Make your own valve spring compressor for $15

[cbatters]

Most likely you bumped into the same problem, where a lifter was taking a while to bleed down so it was holding the valve open.

Finished up today and came up with a simpler approach. No strings / no compressor/no dropped valves.

1. Bring piston to a little past TDC

2. Use tool to compress spring and remove rockers (x4)

3. Bring piston back to TDC

4. Compress spring / remove keepers using magnet (x1)
(Piston keeps valve from dropping)

5. Rotate camshaft clockwise carefully allowing valve to lower to just above VSS

(If you screw up here you will hate yourself - just go slow and keep pushing down on valve.)

6. Remove spring

7. Remove old VSS with needlenose pliers using twisting motion / Install new VSS / reinstall spring

8. Rotate camshaft counterclockwise to TDC raising valve

9. Compress valve spring and install keepers

(repeat for other valves and then install rocker arms x4)


Worked like a champ...


Clint

[skunkworks]

Step 3 actually ment - push the valve down while turning the crank.

Originally Posted by BLACK94TT

That does sound like a lot of steps. In step #3, is it safe to push down on the piston by using the valve?

I guess unless you're already doing a 60K, this method sure beats pulling the cams.

[BLACK94TT]

Originally Posted by cbatters

Most likely you bumped into the same problem, where a lifter was taking a while to bleed down so it was holding the valve open.

Finished up today and came up with a simpler approach. No strings / no compressor/no dropped valves.

1. Bring piston to a little past TDC

2. Use tool to compress spring and remove rockers (x4)

3. Bring piston back to TDC

4. Compress spring / remove keepers using magnet (x1)
(Piston keeps valve from dropping)

5. Rotate camshaft clockwise carefully allowing valve to lower to just above VSS

(If you screw up here you will hate yourself - just go slow and keep pushing down on valve.)

6. Remove spring

7. Remove old VSS with needlenose pliers using twisting motion / Install new VSS / reinstall spring

8. Rotate camshaft counterclockwise to TDC raising valve

9. Compress valve spring and install keepers

(repeat for other valves and then install rocker arms x4)


Worked like a champ...


Clint

step 5. I get goose bumps just thinking about that.
step 7. Needle nosed pliers works great for that application. I also used a deep well socket sized perfectly for installing the new VSS.

[cbatters]

Originally Posted by BLACK94TT

step 5. I get goose bumps just thinking about that.
step 7. Needle nosed pliers works great for that application. I also used a deep well socket sized perfectly for installing the new VSS.

If you want goosebumps, I should have recorded the sound of the valve falling into the cylinder when I pullled a spring last week and it popped the o ring off the valve stem.

I would suggest NOT using o rings or anything else that could slip off (use a strong nylon string tied dirrectly to the valve stem) and NEVER lower the valve unless the piston is in a position where it would keep it from falling into the cylinder.


Clint

[cbatters]

Well - I have been drinking straight for for ~12 hours but still no compression in two cylinders. (You know you are experienced when zero compression after a VSS does not phase you any more!!)

I parked a couple of the cam lobes on the top of the springs to apply MAX pressure but I am resigned to removing the lifters and giving them a good squeeze in a vise...

BTW - My hat off to anyone who has done VSS with a lever by themsleves. Good trick to compress the valve while installing the keys.


Clint

[cbatters]

Cylinder that I parked the lobe on the rocker arm of the intake valves increased from 0 to 60 PSI in less than an hour. Parking the lobe on the exhaust valves of the same cylinder to see if I can bump it back to 155 where it belongs.

At 60 PSI it would probably fire but it seems like a bad idea to run the engine until all of the valves are sealing correctly.


Clint

[skunkworks]

Well - I finnished up the front bank today. The last cylinder went really fast. Maybe tomarrow I will do the rears. I had to remake my tool so that it worked where the engine lift point was. This modifacation also makes it work in the rear bank better. It actually isn't that bad after you do one cylinder. Just don't drop anything

I took it for a spin and my knock was though the roof - I think I had gotten a bit of oil in the cylinders because after I drove it for a while the knock went back to almost normal - It actully seems less so far but I might be byassed. Less in amplitude and diration. The lifter tick from the front bank is gone. Awsome.

sam

[skunkworks]

One thing I forgot to mention is looking though the spark plug holes the top of the pistons seem to be black. Also my spark plugs are porclin until they disapear into the plug were they turn black. Should be interesting to see what new plugs would look like after running new valve stem seals for a while. The only other source I have for oil is turbos.

might have to do some water injection to clean the cylinders up after all is said and done.

sam

[cbatters]

Originally Posted by skunkworks

One thing I forgot to mention is looking though the spark plug holes the top of the pistons seem to be black. Also my spark plugs are porclin until they disapear into the plug were they turn black. Should be interesting to see what new plugs would look like after running new valve stem seals for a while. The only other source I have for oil is turbos.

might have to do some water injection to clean the cylinders up after all is said and done.

sam

Congrats on getting the first bank done... I believe the learning curve exists regardless of tools/technique. However, with better tools it is less exhausting and you get into a groove and knock them out pretty quick. Doing 2 valves at a time seems to be optimum - easy to keep the parts separate but you can do 2 about as fast as 1 because you are not changing tools as often.

Useful tools:

o Magnetic tool / parts tray (I realized after a few valves that I kept going back and forth between the engine and the floor to pick up parts)

o Magnetic pickup tool for grabbing retainer

o Long handle needle nose pliers (45 degree) for twisting off old VSS

o "Custom" VSS installation tool (fancy name for a strip of metal with a tab on both ends and a hole the size of the VSS) to press in the VSS in one step instead of a multistep process to install socket/press with tool /remove tool / remove socket

ZERO COMPRESSION
Still baffled by the problem with the lifters getting latched in the extended state - I wasted way too much time removing the lifters/compressing them/ reinstalling them. But after 5 minutes, the engine was back to whisper quiet so I don't have any regrets about not changing the lifters.

VERY surprised we have not heard of this "zero compression" case after removing/reinstalling rocker arms on old lifters before. Curious to know if this happens on new lifters once they have been primed.

SkunkWorks - Were your old lifters you replaced 1G or 2G?



Clint

[skunkworks]

Is there a differance between 1st and 2nd gen? I assume they where first gen - 92 stealth. The hole in the top looked to be less than a mm in diameter. No wonder they get plugged. What I bought is what has been called 3rd gen lifters from partsdinosaur.

sam

Any runs yet to see if it has helped the knock?