Can the valve stems be replaced on the 1HD-FT/FTE without removing the head? (1 Viewer)

[Moridinbg]

Question in title. I have a 400 000km 1HD-FTE that burps a big cloud of smoke on cold starts that clears in 5 to 10 seconds. Smells of burnt oil. Zero smoke otherwise and on subsequent warm starts. Burns at most 300-400ml/10 000km
I am fairly certain that it's the valve stems and I have a set of 24 new ones. Question is, can I replace them without removing the head. A local mechanic is trying to convince me no way - the valves will drop in the cylinders. From other places I heard conflicting advice.

 

[Feistl]

Yes, I have done them on my 1HDT.

Does the 1HDFTE have glow plugs or a glow screen?

If it has glow plugs remove them and using a compression tester fitting to blow air pressure (around 20psi should be enough, don’t go over board) into the cylinder. If it doesn’t have glow plugs you’ll need to remove the injectors and come up with a way of holding air pressure.

Alternatively you can feed a cord/rope into the cylinder then rotate the crank to top dead centre compressing the rope into the valves, holding them up.

I did all new valve seals and springs in about 2 hours, being the 24v head has double the valves it takes a little longer.

Btw I didn’t buy an expensive tool, I just rigged up a home made tool using an engine crane for free... however I had the engine on a stand. Doing it in the vehicle will probably require a special tool....

Still a lot cheaper than pulling the head

 

[Moridinbg]

Glow screen. Somebody on the Aus 100/105 group mentioned compressed air - might be a viable route. My understanding is that there are fittings that go in the place of the injectors.
With the rope - you just feed it so that it piles in the cylinder, then the crank pushes it into the valves from underneath? That could do as well.

 

[Feistl]

Only trick with compressed air is making sure whatever method/fitting your using is held tight.... half way through on one of the valves the airline popped off. Lucky the valve stayed in place otherwise I would have had to pull the head.

The rope method can work as well, just try to get rope that doesn’t leave strands in the cylinder and don’t drop it in .

Again it’s a bit of a time consuming fiddly job but apart from the tool isn’t very expensive. Go genuine seals as well... they’re not that expensive.

 

[Feistl]

Oh and probably worth doing some preventative maintenance while your there... do the timing belt, water pump, Various seals etc.

 

[TaoCruiser91]

Has it helped with the smoke?