After doing some reading and making a post earlier and then driving the car just alittle awhile ago, i came to the conclusion that i need to change the valve seals. i did a search and found some helpful info on changing these while the head is attached to the block. i am gonna go buy a valve spring compressor tool this weekend and order the parts next week. does anyone have or know where i can get a complete print out or procedure on how i can do this easier. it will be a learning experience but i gotta start some where. suggestions would be more then welcome, thanks

 

Best procedure not sure if it involves removing the cylinder head or not but the honda factory manual

 

theres alot of tricks...a few of my favorites...instead of useing an air compressor to keep the valves from falling through, buy some nylon rope and shove it in the cylinder throught the spark plug whole until you cant shove anymore in there. the rope will keep the valves from falling and the rope will not leave any residue. you dont necessarily need a valve spring compressor if you have two people...a socket and a hammer. get a socket that is atleast half the size of the valve retainer...smack it one good time and the keepers should pop out. to re-install them have some one push down on the retainer with a crows foot or anything that allows you access to install the keepers while the spring is depressed. as far as the seals buy a set of dental picks to remove the old ones, they can be a pain in the ***...and dont beat the new ones on, you will bust it. good luck and buy a helms manual or atleast a haynes manual...stay away from chiltons.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Syner-G-Racing &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">theres alot of tricks...a few of my favorites...instead of useing an air compressor to keep the valves from falling through, buy some nylon rope and shove it in the cylinder throught the spark plug whole until you cant shove anymore in there. the rope will keep the valves from falling and the rope will not leave any residue. you dont necessarily need a valve spring compressor if you have two people...a socket and a hammer. get a socket that is atleast half the size of the valve retainer...smack it one good time and the keepers should pop out. to re-install them have some one push down on the retainer with a crows foot or anything that allows you access to install the keepers while the spring is depressed. as far as the seals buy a set of dental picks to remove the old ones, they can be a pain in the ***...and dont beat the new ones on, you will bust it. good luck and buy a helms manual or atleast a haynes manual...stay away from chiltons. </TD></TR></TABLE>

what about with the head off the car?
can you just lay it on a flat surface so the valves don't fall out?

 

If your doing it with the head off the car you'll still need to hold the valves up so you don't bend them. there is a speical tool that holds the valve closed and pulles down on the retainer at the same time to intsall them.

On the car is fairly easy. I just use a leak down tester, ture it up to 85-90psi and it will hold the valve closed. Snap on makes a speicle tool for about $70 that works great. It has a magnet on the end of it so when you hit it with a hammer the locks won't fall. Also to intsll the it has a seperat tool that will let you tap the seals in with a hammer to seat them, be careful not to hit them to hard or they will get damaged. To put them back in it has a retractale tip that the locks slide onto. I found that if you coat these with white lithium grease when installing them it will hold them better.

Little trick to get the old seals out, heat them up with either a small propain torch or map gas. Once you do this they pull right off. Good luck.