valve seals? or glowplugs?

viperkepr · Post by **viperkepr** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 8:10 pm

I have been kicking around the idea of pulling my cyl head off my 1.6 N/A and getting a reseal kit. The reasons being that lately(its kinda cold in the tundra) when I start it, there is a blue/black cloud when I start it. I'll warm it up for a few minutes before I start off to work, and it usually clears up about 3 or 4 miles towards work. My theory: I suspect that my valve seals are going downriver, and/or my glowplugs are on their way out too.
I replaced the glowplugs 2 winters ago with a new fast relay. I am wondering if that is about the "normal" half-life of glowplugs and I need to think about getting new ones. I bought the Bosch type from Jack along with the relay, and they have worked awesome until about a month ago, when I started to notice a little more smoke than usual. When it gets really cold (< 0 F) I always plug in the block heater, and I barely turn the key and the thing is purring. A little blue smoke, but not as much.
2 winters ago, I pulled the engine/tranny and cleaned it up, replaced the cold start o-ring , new head gasket, and various other seals on the engine. I installed the IP, removed that horrendous A/C setup and made my own alternator bracket, and "hillbilly tuned" the IP.
But I am kicking myself for not taking the head into a shop and having it worked over with new camshaft seals and valve seals. I know, I know kinda dumb.
Ok---so my question is ---should I consider a new set of glowplugs and see if the blue/black smoke decreases on start up? Or do I have leaky injectors and/or crappy valve seals and just do a once-over on the damn thing? After reading this post again, it sounds like I'm trying to convince myself into pulling the head and doing all of this stuff. Time and $$$ right? Anyway, thanks for any input........

nicknack2 · Post by **nicknack2** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 8:59 pm

Looks like you are in for a valve seal job, specially since your smoke issues go away after a few miles, the re-seal job should not be too bad, and you might be able to do it without removing the head, just the valve cover, and camshaft, I have this tread going on the home tools neede to do this job check it out, remember that is the beauty of this engine there is lots of DIY you can do!

viewtopic.php?t=7482

VWCaddy · Post by **VWCaddy** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:31 pm

Easy enough to test the glow plugs:
http://www.4crawler.com/Diesel/CheapTri ... lugTesting

tylernt · Post by **tylernt** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 12:12 pm

Tough to troubleshoot valve stem seals on a diesel, since the blue smoke could just be cold combustion temperatures. But if it goes on for 3-4 minutes, yeah, probably the seals.

The valve stem seals should be easy to replace without removing the head from the car. All you need is a valve spring depressor, which you can make or buy. Just put each cylinder at TDC so the valves won't fall down into your engine, depress the spring seat, remove the keepers, remove the springs, pull the old seal out with long 90 degree pliers or hose pliers, drive the new seal in with a deep socket or tawney's PVC pipe. Assembly is the reverse of disassembly.

82vdub · Post by **82vdub** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 12:50 pm

Just put each cylinder at TDC so the valves won't fall down into your engine

And make absolutely sure you don't rotate the engine or the valve will fall into the engine requiring the head to come off.

84vwrabbitdiesel · Post by **84vwrabbitdiesel** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 2:13 am

How much engine oil are you burning per 3000 mile service?

ajt3nc · Post by **ajt3nc** » Tue Dec 25, 2007 3:29 am

Jack sells duraterm plugs so I would bet on the seals.
What oil do you use ?

A1-2-A3 · Post by **A1-2-A3** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 8:53 am

Question is how many miles? Secondly its probably your guides that are worn and new seals will not fix the problem. I tried this and it did not change a thing. So if its miled out pull the head and get it redone and spend $$$. Or buy a reman and trade it in. To replace all the valves and guides and resurfacing and all that is about the same as trading the head in. Lots of options I guess you can do. If you want to learn how to do seals in the car and make the tool its not very hard to do and pretty cheap(less than 35 bucks total for seals and VC gasket) It may be a waste of time of course and not cure the problem, but it could be a DIY moment.
Best of luck and hope the cheap fix does it.

viperkepr · Post by **viperkepr** » Wed Dec 26, 2007 10:36 pm

First of all, thanks for the replys. I have used Rotella-T 15-40 for just about forever, but I wanted to see what synthetic would do, so I put in Rotella-T 5-40 synthetic in August. (I haven't drove the bunny in a while, but I figure I'm due for a oil change) So now that I think of it, good question. Maybe it's the new/different oil that is the culprit. As for miles, I have 199000 on it, but the guy I bought it from said he "rebuilt" it @ 140000. Of course he didn't get into too much detail what he did, but I do remember him saying new rings and bearings. So no mention on the head work. And yes, I remember Jack saying the glowplugs were Duratherms when I bought them. And they have been great so far. Rarely have trouble starting.
I found some Rotella-T 10W-30 in a store the other day, and bought 2 gallons of it. Maybe I'll change the oil and see if the smoke tones down a bit before I go off the deep end and start ripping the cylinder head off and maybe wasting time and $$$. If that doesn't help, maybe I'll have a project this spring. Thanks again for the ideas......