Amazon.com has seriously revolutionized the way Americans shop. Buying something online and having it delivered sometimes almost instantly, is amazingly convenient. But it has its issues. It is undoubtedly focusing on quantity over quality, and the ability to find the item you want is tied directly to how much Amazon wants you to buy it. This becomes far more evident when you attempt to purchase car parts. While it is nice that you can save your preferences around the year make model and engine specifications of your vehicles. Their ability to show you parts specific to your vehicle is muddled by so called universal parts, parts without enough specifications to tell if they fit, and sponsored parts that they are going to show you no matter what they actually fit.
This annoyance has led me to purchase multiple parts that to my disappointment and annoyance don’t fit when I get to the point of installation. This is exactly what happened with the new valve shaft seals. I bought a separate set of them because the ones that came in the gasket kit where only 1/2 correct. On the heads I took off from this block all of the seals are the same with a synthetic body and neck with split metal spring style bands around them to make the grip. The kit had those for the intake valves but some plastic umbrella style ones for the exhaust valves that looked like junk.
So after shelling out another $22 and waiting a couple of days I received some well made comp cam metal bodied seals. I carefully finished cleaning off the head gasket debris, wire brushing the insides of all the ports and flow chambers, and degreasing the upper portion and outsides. I place all the valves carefully back in their original positions and attempted to install the first seal. It slid over the valve tip and the grooves for the keeper easily enough but was stopped as soon as it reached the top of the valve guide body. Upon closer inspection the seal body looks to be exactly the same size as the valve guide body itself.
Since these seals are solid bodies there is no flex in them and I doubted they would go over the body without some serious pressure. Seeing the small ridge on the top just under the soft seal I could tell it might be possible if there was a special tool to install them. So back to the computer I went to see if such a tool exists.
While I did find a $38 installation tool I still wasn’t convinced that using it with a hammer was the best idea, so I did some more investigation. After watching a few videos and checking some more Auto parts websites, I found the same parts listed with a “fitment foot note”. It read, valve bodies must be cut to .530 and then listed the vavle body cutting tool required. I look up the same tool on Amazon, it comes in two pieces and was actually listed with the seals I had purchased. Total sum over $150 and I would need to cut into perfectly good head making the metal weaker just to make a part fit. Since the heads originally came with seals that did not require this destructive manipulation, I decided to find the correct seals that match the original ones.
So now I am waiting for the delivery of a new set of valve seals that Amazon does not list as fitting my vehicle although they claim to fit Small Block and Big Block Chevrolet and Ford engines. They have the same 11/31″ shaft seal size but don’t actually list a body size. At least these ones look more like the originals. I guess we will see if they fit once they arrive. In the mean time I have to figure out if I am going to return these other ones.
