Thread: when to change valve guides?

hi, doing a little refreshment on the engine... want to know if it's ok to re-use the valve guides if found with no damage/alterations....

fsm calls for a tolerance between the valve shim and the inner diameter of the valve guide

how often have you found it necesary to replace the guides?


hope i made myself clear on this.. hard when translatin
thanx!

IMO, if you were replacing valves, you may as well go ahead and replace the valve guides.

They could be worn. You can not always see wear, especially if the wear is uniform.

You can feel the clearance, if its more than just a little then replace them.
If its an issue then get a machine shop to measure the side play.
normal clearance is about 0.001 -0.003
My Chevy V8 valves guides that smoked were closer to 0.010 !!!

thanx guys... i was just wondering how often it is that they're found outta spec...

Couldn't really say for sure. Has a lot to do with driving habits, and how hard the motor has been run in it's lifetime. Maintenance and upkeep obviously play a large role. I wouldn't think you'd need to change them for the life of the car, as long as the motor were taken care of properly. I didn't even replace mine after replacing the valves, and I didn't have any issues with smoking. In hindsight, I would have replaced them anyway, just to err on the side of caution.