A special driver and hammer is the way these seals are normally
installed. You should also use a sleeve over the valve stem to prevent
the lip seal from getting damaged as it passes over the valve keeper
grooves.

Dennis

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf
Of Bradley Flubacher
Sent: Wednesday, March 20, 2002 12:21 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: oversized valve guides?

I have a 1.6L NA head that was "rebuilt" six years ago by a local
salvage
yard. It was installed and the engine didn't run correctly (it ran away)
so
he parked the van and left it sit until I came along.

I got around to tearing down the head to put it in my rabbit (replacing
a
cracked head).  I found that the valve stem seals weren't installed well
at
all. Just barely pressed on, and some visible damage.

I did my usual, lapped the valves, cleaned everything up, and time to
install the new valve seals and they won't fit!  They're just too damn
small.  The valves are audi/vw, and they fit nicely in the guides.  I'm
not
sure what's original, and what isn't.

Any advice? Larger valve stem seals? "Machining" them down a bit to make
the
seals fit??

I'm used to the seals just pressing into place.  These require a small
deep
socket and hammer.. that's just not right.

Bradley Flubacher
State College, PA
'81 diesel rabbit
'82 diesel westy
'82 diesel van
'84 GL wasserboxer