can the valve seals be replaced on an SD without pulling the head? This car is really not worth sinking money into (rusty) but I do want to get it on the road. However I believe it smokes too much blue smoke for a cop to let me get away with.

yup. easy, sort of. ya gotta get the piston up to tdc on each cylinder as you take off the keepers.
John

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John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

the piston at TDC keeps the valves from falling into the cylinder, right?

what about just clamping onto them with padded Vicegrips or something like that?

And after that issue is solved, can the seals be removed fairly easily or are they in a well of some sort and have to be pushed out from below by the valve stem?

Um, where would you put the vice grips? the spring covers the entire exposed valve... no, you gotta either pressureize the entire cyllinder to hold the valves closed, or you gotta have the piston at TDC to hold them up. it also gives you a hard surface to feel the valves spin against so you can feel for burned faces.

__________________
John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

I'm assuming you remove rocker arms, springs, etc, and clamp the vise grip from the side on the exposed stem.

However, looking at the drawing in the haynes manual, it looks like the cam is directly above valve stem and getting the rocker arm and spring off without taking the cam off might be a problem.

Now, you mentioned "burned faces". There is enough flat surface connection between the piston and the valve that when you spin the valve face against the piston face, you would feel irregularities? And if you did, what would that tell you?

I belive you have to remove the rocker/cam followers to get the springs off, and no, you can't remove the springs, and then put vice grips on. the valve would already have fallen into the motor at that point. ya gotta bring the piston up to TDC.
I wouldn't remove the cam. too much chance to lose timing.
I don't know for sure if there is enough room to feel much on the valves. but you should be able to feel if the surface is badly damaged. and it would tell you that the head must come off.
John

__________________
John HAUL AWAY, OR CRUSHED CARS!!! HELP ME keep the cars out of the crusher! A/C Thread
"as I ride with my a/c on... I have fond memories of sweaty oily saturdays and spewing R12 into the air. THANKS for all you do!

My drivers:
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5Turbo
1987 190D 2.5-5SPEED!!!

1987 300TD
1987 300TD
1994GMC 2500 6.5Turbo truck... I had to put the ladder somewhere!

Don't even think about compressed air or vice-grips. Do it right and bring each cylinder to TDC to do the seals.

All you have to do is check the archives and they give detailed information about doing this job... and we have also gone over why you do not want to try GAS ENGINE THINKING like using compressed air...

The diesel engine gives a safe and easy way to do this job due to its design.

Dont worry about trying to check for burned valve face. If you have one you will know it. there wont be any compression on that cyl. I cant imagine what your supposed to feel for anyways.

The valve face really is not very important... the thickness of the valve margin is important to not burning the valve...and the lip where the valve touches the head is important for both keeping gasses in and for cooling the valve as it is in contact with the head...
If you try to use the compressed air method and one tiny spec of carbon is keeping the valve from making a perfect seal against the head then you drop the valve into the bore... very exciting...and gives you a chance to examine all the valves when you take the head off to get that valve out.... LOL

Yeah! And lets not forget, if that same carbon spec does flatten a bit to seal the air, the valve is still not seated fully, and the cooling aspect is lost, resulting in burning a valve that was not burned in the first place...

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RRGrassi


70's Southern Pacific #5608 Fairmont A-4 MOW car

13 VW JSW 2.0 TDI 193K, Tuned with DPF and EGR Delete.

91 W124 300D Turbo replaced, Pressure W/G actuator installed. 210K

90 Dodge D250 5.9 Cummins/5 speed. 400K

Most people have no clue as to how important the Convection Cooling ... the actual valve against the head heat transfer.... is to the life of a valve. A valve may be opening and closing 50 times per second... but the time that it is not open it is letting go of excess heat to the valve seat...

Exactly. That is why I would never use a hand held valve and seat grinder. Send them to a good machine shop. If you wobble that hand held, well, plan on taking the head off, again, then if you are lucky, the head can be machined but new valves will be in order. If the valve seat is damaged, new head time.

The angles used in the valve and seats must be precise for proper sealing, and seating. The angles of the valve and seat should equal 90 when added together. So if the valve angle is 38, then the seat angle has to be 52.

__________________
RRGrassi


70's Southern Pacific #5608 Fairmont A-4 MOW car

13 VW JSW 2.0 TDI 193K, Tuned with DPF and EGR Delete.

91 W124 300D Turbo replaced, Pressure W/G actuator installed. 210K

90 Dodge D250 5.9 Cummins/5 speed. 400K

Suggest you go to **************.com. They sell the seal kit and excellent instructions with pictures.