Missing Valve Keeper

[Gus_Mahn]

My brother and I are working on bringing my dad's '87 GN back to life. He died in 2003 and left the car to my brother. He purchased it new, and it currently has about 50,000 miles and has never had the valve covers off , but it is desperate need of paint. Anyhow we were halfway done with the drivers side when we noticed half a keeper missing on the reamost driver side cylinder's inner valve. I think he's just going to order a few keepers from Rock Auto, but are regular Buick 3.8/3.0 FWD valves/keepers the same? We may just grab some at the local u-pull-it.

I'd assume the missing half is in the lifer valley or oil pan. In either case, I don't feel like it posses much of a threat to the durability of the engine. Visually I didn't notice any damage to the other keeper, cap, or valve stem. Am I safe just putting new/used keepers on that valve? Has this been found on other original engines?

Thank You

 

[84BuickGNYorkPA]

I would be inclined to replace the valve also.... that could have been big trouble if the valve would have dropped into a running motor.

Chuck

 

[Gus_Mahn]

Yeah, I thought a little about that, but it's a good running original engine. I think were just going to change the keepers and cap and let it ride. If there's a failure, we'll just rebuild it better. We will change the valve if it ever pops a head gasket.

 

[HouTX87]

Wouldn't be a bad idea to replace the pan gasket and see what's in there. Very strange for a keeper to be missing on an unopened engine. I'd replace both keepers on that valve and go from there unless you see any damage on the valve stem.

 

[84BuickGNYorkPA]

There is a reason the original keeper came off..... look for any defects.

Chuck

 

[turbo nasty]

You can get keepers at advance auto

 

[eric_1984ttype]

I would want to find that keeper..... And there has to be a reason its missing. Time to take it apart and figure out what happened before any major damage happens.

 

[turbofabricator]

Any local machine shop will have hand fulls of 'em. If you were close to me I'd give you a couple. It would make sence to figure out what happened. It may have been that way for 50,000 miles, too. The stock springs are so weak that it could have lived with out them.