VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1933-1936 1936 2-door 5 window coupe

Can anyone suggest stores where I could buy a 207 valve stem seal for an in-line 6 cylinder 36 Chevy? Appreciate your help! I am a newbie on this site, so if I have posted this in the wrong spot, please let me know.....Thank you....

I may be wrong but I was not aware that these older Chevy engines had valve stem seals.

There was the expectation that some oil would drip down the valve stem to lubricate the area between the valve stem and the valve guide. The clearance was supposed to be small enough that the rate of oil burning was minimal.

As things wore more oil made its way into the combustion chamber. Finally it would get bad enough that the owner would have new valve guides installed and reamed to size. Sometimes new valves would have to be installed if the valve stems were heavily worn.

I installed Ford umbrella seals on my ‘37 216. Others have installed o-rings on the valve stems to reduce the amount of oil going into the guide.

TeddyBear Welcome to Chatter.
I agree with Rusty, valve stem seals werent used for a lot of years after the 207 and 216 engines had been superceded. The ford or universal umbrella seal may be a little too efficient for these engines so I would be inclined to use the "O" ring idea and was commonly used on the Australian engines after about 1964.
Tony

The first 216 engines to have valve stem oil deflectors was the 1941. It ad deflector caps on the intake valves. From 19421947 had them on the intake and exhaust valves, From 1948 and up the O rings that prevented oil from running down the guides - around the keepers on the valve stems.

Tony makes a good point about umbrella seals potentially cutting off too much oil flow.

Th guides on my engine are pretty worn based on amount of oil smoke when I would leave a stop. I was not as concerned about oil to the valve stems as if I had just installed new guides reamed to size. If I have the valve guides replaced i will probably install o-rings.

The 1948 and up that used O rings had two groves in the valve stems, one for yhe keepers and one for the O ring and the valve top spring retainer was designed for that application.

If new guides were in stalled I would run it with no seals for a while as most shops make the clearance too tight and the valves hang up whe engine is hot. The extra oil will prevent them from sticking.

To Rusty, Tony, Gene, and whoever else responded to my question: Thank you so much for helping out. That is all good information to know - especially for down the road - may have to go to o rings... I am on a VERY STEEP learning curve, so I appreciate everyone sharing their knowledge with me. We are just now starting the process of restoring the 36. Have a long way to go and many things to learn... Thank you again!

My car had a brand new factory engine in it when I first got it running and they do smoke a bit on start-up and take off. The engine now has only a few thousand miles on it and it never got any worse.