how to rectify it in an afternoon. (archive)

Great to hear you guys have high miles on your cars too. Mine is at 214K but surprisingly doesn't smoke or burn oil. Oil leaking past the valve stems is too fold. Valve guide and stem seals. But, 95+% is controlled by the seals. If the guides are seriously worn the new seals won't last since there is too much side to side movement. You can indeed change the seals without removing the head however. Don't attempt to replace the seals without preventing the valves from dropping in. The most common home mechanic method is to stuff soft rope into the spark plug hole (one by one as you do it) when the piston is down, then bring the piston back up till there is tension (rope being squished between the piston and and the head). This keep the valve from dropping. Also, do this on the compression stroke so that the cam is not actuating on the rockers/valves. Once thats all set you can remove the valve collets and keepers (for that cylinder only) with a tool available from Kragen, Autozone etc for about $10. Basically its a 10 inch flat crow bar with a fork shape on one end. This presses down on the valve keeper and you can remove the collets to remove the valve springs. Once they are out of the way the old seal can be removed and the new one installed. Do this to both intake and exhaust valves seals then reassemble and move to another cylinder. Sure beats removing the head to do the same work.
Peter S

I have the same problem and I know from looking at the guide seals that they are bad. I am going to replace them on the car and see how big a difference it makes. If it doesn't get drastically better I'm having the head done. It is a pain in the butt to replace them on the car and I am ready to leave it parked and take the head off for a rebuild if the job goes south on me. I have had guides push through when installing the seal on a "well used head" My 320 has 240k on it and has been pulling oil through the seals for the last 75k at the rate of 1/2 qt per tank of gas.
I get blue smoke (oil burning) from the exhaust under high rpm deceleration. I don't get this at any other time. I've got a 79 320 with a 32/36 DVAG carb that runs pretty clean, accelerates and idles very smooth. I've had this car only for about 1000 miles but it had 208,000 on the clock until I re-hooked up the speedo cable, so who knows... If I pop the oil cap and look inside it is really clean. No carbon or tarnishing on the cam, etc. Ok, now my question.

Do you think the valve guide seals are the cause of the blue smoke? If so, must the head be removed to replace them? Is it something that can be done by the home garage mech or is it best left to a shop?

What other possible sources do you think could be the cause of this oil getting sucked into the combustion camber under deceleration?

Thanks, Matthew

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My 81iS, 276K & counting, lil oil in antifreeze(n) Klaus 01:20 5/06/2001 (0)

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