Can you fit valve stem oil seals to a twin-cam?

[johnsimister]

As above. We all seem to accept the smoke and oil thirst that comes from the amount of oil that gets sucked down the valve guides, but does it have to be like this? The Lancia Fulvia HF I used to have was made with seal-less guides but the chap who rebuilt the engine suggested I have him install seals, as fitted to later Fulvia engines. He did so and all was much cleaner without any sign of distress through lack of lubrication.

Another engine builder, making me a hot Imp engine, installed inlet valve seals where there had been none before, with complete success. I think he used Mini ones which IIRC are a simple O-ring around the valve stem which finds its own position the first time the valve opens. Thereafter, when the valve is fully open oil is prevented from being sucked down the guide.

What do the experts think? Is there any point in seals for the Elan, either just on the inlet valve or in both valves? Is there room to fit them? What would be the best sort?

As my head is about to have a bit of an overhaul during the quest to fix the sticking tappet problem (see earlier topic), I thought it would be a good time to investigate the seals idea.

John

[Craig Elliott]

John

There was a guy called Keith (who went by the title "type26owner") who fitted them to his twink and put a fairly detailed description of what/how on the forum. I think he'd also posted pictures somewhere (yahoo?). Unfortunately he no longer posts on the forum so I don't think he'd answer directly, however if you do a search you may well find the relevant articles in the archives etc.

I believe that it's mainly the exhaust valves that cause problems...

Craig

[paddy]

I think this might be the thread:

http://www.lotuselan.net/forums/viewtop ... sc&start=0

If searching for specific content on this site sometimes it's still more effective to go straight to Google rather than use the search box on the site itself.

For example, for this specific query, use the following search string in Google:

site:lotuselan.net type26owner valve guide oil seal

Paddy

[Craig Elliott]

There are a number of posts, this one gives some more detail:

http://www.lotuselan.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1053

Unfortunately the yahoo link doesn't seem to work anymore...

C

[tdafforn]

You can contact keith as the administrator of sidedraft central on Yahoo..
He is very approachable and a nice guy
Tim

[Rob_LaMoreaux]

When John McCoy did my head he was able to put in stem seals. of course that is with different valves, springs, retainers and followers so he could fit his 0.440" lift 290 degree cam in.

So it can be done, you just have to be careful they don't take up enough space to cause binding and the resulting broken cam

rob