Replacing Valve Seals - Which One's Work The Best??

I have 1991 C1500 extended cab with 101,000 miles. I’m going to replace the valve seals & would like to know which brand is the best or which one’s work. I’m not looking to debate this subject. I have never had to change valve seals in anything I’ve owned & I don’t know which are good or bad. If you have changed yours & they have worked well for you, let me know what you used. It is very obvious that OEM seals are no good. I want to use a quality seal that won’t need replacing 30,000 miles later.

Thanks,
Willie

This is what I just bought from my 90 K1500 http://store.summitracing.com/egnsearch.asp?N=700+400150+115+319630&autoview=sku

I have not installed them yet but they are a good valve seal. The OEM exhaust valve seal is just an O ring which cracks over time.

//2000CAYukon

Thanks 2000CAYukon, I've used Fel-Pro many times in the past. Let me know when you get yours changed out & how it went. Hopefully I'll have mine done in a couple of weeks.

Willie

Fel-pro makes an excelent gasket no question, but for valve guide seals perfect circle umbrella valve guide seals are the best according to all of the engine builders in my area. They are supose to last a lot longer with out leaks than anything else. Hope this helps.

Umbrella type valve seals were used for 40 years. The umbrella was an improvement over what had been used previosly which was no type of seal. For the past 20+ years every automobile engine manufacture on every continent in the world has used total seal type valve seals exclusivley because they are an improvement over umbrella seals. There is no debate. Fel_Pro, Sealed Power, and Perfect Circle total seal type valve seals are all excellent choices. The same Fel-Pro P/Ns are available from other places than SR for half the price. Check RockAuto.com

They call these "positive lock" seals. They require your valve guides to be machined to accept them if they already aren't. When I rebuilt my engine in 1993 (the 350 in my Caprice), I elected to use these seals on the intake valves, with the standard O-rings on all 16 valves. 13 years and 262,000 miles hasn't done anything to change my mind about having made that decision.

Thanks everyone for your input. I didn't make this clear in my opening post. I'm changing the seals by injecting air in the cylinders. I'm not pulling the engine & rebuilding it. So, any seals that require any machining is not what I'm looking for.

Thanks,
Willie

I think the valve guides on 91 engines are already machined and these Positive Lock seals fit. After you remove a valve spring, use a file to remove the sharp edges on the valve stems made by the valve keepers before pushing the seals on.

I'm going with the Fel Pro gaskets listed below. I did some comparison & this is what I came up with. I know we're not talking about a lot of money on these parts. Just wanted to show the difference between them. Thanks for all the comments.

Willie

.....................FEL-SS72526..................FEL-SS72527
.....................Chevy Premium Exhaust....Chevy Premium Intake
.....................Optional High Temperature..Valve Stem Seal
Summit Racing...........$19.69.........................$1 7.69
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Parts America............$18.48......................... $9.88
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Rock Auto.................$12.89....................... ..$11.49
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Auto Giant Parts.........$12.36.........................$11.0 1
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Auto Zone.................$21.99....................... ..$12.99
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O’Reilly Auto Parts.......$14.99.........................$9.99
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NAPA............................Not Available On Line

Consisdering shipping, O'Rielly looks best. I recomend never ordering from Auto Parts Giant. They refused my refund and required that I pay return shipment for a part that clearly did not match the discription or part number. In the end I received my refund and tossed the part because APG did not answer my debit card request for an explaination.

I replaced the seals yesterday. Everything went great. Took about 5 hours. I did not have to do any filing around the keepers as suggested. Used all Fel-Pro seals & gaskets. Intake - FEL-SS72877, Exhaust - Optional High Temperature FEL-SS72877 & Valve Cover Gaskets - VS50088R. Bought everything from Auto Zone. They did a price match with O'Rielly's. JustSayGo - FYI - O'Rielly's does not ship parts at the present time. If I understand correctly, you can order them online for pickup at your local store. I believe they are going to ship parts in the future. O'Reilly's was a 10 mile trip further than Auto Zone, that's the reason I went with them. Total for the parts was $43.67 including tax.
No smoke on start up this morning!!

Thanks to everyone foe their help on this.

Willie

Congratulations on your job well done and excellent shopping. Good to know AutoZone will price match. Actually my idea was that additional shipping costs and the risk of receiving incorrect parts is not worth a small savings by ordering online in your case.

I have used RockAuto several times and never had a bad experience. On one occasion they called me about a brand part substitution. They are the great people described on their home page.

APG delivered the wrong part on their only opportunity. They were rude, no help, and hung up on me. APG is crossed off my list no matter what.

As miles add up valve keepers create a small burr on the top edge of each valve stem groove. The reason for spending maybe 20 seconds on each valve stem to deburr is that it prevents the possibility of seals being damaged by the sharp edges. Possible damage that may be insignificant is more likely to occure if for some reason a new seal is removed after it has been pushed past the grooves. Possible and insignificant would be key words.

No smoke is what it is all about!

JustSayGo, I understand now what you are talking about on the burrs. When I 1st read your reply, I thought you were talking about the burs being on the top of the valve stem from being machined. I checked several stem tops & they felt smooth. The same comments you gave are on the installation instructions that are included with the seals. There are also a couple of plastic sleeves included that you can slide onto the valve before you install the seal & then remove the sleeve. I had someone help me that had replaced seals before & he said we didn’t need to de-burr anything. I didn’t read the instructions until I had finished installing them. If I cut an of the seals, I’ll have to replace them. It's not smoking now.

Willie