Valve stem oil seals

[Friday]

Has anyone experience in changing the valve stem oil seals on an rcz 156?

I plan to use the rope method to change the seals and need some advice on the specific valve spring compression tool that is best. The engine is fairly tight so I’m looking for a tool that fits the space plus makes swapping the collets simple.

Also, the timing tools for the engine look quite cheap - anyone with bad experience of using cheap timing set on this engine?

I’ve asked AI and am convinced AI will be the death of many an engine.

 

[Pedro]

Depending on Mileage if heavy Carbon Build up if the valve chambers & valve seats are clogged up changing seals will not fully cure the problem

 

[gwest]

I'm thinking I might just change the exhaust valve stem seals on my 124k km RCZ THP200. I don't think the carbon buildup would be too bad at this mileage and it would be interesting to see how much difference it makes to my oil consumption. I saw a tool on Aliexpress that seems to have quite a versatile setup for doing the job without removing the head. I don't think it would be worth trying to use it on the inlet valves because of lack of room for dealing with the complicated business of removing the variable valve height mechanism

 

[Charlie1875]

Hi, I’ve done this job on a low mileage Mini Cooper s, same engine as it puffed blue smoke whilst in traffic,
you will need an air compressor to stop the valves from dropping into the combustion chamber, also you will have to do all the valves as the carbon builds up in the inlet valves, an ok job to undertake for a fairly experienced diy mechanic.
hope that helps.

 

[Friday]

Thanks all. I'm trying to prepare the tools so the car is not off the road for too long. I am wondering about compressing the rearmost valve springs (inlet valves I believe). I've got this type of compressor (compared to gwest's type above) but now thinking it'll struggle with the rear valve springs due to lack of room in the rcz. Anyone got experience in removing the inlet valve springs with the head still attached?

If there's room I will spin the lever 180 and press down near the bulkhead side. If no room I'll try fitting the valve pusher arm on the other side of the lever and pull the lever up keeping the same orientation? Worst case scenario could be do the exhaust side then chop the lever and fabricate a dogleg extension that fits the space needed for the inlet valves.

I haven't got the valvetronic stuff to worry about given mine is the 156. This link is an interesting take on replacing the valve seals on the 156 engine without removing the camshafts. https://www.forum-peugeot.com/Forum...ueue-de-soupapes-sans-démonter-les-aac.130490 (its in French so you'll need to translate the page)

 

[Charlie1875]

That tool is ideal, there’s enough room to do all the valves, do all 4 valves stem seals in each cylinder then move on to the next cylinder, hope that helps

 

[Friday]

I’ve just changed them all. Took me a few hours of meticulously getting the collets back on.
A few points to share:
1) I had to fabricate a bridge for the timing chain side of the head. I used 30cm length of angle iron and epoxied a couple of bits of marine ply to increase the height to 4cm. You need the bridge to span a valley on the timing chain side and it needs to be 4cm high to match the cam shaft bracket on the gearbox side of the head. Then the spring compressor brackets mount on the bridge and on the cam shaft bracket.
2) The collets are tiny (a few mm) and getting them back on is a pig. Tried tweezers but too precarious ; tried screwdriver with grease but the collets / screwdriver become magnetic after fetching the collets. As they are so tiny even a small amount of magnetism pulls the collets back off. In the end used a finger with a dab of grease. Maybe try something like a chopstick with some grease on but found using finger the best.
3) the two rockers near the timing chain need to come out. Needed two pairs of hands to remove them and compress spring.
4) if you have a timing kit it probably would have been quicker overall to remove the camshafts and use a collet tool to refit them. then re-time the engine.
5) getting a couple of spare collets before you start would be wise. How all 32 collets came off and went back on is beyond me. There was a couple of narrow escapes. Even blocking off all oil gulleys and timing chain space the little buggers can still fly off if the spring compressor slips.

 

[Friday]

the car is running fine. Thought I’d scan it with an obd scanner to double check. It’s coming back with a P0597 [0x0597] Thermostat heater control system - open circuit.
I should have scanned it before I did the work on the valve stem oil seals. I didn’t and now I don’t know if that was an existing issue or one I’ve created doing the valve stem seals. I think I’ve plugged everything back in (only had to disconnect two electrical connections)
Anyone tried changing the thermostat - any advice?