My built motor is in the car.

When we lifted the valve cover to swap my polished one on, we discovered this on all the Ferrea titanium retainers in the head..




Can anyone explain to me, why a motor with only 400 miles on it, might have a set of retainers that look like that?

At first we thought they were angle grinded off (for whatever reason) but as retainers spin around, it doesn't make any sense since not all the retainers are 100% circumference chopped up like that (as pictured with the left retainer).

Should mention the head consists of ferrea Stainless Steel valves, dual valve springs & titanium retainers.

Thankfully i have a spare set of AP2 springs, retainers and keepers here BNIB to swap in.

Can someone point me in the direction of maybe a DIY on how to replace the retainers without lifting the head *if thats even possible on an F20C*?

 

The trick is (I believe) to pressurise the cylinder by attaching a compressor's output to the spark plug hole. You then need to compress the spring and remove the keepers and retainers, then compress it again with the new retainers and keepers.

You really need someone with the right tools who has done it before.

 

A workshop will be doing it, not me by myself.

I just want to know if there's another way short of lifting the head + new gasket + new studs + intensive labour costs.

 

The center rocker is coming into contact with the retainer. There are a number of reasons why this will happen in particular with Ferrea retainers.

1. Ferrea uses a higher installed height on their retainer so it actually sits up further than other manufacturers
2. Ferrea uses a large outside diameter on their retainers.
3. Did you use their keepers? If you used the oem ones the installed height of the keeper is different so it allows the retainer to sit higher on the valve stem.
4. If you are running an aftermarket ecu with a higher vtec engagement the middle rocker will bounce around and touch the retainers.

Consider yourself lucky a valve didn't fall into the engine.

 

Very easy to do with the motor still inside the car. Set the piston at TDC and pressurize the cylinder. Make sure you block off all the oil drain ports on the head just incase you lose a keeper.

 

Consider yourself lucky.

 

Wow, I would have never assumed that would happen. I'll be checking mine in a couple hundred miles to verify I don't have any issues.

Good heads up.

What can you do to fix this problem?

 

Titanium retainers are notorious for not fitting quite correctly in this engine.

The Skunk II titanium retainers have no interference problems.

 

wow im never buying ferrea retainers after seeing this. What if i turbo my s2k, and my tuner feels the need to raise vtec engagement? Then I would be screwed like the OP??

 

I just did this on my high mileage Accord the other day. I had a valve spring that broke and I replaced it with the head on the car. You will have to remove the rocker assembly to get access to them.

I found a tool that makes it very easy off of this DIY.
http://www.d-series.org/forums/diy-forum/1...rt-36200-a.html
Lisle 36200 is the part number
Since you're doing it on the car as well, you will need the air hose to hook to a compressor and your spark plug hole. Run 100psi to the cylinder through the hose and keep the spark plugs in all of the other cylinders otherwise you will turn the engine with the air. That is Lisle 19700