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Okay, so my vic is burning quite a bit of oil, I mean a lot. After driving 200-250 miles, nothing appears on the dipstick. Also white smoke is coming out of the exhaust ESPECIALLY when going down hill for some reason.

Im pretty sure its the valve seals, but my question is, how big of a job is this and approximately how long would it take to have done? My local mechanic charges $85 per hour.

Answers are appreciated!

 
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You gotta take the head off to change those out. Kind of a big job. Not necessarily hard, just time consuming and you gotta keep track of a lot of things you take off.

Last time I did my headgasket job (you'd go through the same process), took me about 2.5 days worth of daylight working in my garage.

 
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Thanks for your input. I've heard you can change them out without taking the head off. Is this not true?

 
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Yeah, you can... but it's even more of a pain. Basically you run nylon rope into the spark plug hole to hold the valve up before you remove the split keeper.

 
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Well, I would have my mechanic do it. So if it takes less time that way then thats better for me. More time = more money.

Im seeing more and more people doing it this way.

 
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sounds like more of a pain in the *** than taking the head apart.. lol..

I tried using an overhead valve spring compressor only to find out it wouldn't work with our little D17s. Spent 3 hours searching Las Vegas for the "proper" kind. Even with the kind that kinda wraps around the head, compressing those springs proved to be a bit of a challenge.

Also talked to a bunch of people that seemingly knew what they were talking about and said the overhead kind doesn't work with a honda D engine

 
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dude those are easy once you get the hang of it and u can use a spring compressor that wraps around the head but u do have to take of the head just find a vise and something strong enough to hold the head on and there u go just do it one valve at a time so u dont loose anything and keep track of the keepers its kind of a bitch at first but its easy to get the hang of it and when u put the head back on make sure to use the right torque ft. lbs. and right order and either replace the head bolts with new one or if u want to reuse them just go like 10 more ft. lbs. from the specs but it always recomended to replace everything ad once u get to the valve seal its hard to take em out so just get like a flathead screwdriver and pry it out then to put the new one in get a 8mm 1/4 in socket and small hammer and hammer it in til u hear the tone change other than that thats it god luck

 
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You can do it either way but it is easier to take the head off. I was able to replace them myself with the head off fairly easily.
The advantage to taking the head off is that you can inspect the valves. That's a lot of oil to lose though the valve seals. You may have damaged valves or they may need cleaning and grinding to make them seal correctly.

 
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I know this is an old thread, but I have to ask. Can you please explain how running some nylon rope into the spark plug hole, then raising the piston to keep the valves from falling is more of a PITA than removing the head? 2 hours vs 12, not to mention the extra money you will be spending on the head gasket, head bolts, and if you're removing the head might as well have it resurfaced as well. This is a serious question and in no way am my trying to be a smart**s, I'm honestly curious. Thanks for your time.

 
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A) don't revive old threads

B) just use the compression tester hose and an air compressor to fill the cylinder with compressed air to keep the valves closed