Cascade Crew

fiveoformula · Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 8:32 pm Post subject: Valvetrain?

My bird has been a victom of the dredded "start up smoke" since the day I bought it, Embarassed

I think its finally about time for some new valve seals. Are there good/bad ones?

Also im thinking about rockers while im in there. Would it be worth it to get some roller 1.6's for a little more lift out of the stock cam?
Anything I need to watch out for with rockers?

rjmcgee · The Hammer Joined: 08 Jan 2004 Posts: 2328

The LG4 in Jenn's 87 was machined for the positive style ( I think that's what they call them) seals. But they just used crappy O rings. I changed them to the positive seals and it cured the Chevy salute completely.

fiveoformula · Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 9:06 pm Post subject:

Who knows if theres anything left of my crappy o-rings... lol

Boostd1 · Posted: Fri Jul 10, 2009 10:43 pm Post subject:

Get Viton valve seals if you can. They are the best in my opinion.

Oh and headers + rockers = Twisted Evil

chevymad · Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 10:50 am Post subject:

If you buy rockers be sure to get full rollers. The comp roller tips will have a problem galling the pivot ball. A few of us have gone through that allready. Being an 88 you should need self guided rockers too. I looked around and the best quality/vs price i could find seemed to be the Jeg's aluminum full rollers. The rockers were US made and very nice.

That said, with the cam I have I should have gone with 1.5s. The 1.6s put me too close to spring stack. My 1.6s arent very old. If you are interested in working some kind of trade, I'd be interested in swapping for a 1.5 set. Say you get 1.5s, I trade you the 1.6s plus some $$. I'd need the 1.5s first cause its my daily though. Just a thought. PM me if interested.

Stock type positive seals work fine. Viton is great. Some say to stay away from the teflon.

Twilightoptics · Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2009 11:22 am Post subject:

Yeah stay away from the teflon. They look like viton positive seals, but they have a teflon insert that does the sealing. Suck.

Leejo2005 · Member Joined: 12 Jul 2009 Posts: 466 Location: Kennewick

I just put in a set of valve springs I got from Summit for like $70 on sale. Came with new seals, retainers and keepers aswell. I'd look at what your total valve lift would be and make sure you have springs that allow for atleast .050" clearance at full open. It was a pretty easy install. Just used a $10 valve spring compressor and used a compression tester hooked up to my compressor as an air hold tool. It was good that I did this aswell because half my valve seals had disintegrated from age, the onse that were still there weren't very good looking.

I believe guideplates are needed on roller rockers but I'm not 100% on that. guideplates = screw in studs.

"I'm a grown ass man."

Twilightoptics · Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 4:20 pm Post subject:

fiveoformula · Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 7:40 pm Post subject:

chevymad · Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 8:20 pm Post subject:

These are the rockers I have.
http://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/555/20145/10002/-1

And these are the ones i'd like.

http://www.jegs.com/i/JEGS/555/20140/10002/-1

And yes we could work something out. Maybe someone would loan us a garage to work in... Smile

Might be able to do it all at Pauls in vancouver.

Al Hasse · Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 8:21 pm Post subject:

chevymad · Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 8:34 pm Post subject:

HEHE! Exactly Al, though I did just text and ask him. Wink

fiveoformula · Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 11:47 pm Post subject:

Hmm sounds like this could come together! Very Happy

fiveoformula · Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 4:31 pm Post subject:

So im trying to get everything together for this project, I talked to a guy at Napa about the valve seals, he said that the heads have to come off to do the positve style seals?
I hadn't realized that, but he said I could use the umbrella style ones without pulling heads. Is all that true? just looking for some input.

chevymad · Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 4:59 pm Post subject:

Your car has the positive type on it allready.

fiveoformula · Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 12:03 am Post subject:

So I don't replace those?

chevymad · Posted: Fri Jul 31, 2009 6:37 am Post subject:

You do replace them. They're just better then all the others.