Symptoms caused from bad valve oil seals

[Guest]

What are some common symptoms or mechanical issues that are caused from bad overhead valve oil seals?

Also, any advice, tips, tricks, do's, don'ts, and guidance on replacement of the valve seals for 1982 gs1100glz would be very helpful

[Nessism]

Burning oil, fouled plugs, blue smoke on start up in the morning and when the bike sits for some time.

You can replace the seals without tearing the engine down, but it's tricky. Some guy posted a thread on this subject so you should be able to find it using the search function. Normally though, when you need to replace the seals it's time to refresh the entire top end, or at least the various gaskets. And speaking of gaskets, only use OEM Suzuki gaskets. Aftermarket is tempting due to price, but leaks are commonplace afterward so be very careful.

[chuck hahn]

Smoke after sitting for a time at start up that "seems" to go away after maybe 5 or 10 minutes

Constant or puffing of smoke when running.

Oil fouled plug in a particular ( or all ) cylinders.

Oil drips collecting at the end of the pipes.

Unusually high oil consumption even though not "noticably " seeing it smoke.

[tkent02]

Smoke after start up, after decelerating a while with closed throttle and then opening it up, just smoke in general.

[jermee47]

I am just happy the bike runs, I bought it and had 7000 miles on it, but sat outside for nearly a decade and never started or covered up. So the engine locked up from lack of use. I was able to free the engine after several days of soaking the cylinders with penetrating oil and pushing and pulling the bike gently while in 1st gear. I have checked the valve clearance and timing and all is within specs.

It does smoke a bit but not excessively. Since I have brought it back to life, I have made other improvements and completed various maintenance steps on it... I have put 5,500 miles on it with the engine in the condition it is in now.

I really do not want to perform a whole top end rebuild, the most I may consider doing is ring replacement and valve oil seal replacement, but only if the cylinder walls and valve seats are not too worn.

I don't have the $$$ needed to do a cylinder bore and piston replacement.

[tkent02]

How is the compression? With only 12,500 miles on it the rings and things shouldn't be worn at all. Valve stem seals do get hardened with age though.

[chuck hahn]

How long have you ran it after firing it up? Its gonna take a good time to burn all the oil out of the rings and from the inside of the pipes after doing the soak.

I say run it a month or so and keep an eye on the oil level. that way for certain the oil from the soak has been long gone. Then you can better determine the symptoms after that.

[jermee47]

I have been riding it for 2 years now, and put 500 miles on it within the past 7 days.

I do not have the tools necessary to test the compression. Maybe I can ask around and see if I can find a loner tool from a friend.

[chuck hahn]

If its smoking now its not from the soaking process then.

[Steve]

I really do not want to perform a whole top end rebuild, the most I may consider doing is ring replacement and valve oil seal replacement, but only if the cylinder walls and valve seats are not too worn.

I don't have the $$$ needed to do a cylinder bore and piston replacement.

Interesting scenario here. You don't want to do a top-end rebuild, but might do rings and valve seals? About the only other thing that would be necessary would be to HONE (not bore) the cylinders for the new rings.

In other words, what you said you are willing to do IS a top-end rebuild.

With only 12,000 miles on the engine, you should not need to have it bored out, unless there was water standing in the cylinder (which is one possible reason it "locked up". If there is a line of rust where the rings were sitting for several years, that would explain some of your oil consumption.

Had that happen on my wife's bike. Did not realize that there was a rust line in the cylinder, as the engine was never "locked up" for us or the previous owner. I only found the problem when I took the engine apart to fix some other issues. Fortunately, it was just one cylinder with the problem, I was able to source a parts engine and swap a liner.

By the way, prepare yourself for sticker shock if you decide to re-ring your engine. A complete OEM gasket set is $216. Or, you can get a head gasket for $85, a baske gasket for $22, a couple of o-rings for a couple bucks each, and a valve cover gasket for $25. There will be a couple other small items that would be included in the complete kit that will make it worth the expense, like the cam chain tensioner gasket, valve seals, etc. Keep in mind that is only for the gaskets. New OEM rings are about $26 per piston.

By the time you get done, you will have a bit over $400 into your too-end refresh, including a bit for a professional cylinder hone, if you can't do that yourself.

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[jermee47]

I was not aware of doing a hone on a cylinder. I may consider that if I need to go that route and decide to pull the cylinder heads off and perform a ring job. Before I decide to get that far into it, I will test the compression and see how that looks. No need in doing unnecessary work jus for the experience of it.

[Nessism]

We trust you have adjusted the valves right? Don't even bother trying to test compression before doing the valves first.

[jermee47]

I did a very thorough job at making sure the valves were in tolerance that was the first major thing I did after getting it running and making sure it was road worthy. I followed the instructions and guidance that I found on this site and other sources.

The valves did not require any shims as the "wear limits" were well within tolerance.

[gs11ezrydr]

Providing on how long a bike runs with a smoking "oil consumption" problem. Not saying yours has ran that long but you were asking for advice, suggestions, general knowledge etc. I have seen in time carbon deposits on the tops of the pistons, heads of the valves, inside the ports, up inside the combustion chambers etc. And left alone it will keep accumulating and will raise the compression and result in you getting false compression test results. Usually a higher then normal reading or a falsely obtained within the specs reading due to the build up. I also have heard pinging, "spark" knock, etc. that was preignition also caused by the excessive carbon build up. And carbon being hard and abrasive as it is it will wear the valve faces, valve stems, guides, seats, etc. Besides all the other negatives that were posted previously. Might should address the issue.

[jermee47]

I found some information on using the compression testing hose that threads into the sparkplug port and attaching an air compressor to the end of the hose quick connect and putting engine TDC for the cylinder. Then using the air compressor to place about 25 PSI into the cylinder to help with the removal of the valve oil seals.

Basically remove the valve cover and cams and all the other parts needed to expose the oil seals and then remove the seals in each cylinder using the TDC method for each cylinder.

By putting the piston TDC, that leaves a smaller space to pressurize with the air compressor and may possibly keep the valves from falling into the cylinder.