Poll: Has your SPI dropped a valve seat?

[crazy_urn]

We all know of the dreaded valve seat failure. And we see a lot of posts about it. Common knowledge seems to indicate that it is not a matter of if but when.

I want to know if that common knowledge is true. I wonder if it is really as common as we believe, or if it seems that way because we only see posts about the failures.

So post your answer to the poll, and reply with your milage at the time of failure, or current milage if you have not had a problem.

[crazy_urn]

BTW: I am at 115xxx and no problems yet.

[lmcd314]

92xxx miles on a 2000 se when it dropped intake valve seat #4. Took a few weeks but I got her back on the road. She's still running and at 99xxx miles today

[lmcd314]

http://s1057.photobucket.com/albums/t385/lmcd314/

[malim]

Mine has dropped a seat in Piston #4 at 130k!!
My father's dropped at 62k, which is ridiculous.

For those still driving, don't rape your car and watch that heat. Make sure your cooling system is working as it should.

Also, only the intake seats should be replaced on these engines or the exhaust seats drop too ?

[WrenchTurnerDave]

Originally Posted by malim

Mine has dropped a seat in Piston #4 at 130k!!
My father's dropped at 62k, which is ridiculous.

For those still driving, don't rape your car and watch that heat. Make sure your cooling system is working as it should.

Also, only the intake seats should be replaced on these engines or the exhaust seats drop too ?

Malim, are you familiar with putting car in diagnostic mode so after your rebuild you can keep an eye on your heat?

I hope so, if not, allow me to school you on it real quick.

Turn key to on, not run, hold in button on cluster that resets trip-ometer. Turn key off, keep holding button, turn key to run again, continue holding button, then release button and diagnostic box pops up. If you press it three of four times you will see a Celcius symbol, that is for your temp.

After rebuild, I left it on for two days just to be sure. It shouldn't go above 88 for any reason.

Good luck dude.




Malim is a @#$#$ing pimp....

[WrenchTurnerDave]

Is this really a question we need to ask? Is it rhetorical just for humors sake? Lol.

Of COURSE it's dropped a valve seat...

Unless someone has a damn storage shed of Foci they bought new and are just now
distributing to us...

Zero miles, sign me up, I'll take TWO, hahahhaha.

[crazy_urn]

Originally Posted by WrenchTurnerDave

Is this really a question we need to ask? Is it rhetorical just for humors sake? Lol.

It is not a rhetorical question. Posts on internet forums tend to magnify problems because people with problems are more likely to post than those without. I am not saying the valve seat is not an issue, I certainly believe that it is. I just want to know how frequent of an issue it is. I want to know if it truly is inevitable, or if it is only very probable.

[rachel4291]

I am at 181,000 and still doing good. At almost 200,000 I wouldn't say that its probable, but more of an inevitability. In my case i think it's just luck, I'm hoping for 200,000 when it happens I've already decided to do the zetec swap.

[amc49]

I am quite sure that some engines make it to the junkyard without dropping a seat, but then again some Chevy Vegas went the distance without screwing up too, even so, that car developed such a bad rep that GM first changed the name of the car and then dropped it from the line.

It may not even be half, but even 30 or 40% will get you bumped into Consumer Reports no man's land.