Looking for someone to possibly check and swap my ap1 retainers. Bought a used car with high mileage owned by a old woman but still would like to know if my engine is healthy.

I can possibly take off the valve cover and check it myself but I have never done any kind of engine work. I don't want to possibly mess something up.

If I were to look for cracks without removing anything under the valve cover, do I search for retainers that are recessed in? I see that this is a picture of a good retainer.



If I do have bad retainers, I am willing to pay for the work done and meet up in nearby cities of Charlotte, NC like Raleigh or Winston Salem for you to do the work.

 

Hey man. I'm in CLT and have done a few valve adjustments now. Never swapped retainers before, but I don't think there's too much more past the same steps as a valve adjustment. I think you need a special valve spring compression tool, so you would have to research that and purchase the correct tool. I have the special tool for adjusting the valves and the bent feeler gauges (thanks to Matt), so you wouldn't need to buy those. As far as I know, you only have to swap out the intake side retainers, right?

Anyway, if you want to buy the parts and tool then I think we could easily knock this out one Saturday morning.

-Andy

 

If you know what your looking for you can just do a visual inspection of retainers. Look up Billman250 retainers and you will for LOTS of pictures and details as to how to execute the inspection. You will not see anything from above as far as cracks.(FYI) Doing a valve adjustment is tedious and needs to be done right or you will just cause more trouble.

IF you do not over-rev your engine you will NOT crack your retainers.(all it takes is once) All the new retainers do is give you some added RPM's cushion before they too will crack.

 

Try Wadzii.

I think the issue is way overblown. I changed mine and they were all perfect.

 

I've only seen a small handfull of cracked ap1 retainers.

If you are going to leave the car pretty much stock swapping for ap2 retainers is good for piece of mind, but if you think you'll ever do anything else with it then upgrading while its apart is a smart idea. Stock stuff is good for stock rev's. If you boost the car or even add an ecu to tune the car and keep it NA, aftermarket springs/retainers will be needed.

 

Thanks! I might contact you once I get all my other mods done. I have a civic for 7 years now and slowly put money in to it. With the S, I just went all out and bought everything that I needed and hopefully have it finished before Import Alliance lol.

So far I got wheels, tires, and coilover. Still need to roll fenders and cut tabs, black interior swap, exhaust, front and rear ap2 conversion, and maybe a diffusor. Hope I get at least 50% done before end of March.



The previous owner of my car was a 40+ year old lady so I am not sure if she dogged the car out. She did trade the S in for a 370z . She wanted something faster lol. Yea I will search for Billman's threads. Already got his TCT and warm engine tick is gone.

Thanks wadzii, ill probably just get ap2 retainers since I am going to keep this car stock until I get my hands on a Ap2. Ill part this car out when the time comes but I like to have peace of mind that this car will run okay. Its going to be my DD for a couple months while I do my 100k maintenance on my civic

 

Hey man, I am in Charlotte and just replaced my intake side retainers and cotters recently. I bought enough to do both sides, but ended up inspecting and finding that all my retainers were in good shape. That said, I have left over enough retainers and cotters to do the intake side (8 AP2 retainers 14765-PRB-A01 and 16 AP2 valve cotters 14781-PCX-004). Total on Majestic Honda is $62.22 for the parts. $50 if you want them, just PM me.