maestro valve stem oil seals

[maestro vans]

Has anyone changed their valve stem oil seals. If so how easy is it to do and what should I look out for. One of the vans always puffs out blue smoke when started in the morning. Its been like it for years but wanna have a go at changing them, if indeed this is the problem.
Any help, hints or tips appreciated.

[E_T_V]

I assume this is a 1.3 engine? The head has to be removed unless you are very ingenous, but otherwise they are simply a pull off and press new one on affiar once the valve springs/collets etc are removed.

[PhilD]

My Maestro 1.3 used to puff out oil when I first started it and I found a substantial build up of sticky black oil deposits on the back of the inlet valve heads when I removed the cylinder head. The original seals were very hard and I assume had aged with time rather than mileage, as the engine had one only 35000 miles. The smoke problem has now disappeared and was the main improvement to the running of the car by overhauling the cylinder head.
The process of cleaning and reseating the valves is fairly simple once you have removed the cylinder head provided you have a valve spring compressor, grinding paste and a sucker. I used a rotary wire brush in an electric drill to carefully clean off the carbon deposits. The oil seals just have to be pulled off by hand and the new ones pushed on in their place once you have removed the valve springs.

[Monty O]

One 'wheeze' I heard a while back, was to remove the spark plug and feed in a length of rope. Then crank the engine until the piston was as far to TDC as the rope would allow, then work from the top of the engine. The rope will hold the valve in place. Cunning plan, not tried it myself......

[E_T_V]

Yes that wheeze was what I was referring to by being ingenious. You can also get an adapter to feed compressed air into the cylinder keeping the valves shut which has the same effect.