Our Pajero engine has been giving a bit of trouble, with the symptoms suggesting contaminants in the oil, which causes the lash adjusters to collapse and make one hell of a racket. I figured that as long as I’m stripping the engine down completely I may as well check everything else and replace anything that is at all questionable. After all, I really don’t want to have to do this again.
It soon became obvious that a regular valve spring compressor wasn’t going to help me with this engine, as its 24 valves just can’t be reached by a conventional tool. The photos below show how I got around this problem, using a spare 18mm spark plug socket and an old 6 inch G-clamp. It should be noted that a slightly larger clamp would have been a bit better, as the 6 inch one was only just barely long enough.
Update: The Pajero is finally back on the road. The engine was a much bigger job that expected. There was so much crud cacked on the internals that I ended up stripping it right down and even spent two days sandblasting the crud off everything.
It turned out that the tool as shown didn’t work on the Toyota Avalon engine. Fortunately, this was easily fixed by removing the socket from the 6 inch clamp and welding it to an 8 inch one, which also has a deeper throat (front to back measurement).
Here you can see how well buried the valve springs are on this engine
Side view showing the socket, with a large piece cut out of it, welded to the G-clamp
Another view of the socket, showing the cut out part (and some very rough welding)
Using the tool is a breeze