RESIZING VALVE SEALS
Every once in a while we get metal clad stem seals that just don’t fit snugly enough on the guide to suit us. Because of the volume of metal clad seals we use and my unwillingness to throw them away or send them back, we have a drawer full of new unusable seals. We have tried several ways to make them fit tighter, but every way we have tried either distorts the metal part or the seal part. My final solution is to use a tubing flaring tool. The 5/8” tubing size works perfectly for .502 seals. You don’t even have to use the screw clamps to do the job, just set the seal in the tool, close the other side of it, and hit it with a brass or dead blow hammer once or twice. The seal will now be swedged small enough to tightly grip the guide as it should. Other sizes of the tool will fit other size seals too. For the ones that I couldn’t find the right size, I reamed my spare flaring tool to the proper diameter as needed. Lately I have picked up several used swap meet flaring tools to modify whenever required.

Timm Jurincie
Tuf-Enuf Auto & Marine Performance
Avondale, AZ
October, 2015