My mothers TM has been blowing a bit of smoke since she got it, and she has now informed me that it's gotten worse.

The engine does have a rebuild sticker on it (I won't be taking my car there for a rebuild!) and runs great, smoke aside.
I suspect valve stem seals, and will be doing a "Oil down the plughole" test to confirm. My question is, can the valve stem seals be replaced without removing the head. I had to replace heads on this type of engine before, and always had problems getting everything sealed, IE coolant ports on the inlet manifold, more between the head and the block, vacuum leaks ect.
Far too much trouble if there is any way of carefully removing 8 clips (One by one) 8 springs, and replacing 8 seals, that strangely I have here left over from a kit I used for my old TM. As I had a rebuilt head, I didn't need the seals!
I suspect holding the valves up won't be the bad bit, removing the seals, and re-seating the new ones while the valve is still in there may be the snag.

Anyone done this before, or are we going to have to remove the head?

yeah im in the same boat, stem seals were gone so did the heads, big mistake...

you can DIY it mate.
Shove rope in the cylinder to hold the valves up and you should be able to play with them as much as you want.
Theres alos the compressed air in the spark plug hole method too.
it is possible though
slyts6 did this on his TS V6

I did it as an experiment on a spare engine.
Piss easy.
I used a couple of spare bearing caps to hold the cam in place and did it using the compressed air technique.:D

I must admit I'm a little scared of the pressure dropping, mind you I don't have access to a air compressor (Unless you want to call my nanna rude names!) at mums anyway. (Although I'm curious as to how you connect the air compressor to the spark plug hole!?)

What have you been using to remove the seals (IE while the valves are still in them) and how do you get the new ones back in without killing them?

How much rope, the big question, and how thick? (Am i!)

You have to unbolt the rocker assemby and remove it. I use a couple of spare bearing caps to hold the cam in place but you can just use 1 off each end of the rocker assembly.

I havent used the rope trick but I spose ya just feed in about 60 cm of about 5mm thick rope and wind the engine by hand till that piston goes up and squeezes the rope against the valves.

Then you use a screw type valve spring compresser to squish the valve spring.

Next you remove the 2 colletts from the top of the valve stem (they just lift out by hand)

The valve srping and compresser will just lift off together (leave it compressed).

The you gently lever up the stem seals to remove them. (careful what you lever on)

Put the new valve stem seal in place and tap it down gently till it hits bottom. (I use a long socket thats the same size over the top as a driving tool.

Then its replace the spring, insert the colletts and remove the spring compresser.

Do both valves and move to the next cylinder.

yeah i put rope into my cylinder heads and it was fine.

easy job....but i didnt rush it. took my 3 days, but i also replaced all my seals while i was at it and the 3 days included trips to mits which is 20kms away :rant:

or you go to autopro and get the air attachment to spark plug thing they come in two sizes and you get them both for like $20 if you dont have a air compressor supercheap sell them for like $100 the only thing about the rope thing is if the valve drops ya screwed

http://www.mitsubishiclubaustralia.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1906

The air compressor fittings are for leak down tests.

You will also need an OHC valve spring compressor to get the springs coiled to get collets off.

Its not a huge job, and should only really take a leasurly day. If yuo get stuck in, on a V6 it should probably take 4 hours.