Chris White

Valve guides are not really a DIY project, to do it correctly you should measure and hone the new guides to match the valves and that requires more specialty tools. In addition if you are replacing the guides you will need to do a valve job afterwards.

The seals do not need to be 'glued' on. they are a friction fit (with a special tool). If you try to 'bash' them on with out the tool you have a pretty good chance that you will screw some up (the 16v seals are even worse!).

I am a big fan of DIY - but in this case it doesn't make sense - By the time you get the necessary tools you will spend a lot more than getting done by a local pro.

ZW 944

Really? Dang. I was hoping to keep this to DIY sorts of jobs. now I guess I need to find someone who will do a good job in the Cleveland area. And Cleveland rennlisters know of a good place??

Heres some more updates with pictures! The turbo is indeed good as new, and the AOS seals looked like they were pretty toast - a good time to replace them. What size are the nuts on the downpipe? thought they were 17, but its a very loose fit, and 16 is too small.



Pic of the valve in question:


The other valves had a lot of white crud on them... Kinda shows up grey in this picture due to the shadows.


These issues probably weren't being helped by the fact that the PO didn't drill this through. Maybe explains why I've been having issues with aux cooling pumps


The valve guides for 3 of the exhaust valves were rather worn - valves wouldn't just slide out, but rather needed a lot of "encouragement" (brute force) since they're gonna be replaced anyway along with the guides.



The newest update though was that I just got my injectors back from Witchhunter, one was leaking at the pintle - if I push on the end like in the picture theres some give in the bad injector, but not in the others. No way to say for certain if the bad injector was the one from the #4 cylinder, I should have marked that before sending them out.

blade7

Yep, that's what I suggested to Thom when his engine was eating up followers and cams a while back, he ignored my advice though and a while later his expert told him the same thing. He's had a moody with me ever since I pointed it out to him Lol.

ZW 944

Well, I've called a few places, and most are quoting in the $4-600 range for replacing the valve guides. The exception is a place called "budget engine rebuilders" which just leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Not trying to get something this important done on the cheap, but also not loaded for cash either this far into the job. Is this the sort of job that would be not too difficult to do which I could trust the "budget engine rebuilders" or should I just pay up?

I should have just bought that ported head Lart had for sale instead of buying the used valve-set.

ibkevin

That turbo impeller looks rough, at a minimum check it for runout.

That valve just didn't vaporize it's pieces.

Have a quality place rebuild the head, if these prices are too step, get another car. These cars were pricy to keep on the road then.. much more $$ today.

TonyG

Burn valves, in a turbo application, are the result from excessive EGT's.

And typically the excessive EGT's are the result of the owner burning fuel with a too low of an octane rating for the given application.

Given the poor fuel, the engine mapping tires to keep the engine out of detonation by pulling ignition timing. This works to a point.

But the side effect of retarding ignition timing is that EGT's go through the roof resulting in burned exhaust valves.

I'd lay my money on excessive ignition retard resulting in high EGT's.


TonyG

ZW 944

Kevin, The turbo was clipped like that from Evergreen 2 years ago, and looked (& felt) exactly like it did when it went in (Thankfully!!) I Don't know where else the piece could be if it didn't vaporize, if that size of a chunk went through the turbo it would be toast.

I always fill up with 93 octane - could it be due to the leaky injector somehow? I've been uncovering other cooling related issues with the car since its been apart too - been cleaning out the coolant passages in the block of what I think must be the remnants of a stop-leak product a PO used along with the non-drilled out blockoff plate. Is bad gas the only thing that would pull timing? I obviously don't use the cycling valve since I've got the A-tune, but I believe the factory KLR can still detect knocking & pull the timing?