Spark Plug rubber seals on valve cover

[yoseppi]

I'm having my valve cover powder coated, and bought a new seal kit for when it comes back. Only one thing holding me up, the damn rubber spark plug seals on the inside of the valve cover.

I've been trying to remove these for almost an hour, I can't get behind them to remove them, or to even get them to budge. I want to get these out before I send them to the powdercoaters.

All I've been able to do is impale the rubber numerous times trying to lift it out.

I've been careful not to damage the cover in any way, but these things are still stuck in. I've looked at the new ones to get an idea of how to remove them, just I've kinda run out of ideas.

Is there some special trick to get these bastards out?

Thanks,

BTW, I searched for 20 minutes before I made this new topic.

 

[BlkCurrantKord]

Burn em. Seriously.

 

[dcmystery21]

^ i never thought of that, but it should work. you wont hurt the vc so give it a try!

 

[yoseppi]

I was thinking about burning them out. But thought I might damage the aluminum.

I was gonna use the small propane torch aka the bolt heater, but was afraid to damage the valve cover.

Is the valve cover aluminum? Feels like it.

Was gonna try warming them up with a hair dryer before I resort to burning them out.

ANY other ideas????

 

[Mojeans69]

I just pulled mine out with needle nose pliers...took forever cause they have lil springs in them so i would pull the spring out and then have to sit there and pull the rubber off little by little

 

[BlkCurrantKord]

I was thinking about burning them out. But thought I might damage the aluminum.

I was gonna use the small propane torch aka the bolt heater, but was afraid to damage the valve cover.

Is the valve cover aluminum? Feels like it.

Was gonna try warming them up with a hair dryer before I resort to burning them out.

ANY other ideas????

You're not gonna hurt aluminum with a propane torch.

 

[yoseppi]

Got the little ****ers out.

Was able to use a hair dryer to warm them up. Heating for about a minute each on high did the trick. It made them flexible enough to allo me to wiggle them out from under the seal. Used a flat headed screwdriver and just pushed up from the bottom of the seal. They finally popped after a minute or so each of wiggling.

Doing it cold would have been me picking out rubber piece by piece.

Hopefully the new seals aren't this much of a pain to reinstall.


Hopefully this helps someone searching for this in the future.