Question On Valve Seals

[EJ106]

I have a 64 Fury with a 318 Wide block that I want to replace the valve seals on. I pulled the valve cover off earlier today and discovered the rocker arms are on a shaft which isn't something I've ever run across before. I've read through the service manual on the car and it seems to recommend completely pulling the head off the block in order to get rocker shaft out. Is this really necessary or is there a relatively easy way to pull the rocker shaft out (hopefully in as few pieces as possible) so I can just remove the springs and replace the seals?

On a related note since I have no idea what kind of history this engine has on it do you all think it might be worth while to change out the valve springs as well? Other than a lot of smoke when first started up and needing a tune up the engine seems to run fine.

 

[lewtot184]

try backing off the adjusters and rotate the rocker in a vertical position to remove the springs.

 

[67 B-body]

The trouble I see is this, on stock configurations, the valve stem seals usualy end up being shoved up the valve stem away from the head / guide surface after some running. This in turn does little for preventing oil from running down between the stem and guide when the car sits with engine off. I'm not a betting guy,,, but I'll venture to say, you probably have worn guides or valve stems, or both causing your puff of oil on startup...
If your bored and looking for something to tinker with, it might be worth while to give it a go, but there's a chance that you'll still have that good Ol' puff of blue stuff after being parked for a while.

 

[Polara Pat]

The trouble I see is this, on stock configurations, the valve stem seals usualy end up being shoved up the valve stem away from the head / guide surface after some running. This in turn does little for preventing oil from running down between the stem and guide when the car sits with engine off. I'm not a betting guy,,, but I'll venture to say, you probably have worn guides or valve stems, or both causing your puff of oil on startup...
If your bored and looking for something to tinker with, it might be worth while to give it a go, but there's a chance that you'll still have that good Ol' puff of blue stuff after being parked for a while.

Pretty much what I was thinking. If you must go ahead with the valve seal swap with the heads on the motor then you have to remember to air up the cylinders so the valve doesn't drop in after you remove the spring. If it's anything like the old Poly's that I've had then your valves are probably so gummed up that they won't slip down. If they do though you will have to pull the head to retrieve them.

 

[EJ106]

Thanks for the info guys, I appreciate it.

I actually was tinkering with it last night and managed to get the rocker arms off the valves. The seals are definitely shot so I'm going to go ahead and change them and see how it goes. Hopefully I won't need to pull the head but I'm prepared to if it comes down to that.

 

[CDXXVII]

You can use the SBI positive seals that press down on the guides.

You can also use a 3' length of clothes line in the spark plug hole to keep the valves from dropping.