Bad valve seals

[1ZlowZ]

I have bad valve stem seals... How much do I need to replace? Can I just swap out head from another KA? Thanks.

[brent the junkie]

if its just the valve stem seals, then all you gotta do is replace em right? If I'm right its not much. All you'll need is a new valve cover gasket and of course the stem seals. It shouldn't be much, maybe 30 bucks tops. http://forums.nicoclub.com/zerothread?id=311075 (http://forums.nicoclub.com/zerothread?id=311075)

Check the FSM. It'll have all your answers. A head swap will take just as long if not longer and cost a lot more.

[1ZlowZ]

I heard you have to take off the cams n stuff, and a machine shop quoted me 1300$ to replace the valve stem seals cause more work would be involved. If replacing the head is cheaper I'd rather do that. Keep the other head and do work on it, over time.

[Pacman]

You gotta have compressed air to hold the valves shut. You gotta compress the valve to get the spring/keepers out of the way and the seal is just under those. A special tool is needed as well. If you don't know what you're doing you can drop a valve. Get a valve grind set from the sealer and remove the head. Change the gasket on it, don't worry about sending the head out, check it for flatness and if ok, reinstall. Its more time consuming then costly (unless a shop does it).

[fliprayzin240sx]

The thing is, if you have one bad valve seal, the others are probably on its way out too. You can change the seals with head on the block but its tedious as hell. Makes life alot easier with the head off the engine.

But to answer your question, yes it will be cheaper to just swap another head in if you consider how much it would cost for a machine shop to do the work to replace the seals, and also the least time consuming option.

[brent the junkie]

didn't think about that. My bad, sorry for the bad advice.

[whytrickme]

swap the head out....its a pitn replacing the seals

[d-magic]

They were charging you for labor plus the seals right? Think about how much they're going to charge you for replacing a head. Altough replacing a head is a lot easier than replacing valve seals.