valve spring compressing tool

[franko66]

I borrowed a valve spring lever tool from a friend from work to change my valve seals while on the engine block. It must be for a V8 that has the stud in front of each valve. It really does not fit properly.
Anyone know of the correct tool part number for the valve spring compressing lever tool? I know that Autozone has the loner policy but I just dont want to waste time looking around for the correct tool. it should'nt be that expensive to buy, I thought about just fabricating one out of some metal. Does NAPA or anyone else have them for the 200 I6?
Its a 1966 200 I6.

 

[Lupin398]

Not sure of the years on my 200's but I know that a rebuilder I knew just used a big socket and a hammer and smacked'em fairly hard until the keepers popped out.

 

[franko66]

I need to compress the valve spring first with a tool then smack the tops of the springs with something soft to release the keepers.

 

[mach1 mark]

I borrowed my neighbor's once, and he's a Chevy guy. It worked fine.

 

[CAMDEN289]

Can you post a pic of it? I have an on car compressor and I use it on my 200's and 289's no problem.

 

[rbohm]

8) here are two different types of valve spring compressors you can use. the C type compressor requires that you remove the head;

http://store.summitracing.com/egnsearch ... 4294853214

 

[franko66]

I used the 2 jaw compressor tonight. It took about 3 hours to replace them all. I used the rope trick. It worked well after I got in the groove. The hard part was experimenting with smacking the tops of the valves to loosen the keepers before compressing. I used a dead blow hammer and a 11/16 box end wrench. A few valves dropped a little so I backed up the crank and carefully used a long skinny screw driver and moved the rope over inside the cylinder to the other valve and turned the crank to compress more rope against the next valve. It worked pretty well. I am glad I did not use the lever tool. The spring compresser from Autozone made it easier.I hand cranked the crank about 3 full turns to see everyting move correctly. The new felpro umbrellas seemed really cheesy. I was expecting something with a little more rubber. How long do seals last on these engines if driven a couple of times a week? I will fire it up tommorrow after work. I wanted to let the valve cover gasket sealer dry overnite. I am crossing my fingers for tomorrow.

 

[CobraSix]

I drive my mustang about 5-8k miles a year and haven't had any problems with the cheap Fel-Pros I installed about 4 years ago (I think that's when I got my Oz 250 head).

 

[Frankenstang]

Good job! I'm sure it was a worthwhile effort. You know calling them seals almost seems like a bit of a misnomer...the umbrella analogy fits better cause don't they mainly deflect oil from gushing down the stems to the guides. I would think they would be partcularly important as your valve guides start to age. Makes me want to check the condition on mine.

 

[franko66]

Well I got great results. No more smoke. I drove it 2 days in a row and no smoke at start ups or after driving long distances and stopping at idle.
I found that the seals do NOT fit snug around the bottom at the head. They do fit snug over the valve stem. What would keep them from just riding up and down on the valve stem? The height of the umbrella must be taller than the distance between the bottom of the valve retainer and the top of the head mounting area keeping the valve guide covered or protected from too much oil. I did find out from a parts supply (Green Sales in Cincinnati that there were 2 sizes of valves for the stock 200. He pulled seals from old stock and new stock for both valve sizes. The umbrellas were all the same. I wanted to verify that I had the correct valve seals from Autozone(Felpro).
The website and you people are very helpful in reducing trial and error like the "old days"