My pinto smokes a bit and i need to change the vave stem oil seals.
I have SVA booked for monday and need to know if this would fail. If so i will have to change the seals at the weekend but dont know how to do it. Is
it a difficult job.
The pinto's valve seals only tend to smoke on start up and if you’re thrashing it. I've had a few smokey cars in the past and none have
failed the visual test yet, I think it has to be real bad to fail, i.e. a hazard to road users, my first cortina always started with a huge cloud of
blue smoke, quite suited the look of the car tbh
If anyone complains...the smoke is blocking the sun and reducing global warming, it is environmentally friendly
The easiest way to change it is to simply remove the head but that will require a valve compressor and a head gasket. You can with the right tool and
stuffing rope into the cylinder through the spark plug hole, change the seals with the head on or use compressed air also to hold the valves shut. All
depends on what tools you have at hand. At that mileage I’d take the head off and also clean the combustion chambers and grind the valves, as it will
make a very noticeable improvement in the cars performance.
[Edited on 9/3/09 by Mr Whippy]
It's not difficult in itself with a good valve spring compressor, but it is a head-off job.
Unless your pinto is pre-1975 (!) SVA is not a visual smoke test. You will be looking for <3.5% CO and <1200ppm hydrocarbons. If
it's smoking you're unlikely to meet the HC limit.
(4.5%CO if it's pre Aug 1986)
Personally i'd say take the chance on it passing as it is. You really dont want to miss your SVA test and getting a rebooking wont be easy with
the huge rush. If it fails then you get 6 months to fix it and retest to SVA spec rather than having to fork out loads to IVA it.
To me the only real risk is you fail on emmissions only, and then need to pay the retest fee £30 or so for the sake of not changing the stem seals.
Head off job though so its definately a chance i'd take.
It can be done without taking the head off. I did it myself with no problem until on the last valve I dropped a collet down an oil drain hole.
I was lucky though, because it fell out the bottom when I drained the oil!
I found (on a 1.6 Sierra HC) that if you have the piston at TDC you can squash the springs with a lever type compressor, allow the valves to touch the
pistons and you can get just enough clearance to pick out the collets. The secret is making a spring compressor that fits the scenery. I modified a
1948 Dodge one that was lying around in my Dad's garage.
quote:
Originally posted by bilbo
It's not difficult in itself with a good valve spring compressor, but it is a head-off job.