry out with thermal cycling and turn to dust. So what have they done since 1966? Put even more plastic and rubber, not only inside the engine but in the damper pulley and AC clutch hub as well.

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