New Member - Questions about Valve Stem Seal replacement

[pdxexpedition]

Hi there,

I had bought an 05 not too long ago and the vehicle ran well and passed smog (suprisingly).

I am doing the deep dive maintenance like replacing the seals, plugs etc, and noticed that definitely it appears that the valve stem seals need replacing.

The vehicle ran pretty smooth and from the looks of it had the cam phaser and chain replaced.
However I need a strategy for replacing the seals. I dont want to remove the head, and bought the OTC valve stem seal tool.

However, when you guys are doing this, is it better to pull off the cam and do the job? How exactly are y'all tackling it? (pics below)


I have some pictures below, and the water in the valley did bug me with a little oil, but i predict that being bad seals. Your thoughts are welcome. The vehicle has 200K exactly on the dot.

 

[Hamfisted]

Sorry, I didn't see this post. I answered in your earlier post. But since you already have the intake manifold off. Did you pull the cross over off and inspect it for bad gasket or cracked manifold mounting surface ? That seems to be common. I inspected mine but it was fine, so I just replaced the O-ring gaskets. Autozone had the FelPro 35791 and 35789 in stock. For the 3V motors it comes as two separate packages, 2 part numbers. You can get the O-ring seals for the water tube there at the local Ford dealer for about $10 apiece, you need two. Autozone also has the cylinder head temperature sensor for about $25.

 

[pdxexpedition]

Thanks for all of the information above. It also appears most unfortunately, that there is a little bit of oil in each of the intake valve ports. Im guessing bad seals.
I guess my next question and perhaps a painful one, is if I set the timing to TDC, and use the "cheese" tool, can i pop the cam phaser off, and take the cam off to do all the seals easily? Is that the recommended way for not taking the head off?

 

[riphip]

You will have to do each cylinder with either the piston at TDC or use air connection in the plug hole to keep from dropping a valve in the cylinder. BUT the crank/piston may still move (from my past experiences on other engines), so make sure you mark all timing marks very well before proceeding. I personally would do as Hamfisted if I was going that far. Heads off, lap valves or take to machine shop for full rework. New seals won't help much if guides are too worn letting excessive oil past guide.

 

[Hamfisted]

You know, honestly with that mileage, and you're that far into the motor already. I would take the heads off and have 'em rebuilt at a shop. Pull them off with the manifolds attached, and if you break some studs trying to remove them afterwards the shop can remove 'em for you. I'm surprised you're not seeing evidence of a blown head gasket already. Any exhaust smell in the coolant reservoir ? These things love to blow head gaskets. Or you can even get a rebuilt crate motor with all the updates in it for about $3k. Looks like you've done the hard part already. I didn't notice if you'd already removed the heater hoses from the passenger side firewall. That makes it a lot easier. I just sprayed some Liquid Wrench on my exhaust flange studs and hit the nuts with an air impact and they popped right off. You generally need to pull the pulley off the P/S pump to access those retaining bolts that secure it. The cheap P/S pulley puller kit at Harbor Freight will suffice. The crank socket that fits the small block Chevy will fit the Triton crank and keyway. That water tube coming off the backside of the water pump that runs through the valley and to the heater hose in the rear, is secured to the rear of the passenger side head with a 10mm jam nut ontop of a 13mm stud-bolt. It's a PITA. But you gotta replace those O-ring seals on the water pump nipple.

 

[Hamfisted]

It's not too much further to take the heads off, or just pull the engine. Did you already pull the heater hoses away from the firewall ? That makes the valve covers and heads a lot easier to manipulate during installs.



Here's a description of how the quick connects work and how to use that tool to release them off the pipes. Usually it's too tight in the area to get a good grip on the QC with your fingers to manipulate the release clip, so the tool does come in handy. There's videos out there of people doing it without the tool though. Pay attention to the O-rings and nylon spacer orientation.

 

[riphip]

Glad to see I'm not the only slow connection here