Issues with Supertech Viton valve seals?
 

Hey guys, quick question for a friend. I got my seals a few years ago and have 10,000 miles on them without issues. However he’s building an engine and reading some stories about people having problems with the same seals.

Did supertech quality go down, or maybe a production issue? I’m not sure if there’s really a problem or if there’s just a bunch of “me too” guys out there who may have other issues and are just blaming the seals.

Thabks everyone!

Any time you have someone on the interwebz post a problem it's highly likely to see lot's of "me too's" because now everyone with that problem that didn't bother to speak up, does.

IIRC we've had about a dozen people so far confirm theirs were leaking. I have personally seen it on a member's car with a 949 cnc head so you would assume they were installed correctly

I installed some in mid-2013. I'd assume I'm around 25k miles on them now without any issues. I didn't even realize they were a problem until I've seen a few threads pop up lately. Based on what others are saying I don't think I'd go the same route if I were to do it again, but I'm certainly thinking about fixing what isn't broken either.

Yeah I think it's hit-n-miss. If they were all bad we'd have a billion threads about it by now

#metoo #supertechvalveseals

My money is on the Viton seals being less tolerant of bad valve guides. We used Supertech seals for years and years in every motor, but the guides were always checked and replaced as needed. I never had any issues reported to me or experienced any issues myself.

Another anecdote - I bought a set from Fab9 and he stated that he's been selling them for years and has never heard of this problem. Could be a recent bad run of them.

I'm going to switch to the Supermiata before I install the supertechs set given the price vs. "pain in the ass to replace" aspect.

I also did googley search and found other cars were seeing a similar trend - but I'm certain you could find the same thing for basically any product on the planet.

Ray

Is there anyway to test the seals with the head off the car?

I*m not quit sure.
Maybe you can give air pressure or vavuum on one port with a foam pad and put some oil on the valve guide. But i think they leak during valve Movement.

Yah I didn’t think there was really a way to tell. I called a local shop a bit ago and they said the same...no test only signs like dirty valve under seal, smoke, etc...which we already know.

Is Greg Peters out there? He just posted a new video where he states that he's replacing his Supertech valve seals after only 1,500miles due to leaking.


What did he replace them with? Supermiata's stuff?

I think he mentioned that he went with stock seals. I have both a set of stock and supertech and will be using the factory ones

OEM would be my choice.

FS: BNIB Supertech Valve seals. $1.

Seems as though mine may be leaking as well, we will know for sure once we take off the turbo manifold and see how much oil is in the head but I have a spot of oil around cylinder 4 so I think they are toast. Going to try Car Passion Channel's method to replace them since that will save a few hours and a few bucks as well, and if that doesn't help then I will know the head has to come off and the guides are probably worn.

No doubt Savington has a point. I posted in another thread about my leaking ST seals. In my engine all the valve guides are within Mazda Specs, but they are at the high end of the tolerance. Maybe the combination of shit materials in the seals and loose guides caused my oil consumption. I'm replacing the seals with OEM and the guides as well.

Supertech has sold thousands of seals with good results. They make good quality products. However, the seals are probably made in China. Chinese manufacturers are notorious for substituting materials with no testing, to ensure similar performance, and certainly no mention of the substitution to the customer. Remember the Boundary Engineering front oil seal debacle?

http://usseal-eok.com/seals-by-size.html?stem_size=18

I have not ordered/compared to confirm, but they sure look similar. EOK is a Taiwanese company. I don't think it's a shit material as much as it is a seal designed to be fitted to a fresh valve guide, as opposed to an edge-of-tolerance used guide. You're trading high-temp properties for pliability.