Just trying to get a ball park idea on how long it will take a competent mechanic
to replace the push rod tube o-rings on a 4 banger. Read through the posts,
seems some like viton, others including Jake, prefer the OEM green/red
style. Guess OEM is a safe bet to have installed? Any comments appreciated.

Thanks,

Tod

Should take a competent mechanic 2+ hours. Me? 2 days each time until it finally quits leaking...

6 of the 8 outer o-rings I just installed are leaking. If a competent mechanic would do it in two hours my car would be in his shop right now.

Not that we want any more of you mountain dwellers here in California but you should live closer to McMark... He is a fair to partly horseshit (as my Dad used to say ) mechanic and he does it pretty darn quick... Oh wait.. I think he might have only done the ones that were leaking... I have to check my bill from Original Customs... I think it was 2+ though... You might be right. Maybe Mark can tell us. He is in San Diego though... Something about a midget porn convention... I wanted to go to his shop and install my stereo and take care of a front seal leak...er geyser... this weekend but NO! He has to go to San Diego!!!

I've done it on a couple a cars. 3hr. tops including valve adjustment.

At least my front and rear seals aren't leaking anymore.

for informational purposes only

http://www.914world.com/bbs2/index.php?sho...65297&st=40

The plan had been to go down to Marks for a wrenching day. Then, I found out that if you continuously admonish a 10 year old boy to close doors behind him, he eventually will... At that moment, that glorious moment when he finally does what you have asked him to do so many times you should not have your hand in the door! A month or so later, I still have three sore and purple fingernails on my left hand. I did not have the heart to tell Nicho what he had done. He is so sensitive. I drove down to Mark's in a good deal of pain and tears at times. (It really fuchin' hurt!) I was no good for wrenching so I just left it with him and he did it and billed me. Sure enough, now I don't have PRT leaks but my front seal is a bit weapy.

We will get it done here in a week or so... I am sitting in the medical library at UC Davis finishing my last major project for the summer. Should be done today. Has to be done by tomorrow.

I think it was actually a midget clown porn festival... Maybe Mark will check in and let us know the highlights...

An hour, on a lift. The Cap'n

Insert crying smiley here- I gots no lift!

I did the pushrod tube seals in Betty's car today. That part of the job took maybe 90 minutes. But I also took three trips to various stores, including one run to 3 auto parts stores, thoroughly cleaned the outside of the motor, removed the heat exchangers, repaired the muffler support bracket, and replaced the left rear trailing arm because the inboard bushing had disintegrated.


And I only spent 8 hours out there. I was kinda moving slow too.

Hey Clay... Do you want those vintage plates? I tried to email you and message you about them. If you want them, email or message me back, if you don't, let me know that too so I can find another 914'r that does want them. Stu

This thread comes at an odd time...I met a local guy building a type four who mentioned a way of replacing pushrod tube seals that doesn't make sense to me.

His advice was to pull the heads slightly off, then take the tubes out. Now, stop me if I'm wrong, but I always assumed that head bolts were:
1) a PITA to take off
2) Torque to yield

Isn't the "accepted" way to pull the top of the valvetrain and push the tube through the top of the head? Or is my head up my....

I wouldn't let that guy work on your engine if I were you.
Its pretty hard to pull the heads partway off when the lower cylinder tin is still attached. The pushrod tubes have to be out of the way to remove the tin. Catch 22.
The upper head studs are hidden under the upper cylinder tin and the lower studs require rocker arm removal for access.
Also, why compromise the head seal just to replace some rubber o-rings.

Ed just re-did the outer seals on a "new" engine we installed yesterday. They were installed dry and two were badly cut. The rest were just out of position.

NEW PUSHROD TUBES! (use 'em)

'nuff said.

cheap and shiney

I like Clay's response. Thats real. It's always that way, and you should budget for it, instead of giving yourself 90 minutes to do an 8 hour job.

Well, they're not torque to yield, and you don't have to remove the cylinder heads. T4 engines are designed to enable the pushrod tubes to be removed/installed with the engine together not to mention installed in the car. Once the rocker arm assemblies are removed, the tubes slip easily through their bores in the head. It's convenient that they designed the inner end of the tubes to be smaller than the outer one. Might not want to trust anything your newfound source has to say ..........

The Cap'n

90 bucks for something you rarely need and no one's ever gonna see? Maybe not. The Cap'n

Unless one is bent really bad you don't need to replace these. Just reseal. It is a simple job to do. Especially if you have a lift. Just don't rush if you try to do it yourself and set aside three hours as you never know if you have never done it yourself. It took my about an hour and a half when I did it but I also did some extra cleaning.

my bet is he's talking about a type I motor which is unlike our type IV with respect to the PRT's.

Yea, he's a T1 guy...which makes more sense. But it scares me a bit that he's building SOMEone's T4.

But at least I know the scope of the "PRT" job again. Seems do-able in the [gravel] =D driveway.

I picked me up a pair of these, they sure make the job a lot easier.

What are those?

I'm pretty sure those have something to do with circumcism...