Hello,

Opened up the valve covers to replace the gaskets (were leaking a little, and still are with the replacements , gonna put some sealer on) and found some odd stuff.

In the rocker oil return stream(?) or in those little drain holes holes next to the valves I found some little pieces of plastic that are very small and look like they are cut up or broken up.

Here are the pictures:

 

Valve seals.

 

Yep, valve stem seal. Bet it's a smoker......

 

x3 ^^ Also a penny. lol

 

I refer to them as "umbrella seals". They get rock hard from old age and repeated heat cycles and are notorious for plugging oil drain back holes and oil pump screens.

 

I've actually never seen it smoke on a startup and when I bought it I made sure it wasn't smoking when it was running. It may have when I wasn't looking, and exhaust smells but as far as I know no smoke problems. It has 2 newer mufflers.

Is this a serious issue? I removed all visable pieces of this stuff and even went in with a wire to make sure nothing was seriously blocked.

Thanks

 

I bet you have to add a lot of oil over time?
Yeah, you need new valve seals.

 

I do not consider it a serious problem. It will use a bit of oil and the environmentalists will get upset. You cleaned the pieces that would block oil return to the crankcase. Your valve covers may just quit leaking now. Just hope enough of the very small pieces do not collect on the oil intake screen, that is where the serious problem would be. If it has good oil pressure at high rpm I would not worry about the seals. Drive it. OTOH, if you have a lot of time on your hands replace them.

 

By your description, it doesn't sound serious.

The purpose of the umbrella seals is to keep oil off the valve stems and thus, the valve guides in the head.

Now, if the seals are missing AND the heads have worn guides or stems, then oil gets on the stem, pools at the top of the guide, makes its way through the guide, and onto the back of the valve. If that happens, then that oil gets sucked into the combustion chamber on and burned. That is when it will smoke. My 65 had crumbly seals and it only puffed on start up. I replaced the umbrella seals about 30K ago and the smoke is gone... it's got about 170K so a rebuild is due but otherwise the oil consumption is minimal.

 

I agree with HIO, they are umbrella seals. When my son redid his 460 he was told not to even use them. I don't think they are needed either.

If there are still some on the other valves cut them off so they don't fall off and plug things up.

 

The right way to fix is go to Napa get new ones for about $8 and put air in the cylinder and fix them. Its about an hour job once you get the hang of removing keepers. I doubt your valve guides are that tight that you can get away with no oil consumption.

Its not a Farmall Super A it should have valve seals.

 

I take it you never did it before since you weren't sure what they were. Just need a valve spring compressor, air line and compressor and a good magnet. Here is a 390 I did a set on:

 

Mine looked like that when I did them. Lots of smoke. Replaced and no more smoke. Not a hard job to do.

 

Although the valve stem seals are not that hard to replace, I would be more concerned about any of the old pieces getting into the oil pump, and lock up the oil pump rotors. Due to the gearotor design of the Ford oil pumps, it doesn`t take a large piece to cause considerable engine damage if the oil pump locks up. It happened to me last year, in my 79 Mercury Zephyr Z7, with a 302. I was cruising down the freeway, the engine was running great, when suddenly, I heard the lifters ticking, and the oil light came on. I shut the engine off, and coasted to the shoulder. The engine oil level was right up, I tried to start the engine, and it was siezed solid. I still have not pulled the engine, but my guess is that a small piece of disintegrated valve seal or nylon camshaft timing gear, has locked up the pump, and caused the oil pressure to disappear, which siezed the crankshaft to the bearings. If I was you, I`d pull the oil pan to remove any debris & inspect/clean the oil pump and screen. Unless the timing chain has been replaced with a steel or iron cam gear version, that is another potential disaster in waiting.

 

Rory428

I had something in the pump right after rebuild (not sure what it was) but as soon as the pump quits turning it will shear the pin in the distributor gear and the truck will quit because the distributor quits turning. I think they are built like this to save the engine if the oil pump quits turning.

Now if the pickup screen gets plugged or falls off then you will kill your engine.