Best valve guide seals

[Guest]

I have a 83 GS1100Ewith a 1166 bore kit. I replaced the valve guide seals about 7k ago with SGP seals and they have been leaking for the last 4k.ie smoking upon start up. The longer it sits the worse it smokes. What brand is the best? Vitton, SGP,APE?

[Nessism]

Hard to go wrong with OEM Suzuki seals.

[minutemen]

I have had better luck with OEM than APE. But i am sure the condition of the valve guide factors in to the longevity of the seal.How Many miles is a stock valve guide good for?

[7981GS]

I use Viton seals on my 1100E cylinder head. These were in Washington State IIRC.
I saved the package with the name and mailing address in my shop. I can get it tomorrow if interested.
Several sellers on Ebay also offer similar seals.

Daniel

[trippivot]

don't blame the seal elasticity

Are you going to measure the wear area of the stem of your valves? Maybe the valve stem to guide clearance?


a stock guide is good until it is worn out -

seals are all bought in mass and packaged , I bet no matter who's name is on the product it was made in the same place.

installation of a seal is a delicate procedure it is easy to damage the lip if the sharp edges are not covered. Pesky retainer grooves and tip edges -- oh yes they seal for a bit- until the asembly grease finally washes out.

[minutemen]

I will measure the valve to guide movement when I disassemble the head.Its hard to imagine that the guides are bad after 20k. But that is probably part of the problem. When i installed these seals I ground down the sharp edge on the tip of the valve first. In the past I' ve gotten 10 k plus from the seals with marginal guides. But this batch must have been bad. Also if one manufacturer is making all the seals they must be making them in different colors for each company.I believe i have green ones from APE and black ones from Suzuki.

[blowerbike]

factory seals hands down.