Hi,

I've got an EJ25D that likes to drink an awful lot of oil on decel -- going down steep hills it absolutely pumps out the blue, and as such it can go through almost two litres of oil/1000km sometimes (i.e. on very hilly drives).

 

I got this engine with a blown headgasket a few years back, and I know it had been overheated, so I'm assuming the valve stem seals have hardened due to the heat. I've already gone down the replace the PCV valve route -- no change.

 

Now, I've done valve stem seals on other engines with the heads in place, but it seems it would be difficult (or impossible) on an EJ. Anyone have any input on this?

woah, valve stem seal with engine in place, that sounds awesome!

 

never heard of anyone doing it, clearance would indeed be tight but seems like room would not totally rule this out. you can unbolt the bottom engine mounts, rear trans mounts, and jack the engine up to get more clearance and room to work with.

Interesting..... Actually, I'd probably just take the engine out anyway -- it'd have to be easier in the long run.

 

But if I can get away without pulling the heads off it'd be nice -- using compressed air in the chamber seems to work well to hold the valve in place...

awesome, how do you pull the seal out?

Well on flat fours it's pretty trivial to get the seal off once the valve springs are removed -- pliers, lever, whatever. I've never been further into an ej than replacing cam seals though, so I'm not sure if this will be possible or not...

a set of angled small hose plires they also sell the tool on the tool trucks

Well on flat fours it's pretty trivial to get the seal off once the valve springs are removed -- pliers, lever, whatever. I've never been further into an ej than replacing cam seals though, so I'm not sure if this will be possible or not...

 

The seals are down in a hole deep enough that the valve stem doesn't even stick out of it on the DOHC EJ25's. It's a bucket and shim tappet design, so the springs and seals aren't the most accessible.

 

I'd unhook the whole PCV system and cap each hole in the intake hose and the PCV valve and drive it that way before tearing the engine down. Isolate the intake system from the PCV and see if the oil burning stops. It's much more common for the tube coming vertically out of the block to get clogged with carbon buildup and cause PCV issues than the valve seals to fail.

Yes I suspected I'd have trouble reaching the seals..... I will probably just keep feeding it oil for the mean time, I just had it out to re-seal it a few month ago and I'm not overly keen on doing it all again right now.

 

I suspect if I had a more reasonable cruising rpm (It's got a 4.44 manual 5 speed in it, sits at 3000rpm @ 100km/h, perfect for towing my suzuki on it's trailer) the oil consumption would be significatly lower.

 

I've all but ruled out the PCV system being the culprit -- I cleaned all the hoses when I had the engine out, and I have in-line filters/catch cans in the system, which seem to pick up mostly water (condensation) rather than oil -- certainly not in the amounts I'm losing. However, since I have nothing to lose, I will try removing the whole system and replacing it with an open air filter.

 

I do know that the previous owner overheated this engine quite seriously on at least one occasion. My suzuki samurai, which I unfortunately had to drive for about 4 hours off road with no radiator fan and a crap radiator cap (temp guage near max the whole time!), survived with no issues except ruined valve stem seals and front crank seal from the heat. I suspect the same may have happened here. We'll see.

Edited May 29, 201114 yr by Ross