Oil Additives for Valve Seals

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This is my first post, i have a 1984 suzuki sj410 1L F10A engine, i had to replace the engine, i found one from a 1984 Suzuki with only 33,532 Km on it, i ck it out removed the base and valve cover and it was clean clean, it is now in and works great EXCEPT it smokes a lot when i first start it up the rest of the day it is ok, so valve seals, my question is is there any oil additive that i could put in to help the valve seals?? or soften them up.
Any help would be appreciated..
 
You could try a High Mileage Oil before you start trying any additives. Honestly depending on just how hard the seals are they might need to be replaced, especially in an engine that old.
 
Liqui Moly Motor Oil Saver is an ester based product I've used in the past for valve seals. Give it about 700-800 miles to work.
 
LOL! instead of playing with magical elixir, why don't you cut to the chase and get those valve stem seals replaced?

Those are typically 2-valves per cylinder engines with SOHC. replacing the valve stem seals should take you( your indy mech) less than 2 hrs tops to replace all 8 of them.

Q.
 
Originally Posted By: Falcon_LS
Liqui Moly Motor Oil Saver is an ester based product I've used in the past for valve seals. Give it about 700-800 miles to work.


Falcon is right. Motor oil saver is some pretty great stuff. I'd try that first and try to delay the inevitable until I had the money to fix it.
However once you add motor oil saver it might no longer need fixing.

Originally Posted By: Quest
LOL! instead of playing with magical elixir, why don't you cut to the chase and get those valve stem seals replaced?

Those are typically 2-valves per cylinder engines with SOHC. replacing the valve stem seals should take you( your indy mech) less than 2 hrs tops to replace all 8 of them.

Q.


Did you even read the question. He didn't ask for someone to tell him to fix the valve seals,he asked if there was an additive that might help.
Apparently you don't have an answer yet felt the need to add anyways. Interesting trait.
 
Valve stem seals for this engine are $1.95:

http://www.22re.com/main/suzuki/sj410.asp

You need eight of them.

This is what your head should look like:

wankang$201715612(s).jpg


You are going to spend more on additives than you are to fix the problem properly IMHO, it just makes sense to fix it right the first time.
 
Originally Posted By: Falcon_LS
Liqui Moly Motor Oil Saver is an ester based product I've used in the past for valve seals. Give it about 700-800 miles to work.


It completely slipped my mind. If the HM oil I suggested didn't work it might be worth a try, although I'd probably swap out the seals if the HM oil doesn't work.
 
No mechanic in a bottle is going to fix a mechanical issue. You can try the above and they may slow burning a bit or they might not. If the smoke in the morning bothers you, just fix the cause and put seals in.

Just my .02
 
Thanks for all your replies, that is a pic of the head alright, so i guess the best thing to do is replace them, i already have a set of seals they came in the gasket set, so as they say bite the bullet and do it, the engine works so good, smooth and quiet, so now i will get rid of the start up smoke.....
 
Originally Posted By: Tack
Thanks for all your replies, that is a pic of the head alright, so i guess the best thing to do is replace them, i already have a set of seals they came in the gasket set, so as they say bite the bullet and do it, the engine works so good, smooth and quiet, so now i will get rid of the start up smoke.....


Makes it a no brainer, particularly given how easy that engine is to work on
thumbsup2.gif


Best of luck and let us know the outcome of your endeavour please! If you don't mind, you could take some pics of the process and post them up for us. We always like some good engine pr0n, LOL!!
grin.gif
 
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: Tack
Thanks for all your replies, that is a pic of the head alright, so i guess the best thing to do is replace them, i already have a set of seals they came in the gasket set, so as they say bite the bullet and do it, the engine works so good, smooth and quiet, so now i will get rid of the start up smoke.....


Makes it a no brainer, particularly given how easy that engine is to work on
thumbsup2.gif


Best of luck and let us know the outcome of your endeavour please! If you don't mind, you could take some pics of the process and post them up for us. We always like some good engine pr0n, LOL!!
grin.gif



+1 Smart move!
 
Originally Posted By: Clevy


Did you even read the question. He didn't ask for someone to tell him to fix the valve seals,he asked if there was an additive that might help.
Apparently you don't have an answer yet felt the need to add anyways. Interesting trait.




I've done quite a few Suzukis in my days and I will only give my best/honest advice given the circumstances (in this case: a low mileage engine that otherwise still functions perfectly and all it ever needs is just valve stem seal replacements).

I don't post hollow, unsubstantiated information on BITOG, for I "walk-da-walk and talk-da-talk" and I only provide info that I have experience with and to those readers who value the most.



Q.
 
Agreed. It would be different if this was a ford modular, or some other engine that would be a royal pita to swap seals. But with how simple this should be its pointless to have him try a bunch of things that may work for a bit, or not work at all and spend money that he could put towards fixing it right.

Originally Posted By: Quest
Originally Posted By: Clevy


Did you even read the question. He didn't ask for someone to tell him to fix the valve seals,he asked if there was an additive that might help.
Apparently you don't have an answer yet felt the need to add anyways. Interesting trait.




