When I first purchased Unleashed, I noticed the pushrod seals had been poorly installed. But, at the time, they were not leaking. After a few ours of operation, one of the seals on cylinder #4 started to weep a bit of oil. Still not bad, but it only got worse. Soon the rest of the seals began to show signs of leaking. I documented the removel of the pushrod tubes and old seals for anybody that must do this on any angle valve Lycoming or Superior engine. Below are the steps that I followed.
- Remove baffling around cylinder head (you need the room to pull the rocker pin out)
- Remove Valve Cover
- Remove Rocker Pin Cover Plate
- Turn the engine to a point where neither valve is open
- Push down on the rocker and force the pushrod to compress the lifter. This sounds worse then it is, just a little pressure will let you push the pin out with little to no effort.
- Remove rocker, pin, and pull the pushrod out of the engine
- Remove “Spring Clips” from pushrod tube
- Apply some pressure to the pushrod tube, pushing it in to the camshaft/center of engine. Mine moved maybe 1/8″, just enough to release the cylinder head side of the tube so you can remove it.
- Clean everything and install new pushrod tube seals on both ends. Take time to center the aluminum ring around the cylinder head side of the tube seal. Had someone spent 5 extra minutes on mine, I would never had to have done this.
- Work backwards and reinstall everything
I did mine 1 lifter at a time, that way I wouldn’t mix up any of the pushrods. These are specific in length, and they must not be moved around. I reinstalled the valve covers with rubber gaskets. The cork gasket was a pain to remove from the head, don’t want to do that again.
Below are pics of the old seals installed on the engine, removal, and photos of the new seals installed correctly.
