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On Thu, 2003-11-13 at 23:43, joshua brooks wrote: > I recently took apart a type 3 engine with valve stem seals on the heads. > It was a high milage engine and the valves were shot but the seals were > still supple and seemed to be in good condition. I asked my local vw parts > house about valve stem seals and they said they hadn't been offered in years > because they weren't needed with modern valve guides. Later I thought to > myself,"What if the valve guides wear to the point that they leak some oil > but still do their job?". I think valve stem seals would be a good idea just > in case engine conditions make them beneficial. I would guess there are some > valve stem seals in production that would fit the type 3 engine. I worked for VW for over 30 years, rebuilding engines for 20 yrs, and never saw a "valve seal" on an air cooled VW engine. They had a square looking o'ring that they put on the valve stem, but that was to push oil into the valve guides, not to keep it out. If you have a valve guide that is worn enough to pass oil, you can expect a broken valve in the near future. Any smoke on start up with a VW air cooled, is caused by oil seeping past the rings when it is shut off. Parking on an angle and such. My '71 smokes a little on start up, but then it has almost 120K miles on it. -- Russ Wolfe '66 FB MT '71 FB AT '65 Bug (not running) russw@classicvw.org http://www.classicvw.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org