Is it safe to reuse the retainers and keepers after hammering them out with the magnetic Lisle tool? I ask because I might want to replace my valve stem seals.

P.S. I bought the OEM AP2 intake retainers and keepers (waiting for delivery) but did not buy the exhaust side as nearly everyone only does/recommends the intake side.

 

Yea it's fine if they're not cracked. The hammer tool is fine for doing the intakes, for the exhaust, you better have a way to fill the cylinder with air.

 

Thanks. Won't nylon rope suffice? I'm using it for the intakes as per Soviets video

 

Nylon rope will maybe work on the intake valves. But because of how the exhaust valves are angled it's almost impossible to prop up the exhaust valves with rope. Intake valves go straight down so you can prop them up with rope. If you're just doing the intake valves no problem, hammer tool busts them out quick. If you're doing all of them I highly recommend the K tuned tool. It's like $80 USD and requires a bit of trimming to make it work with the F series engine. That tool will blast through the retainers.

I just saw there's a bunch of knock offs of that tool for a little over $20 USD.

 

Not making sense here.

The intake and exhaust valves are the same, as far as how you remove the keepers, or their tendency to fall into the cylinder once the retainers are removed.

 

I'm making perfect sense on this one. Look at the way the engine is installed its slightly tilted to the left looking at it from the hood. This places the intake valves perpendicular to the ground and the exhaust valves angled relative to the ground.

This makes it easier to prop up intake valves with rope, as you can get the rope to sit right under the valve. Exhaust valves being angled relative to the ground will have only half of the valve propped up by rope. You don't have this issue if you're using air pressure to prop up the valves.

Furthermore I'm talking about installing retainers not removing them. The hammer tool works great at removing both intake and exhaust but without an air supply they're essentially worthless to install the exhaust retainers.

 

Rope will pile up or coil up. Your comments about the valves and their relative position to the ground have zero effect on the rope.

 

Don't have to take my word for it. See for yourself. If you can install exhaust valve retainers with nothing but rope and the hammer tool, hats off to ya. I couldn't do it, I had to use zip ties to compress the exhaust springs enough because the exhaust valves wouldn't stay up enough with rope. After spending 3hrs doing 3 exhaust valves, and cutting and removing tiny zip ties, I cut my losses and got the bolt on tool and never looked back.

 

He has the bolt-on tool to compress the valve springs. The Lisle hammer tool is strictly for removal as the magnet catches the keepers and holds the retainer to the tool. Re-installation will be done with the modified K-tuned compressor tool that bolts to the head.

 

It can be used to remove and install the retainers if you have air propping up the valves, as the air pressure will keep the valves all the way up. If you don't have air pressure then you can use rope down the cylinder to install the intake retainers but not the exhaust. This is fine because its the intake retainers that crack most of the time, although I have seen AP1 exhaust retainers crack. I've also seen extremely high mileage engines never develop any cracks at all. The cracks come from a mechanical over-rev, not from normal usage, and if you have a mechanical over-rev you have bigger issues to worry about. Possibly bent valves if the springs float, or worse.