aftermarket valve seals

Hey guys. I was told that many people on here have had bad luck with aftermarket valve seals. I was planning on using the valve seals from my Vesrah full gasket kit I bought to replace the 30 year old stock seals.

Is this a bad idea? I know those seals are old, but maybe I shouldn't replace them if there wasn't an issue with them. I have the bike and engine all apart for restoration.

The kawasaki seals I found online are sold for almost $12 each, and I really didn't want to spend $100 for them all with ship/handling.

What do you guys think?

Stick with OEM seals, don't ask me how I learned this one... :blush:
Nor ask how much crap I had to take off Plumi for not listeneing to him and Larry about the valve seals I should have obtained... Again... :blush: :laugh:

Babbits on line, I found for $9 each... worth every dime.... No Smokey/leaky....

OMR

I was considering using the Viton equivalents once I got around to doing mine. How do these rate compared to the OEM in your opinion? Do you still recommend the OEM seals over the Viton. The only reason I was even considering the Viton was due to their high temperature characteristics. So I thought they would be superior. Your response will be greatly appreciated and help me avoid some possible greif.

Joe

Vesrah stem seals ARE OE seals.

They source them from the OE manufacturers in Japan. You can use any of their products with complete confidence.

Viton

www.pitstopperformance.com/kawasaki-z1-k...on-set-of-eight-p-31

Good Fortune!

KZJOE900 wrote: I was considering using the Viton equivalents once I got around to doing mine. How do these rate compared to the OEM in your opinion? Do you still recommend the OEM seals over the Viton. The only reason I was even considering the Viton was due to their high temperature characteristics. So I thought they would be superior. Your response will be greatly appreciated and help me avoid some possible greif.

Joe

Joe
you are correct the viton is a better seal you would be good to use them.

KZJOE900 wrote: I was considering using the Viton equivalents once I got around to doing mine.

VITON is way better material than rubber. If Kawi had used it originally I probably never would have had to do the first two head jobs.

I'm going to do mine over the winter and though the Viton is a higher temp seal I want to know has anyone here used them and for how long with what kind of results.

The reason I ask is I have been involved with lots of different seal materials in my line of work and had some in-depth training by a seal manufacturer on various materials and their benefits/issues. The one thing about fluorocarbon seals (Viton) is that they have an uncontrollable shrink rate when molded, in a nutshell that means that the you cannot fully anticipate each time you make the seal how much shrinkage it will have (we're talking thousands of an inch here so no it won't be half the size as the next one) so the manufacturers will make the mold slightly larger than the standard ones to try and offset this issue. Most of my experience with Viton versus Buna/Nitrile is that the Viton will be a bitch to get the ID over a shaft but the OD will be noticeably looser than the Buna/Nitrile. The other factor is that fluorocarbon seals don't have the wear of a lot of other materials so heat isn't the only consideration here.

That said, like all things it depends on the application so that is why I want to hear from some users of these seals. By the way that price is dirt cheap!

Larry Cavanaugh told me to use OEM seals, so I did. Really don't have any experience, but whats an extra 60 or 70 bucks on an engine build? I'm pretty sure Z1E got them for me @ $7 or $8 a piece. These are not exactly something you'll be replacing again for another 30 years, so why not put the good ones in?

What I read (no guarantees) is that a valve "seal" is a misnomer since it does not actually seal to the valve stem, it has to let a little oil get by. So, I am not sure how critical the hole diameter is as opposed to the age related death where the rubber gets hard and cracks leading to massive failure.

I could not use VITON at my last rebuild because they were not available yet. I also could not go OEM because they are no longer available for the 750 twins (at least, that's what the dealers told me at the time) so I went aftermarket rubber which I assume will have a short, unhappy life. OEM are surely better than aftermarket rubber, but I would go VITON if I had the option.

How many miles are you guys riding before the Veshra seals go bad?? I have used them several time and never had a problem yet???

here comes the old chevy vs ford debate! :sick: :woohoo: