Guys,

I reseated the valve train in my 1.7L. When I dismantled the heads, the valves had valve stem seals. They were small,black rings, about 5/32" thick.

I did not find these in my "engine gasket kit". I can not find these listed in the common parts web sites (Pelican, cip1, ...).

Are these rings/seals stock? Where can I get them?

Thanks,
Neil

I would agree, I don't think I have ever seen valve stem seals in a gasket set.

The Bird(pelican parts) should have them.

The seals are shown in some parts of the factory manual, but this is the first case I've heard of where they were actually installed.

Do you know if your heads have ever been rebuilt before?

--DD

The heads were "first run". They got 98,000 by 1979 - then the car was parked for 28 years. The engine even had the milky sludge from leaded fuel.

Gathering from the response, it must be OK not to have them. Pelican does not list them.

Thanks,
Neil

Tell us more about the car and its engine. VIN, serial #, also numbers from the Karmann badge would be useful for me.

the engine I bought for mine had valve stem seals. It was the first thing the machinest said he would get rid of.

I think valve stem seals are pretty much mandatory for engines with valves that move up and down. Without seals, the oil pools around the valve and guide and then migrates down the guide and into the combustion chamber. Once again proving gravity sucks.

VW had a huge problem with the valve seals in their water cooled engines in the 80's, and the the engines smoked like crazy until the right combination of materials and shape solved the problem.

A type !V motor runs horizontally moving valves, so when gravity sucks, it pulls the oil down off the valve stem and guide, and makes a pool at the bottom of the valve cover.

My guess is they either weren't needed, or they prevented needed oil from lubing the guides and it took testing over time to determine that. Gotta love the old days, they built and ran their new prototype engine designs for long periods of time just to get the wear data before they went into production.

Ken

Well, that is not a very early engine, so I'd have to guess that the seals were added at some point during an engine service.
You did mention in one post about needing the early small pushrod tubes. Were those heads on this engine?

Leave them off. A lot of them end up coming apart and working there way to the strainer.

Hi,

Cool, I will leave the stem seals off on this build. My valve stem clearance is very good, so it should not draw too much oil.

My other forum is for small push rod tubes. I bought a pair of "freshly rebuilt 1.7L 914" heads in CT last year. I do not know the history of these heads, but they are the ones that require the smaller push rod tubes. (They did a nice rebuild - new valve guides, new valves, ...)

If it comes to it, there is enough metal to mill them out for the "stock" push rod tubes. I just hate to pull them and cut them.

Thx,
Neil