Som'n Bad: #3 Valve leaking. :(
 

So, my car has started leaking oil, and the symptom was a dreaded driver's side exhaust that was smoking. Bad. I thought, "oh weird, how could I have blown another turbocharger?" Well, that's not too difficult to fix, although I'm certainly not excited about taking the rear of my car apart again. ( see: here) And I also just recently did a spark plug change. I was feeling that this job would be a little too much for my tired hands, I'd rather use them for something gentle, like golf. :D

So, I got the call from my mechanic today out on the links. It was like hearing at a routine check-up at the dentist, "Keithbeats, that's not gingivitus you're experiencing; you need a root canal."

I ask what I'm looking at with regards to cost. The next line turns my knees to custard and not in a good way. ;)

"Lesee, it's a twenty to twenty two hour job"

*faint*

Man sorry to hear!! Something all of us hate to hear but hope you'll be running back up real soon.

So what? In plain English... the motor has to be pulled out? We need you to translate a little bit more and less innuendo. We all know it doesn't take 22hrs to change out a turbo.

#3 valve leaking? Weird. Has your car had any overrevs recently by chance? If so, your car may have dropped a valve or had a failing spring retainer. How many miles? Are you gonna address just the #3 valve leak, or do other head work as preventative maintenance? If one valve has a failed spring retainer or valve stem seal, then it may be worth addressing the valves too. Just my .02. Good luck man.

No overrevs. The car has 83K miles. I'm going to have it all looked at carefully and replace things that should be worked on "while you're in there".

Thanks.

Who cares, screw it.

Leaking valve seal isn't going to be that bad from my experience except smoke, not detrimental to the engine really if its a leaky exhaust valve seal. If its real bad ead then thats news to me. I could be wrong but typically its not that big of a deal from my experience. The amount of time and work to drop the engine, pull the head,etc.. for a little smoke seems silly to me.

I'd like to hear more on this as well. I rode around with a bad valve seal for the longest time as well. Can this cause any long term damage? I don't see how in my non Porsche motor, but i have no idea about this one.

24 hrs seems low to pull the heads fix replace retime and reinstall motor in the car but I don't have access to a book

It can kill your cats.

It isn't a little smoke. It's a lot of smoke. I don't really think it's silly, I'd probably get pulled over by the police daily, and I don't need any of that.

It's going to be expensive but hey, it's not going to smoke and also will perform better.

I'd suggest changing the lifters while you are there with the heads opened. Replace them with the new part# ones. Given the experience that Drivexxtreme had with his GT2 I would do this.