You can't notice or feel 3-5 ft-lbs of torque especially off peak, but your car will be faster.

 

ok, well I guess if its got to be replaced anyways, might as well go with a better gasket thats gonna make a difference. Im going with the supertech valves/springs then and hopefully I wont have to worry about anymore valve problems again..Just wish that porting/polishing made a difference while they were replacing the valves Id have that done too.

 

Definately stay on standard size valves. The S2000's stock valve to valve clearance is really close already.

I use Ti retainers, and have not seen any "quicker" wear on it. The keepers definately go with the ap2.

 

ok, thanks for all the info..this site is so helpful. So ap2 keepers I was planning on the regular steel retainers because I heard you have to keep an eye on the titanium ones, but I do like that the titanium is lighter, yeah Im definitely going to stay oem specs on the valves then..I was just hoping there was some way to take advantage of the head being off and getting a little more performance out of it..

 

Ok, well I just got in touch with a local machine shop who specializes in cylinder heads and he was asking about my compression. Which read 210 240 240 170...now he said the 170 in cylinder 4 shouldnt be enough to make the car miss and that something else was my problem for the missing and check engine light flashing and that I would be waisting my money pulling the head..he said his oppion is the 170 is just from the 90k miles on the car and the slight compression loss from wear and tear on the car..he thinks I have another problem and thats not it..any input on this from anyone?

 

The maximum variation is 28 PSI and you are blowing that out by a margin. Cyl #1 may have an issue as well. You most likely have a problem with either a valve or a ring. Leakdown test before pulling the head and then go from there. Hopefully it's a valve.

Don't pull the head before doing a leakdown, it's more accurate than a compression and tells you more about where the problem is.

 

yeah, cylinder one caught my eye also..if its a valve I will be replacing them across the board anyways..thanks for your help.