I've done quite a few Suzukis in my days and I will only give my best/honest advice given the circumstances (in this case: a low mileage engine that otherwise still functions perfectly and all it ever needs is just valve stem seal replacements).

I don't post hollow, unsubstantiated information on BITOG, for I "walk-da-walk and talk-da-talk" and I only provide info that I have experience with and to those readers who value the most.



Q.
 
Originally Posted By: Quest
LOL! instead of playing with magical elixir, why don't you cut to the chase and get those valve stem seals replaced? Those are typically 2-valves per cylinder engines with SOHC. replacing the valve stem seals should take you( your indy mech) less than 2 hrs tops to replace all 8 of them.


This is exactly right. If you're getting an oil smoke puff on morning start up, but the engine is otherwise running well, the valve stem seals are bad. MoS2 won't cure this. MMO won't cure this. The only fix is to replace the valve stm seals.

Depending on the exact details of your engine, this may be more or less difficult. Basically, you have to compress the valve spring, remove the spring keeper, remove the spring and related parts, remove the old seal and replace it, and then reassemble the spring and keeper.

Oh yes, you don't want the un-sprung/un-kept valve to drop down into the cylinder while you're doing all this - bummer if that happens. At least one way to prevent this is to pressurize the cylinder with an air compressor. Of course, you could just remove the cylinder head and do the job on the bench - much easier - but then you're looking at several additional steps, more parts, etc.

Find a mechanic or shop that works on Suzuki engines of your model and vintage. Ask the mechanic how they normally do this job. Every engine has its tricks and most mechanics will be glad to help you out if you're trying to do this yourself.
 
Also: if you are to do it yourself (assuming that you are cable): the top 10 philips screws that secure the rocker shafts require an impact screwdriver with proper screw bit(tight fit). one or 2 light but firm whacks with a 16oz hammer is all that it takes to unscrew them (don't wack too much for you may either strip those rather soft screws or so).

When putting those screws back: I used low strength treadlocker in the past, and just hand-tight them with screwdriver until I cannot turn no more.

They will hold their position so long as you do it the proper way.

*remember: these screws are mighty-soft so be careful (I managed to strip a few of these during my days).

As for pressurising the cylinders to hold the valves in place (during spring removal and such), you must first lower each and every piston heads to bottom (after you removed those rockers and rocker shafts), give each valve a light but firm wack with a 16oz hammer to break loose those retainers before you proceed to the rest of the procedures RE: compressing each valve springs, remove them, pry off the old valve stem seals, slip in the new ones, reverse the steps, etc.

good luck.

Q.
 
Originally Posted By: Quest
... give each valve a light but firm whack with a 16oz hammer to break loose those retainers before you proceed to the rest of the procedures RE: compressing each valve springs, remove them, pry off the old valve stem seals, slip in the new ones, reverse the steps, etc.


You want to 'whack' the retaining collar - not the stem itself. The idea is to get the collar to slip down the stem just a fraction. Once it has slipped, then it will come off easily after you compress the springs, etc.
 
@dave:

I don't wack the collar (sorry). My dealings with retainers have always been wacking the stem the same direction (as the stem, not 90degrees) and that was sufficient to loosen the retainers.

guess different mech deals with retainers differently.

*smiles*

Q.
 
Originally Posted By: Quest
I don't wack the collar (sorry). My dealings with retainers have always been wacking the stem the same direction (as the stem, not 90degrees) and that was sufficient to loosen the retainers.


Let me try this again - I left out a detail.

Use a deep socket - say 1/2" size or there abouts. With the valve springs still in place, place the socket on top of the collar and give the socket a whack. The idea is to free the collar from the two retaining pieces.

You can do this 'up front' - just go down the line and whack every collar. Then start disassembling, one cylinder and one valve at a time.
 
Originally Posted By: dave5358
Originally Posted By: Quest
I don't wack the collar (sorry). My dealings with retainers have always been wacking the stem the same direction (as the stem, not 90degrees) and that was sufficient to loosen the retainers.


Let me try this again - I left out a detail.

Use a deep socket - say 1/2" size or there abouts. With the valve springs still in place, place the socket on top of the collar and give the socket a whack. The idea is to free the collar from the two retaining pieces.

You can do this 'up front' - just go down the line and whack every collar. Then start disassembling, one cylinder and one valve at a time.


yup! that I agreed (using a deep socket)and used before with good success.

Cheers,

Q.
 
Originally Posted By: Quest
Originally Posted By: Clevy


Did you even read the question. He didn't ask for someone to tell him to fix the valve seals,he asked if there was an additive that might help.
Apparently you don't have an answer yet felt the need to add anyways. Interesting trait.




I've done quite a few Suzukis in my days and I will only give my best/honest advice given the circumstances (in this case: a low mileage engine that otherwise still functions perfectly and all it ever needs is just valve stem seal replacements).

I don't post hollow, unsubstantiated information on BITOG, for I "walk-da-walk and talk-da-talk" and I only provide info that I have experience with and to those readers who value the most.



Q.


This would be the best option.
 
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