osoresAP2

So I’m not too crazy into what’s under the hood on most cars.I bought this high mileage ap2 back in december,150K when I bought it.I’ve never had a single problem with this car,no overheating and I did all the oil changes myself.Only thing I did to the engine was replace the TCT as because it was ticking.
Not going to lie I abused the hell out of it,I’ve had it for 8 months and put 15k miles on it.
Went on Touge runs every weekend,dusted every car in my path.Safe to say it handled everything great.
I noticed when I replaced the spark plugs when I first bought the car there was excessive oil on the first spark plug(the one in the very front).I chose to ignore it and continue on with the abuse.
Just recently I would notice the car would stutter on cruising speeds usually around 2-4k RPM,you would have to be a madman to feel it stutter but I did.
One day I was driving to a friends and I noticed when I was on the freeway it lost a lot of power and I mean a lot.It started to sound funny and just a little louder than usual.I thought it was an exhaust leak so I continued on with my day and I was going to go to my body shop ASAP.On my way there I was at a stop light and the car wouldn’t accelerate at all,the whole car would vibrate and I couldn’t get past 30 MPH.
The car finally died on me and i rolled it to the sidewalk.Towed it to the body shop.We started it one last time and we noticed excessive blowby when we took off the oil cap.Like A LOT of blowby but that whole time I wasn’t spitting out blue or white smoke.The engine sounded like it was ticking (like the TCT failed again).Also had a hissing sound like a water pump or something.We took a closer look and saw a **** ton of oil on the first 2 spark plugs.Any ideas?
My friend said that I blew a headgasket and probably the water pump too,but he also said i might need an engine rebuild.I really don’t have the funds to rebuild the engine and don’t feel like buying a $6000 F22C.It’s a 2006 S2000

B serious

Try a leak down test to see if compression is being lost.

Your problem could be a million things.

These engines are extremely difficult to successfully rebuild. If the engine really is damaged, then you'll want to just grab a good used, factory assembled longblock that has never been opened up.

You probably didn't abuse the car as much as you think. My track car is a 170K mile MY07. It also has blowby when I open the oil cap. It's still totally fine.

Find out what's wrong.

Do you have a check engine light on?

What type of TCT did you use? Hopefully not an aftermarket replacement.

The stuff on the plugs may have been fuel...not oil. Did you torque the spark plugs to 22LB-FT (dry thread) you installed them? Are your coil packs causing a misfire?
What plugs did you use?

Car Analogy

To further the point about the plug torque. Maybe you don't remember exact torque you used, just that you used the spec. The point is the spec changed. Plugs would come loose, engines would get destroyed (loose plug misfire, eventually plug tip would break off, fall into cylinder, and get smashed around and gash cylinder walls).

Honda upped the spec, but then Billman upped it more. So now we use this revised 22 lb ft spec.

Chuck S

Compression and leak down tests are needed.

'06 and later run lean enough to burn the exhaust valves if they're set too tight -- and they tighten in use. Valve adjustments are unknown in most cars these days so it's likely these were never checked and adjusted. Burned valves will leak.

Brand X timing chain tensioner (AKA not Honda or Billman) or improper installation of it can over tighten the chain resulting in damage to the valve train.

-- Chuck

stock06

For those who may have used the manual's recommendation of 18 lbf-ft, liked me (lol). What would you recommend as a procedure, what would you do? Simply tighten from 18 to 22 lbf-ft or remove plug and tighten to 22 lbf-ft.

Current plugs are NGK7746 IFR7G-11KS Laser Iridium - Premium with ~10k miles, replaced February 2019. No issues.

Thank you CA for the post!

Car Analogy

Only need to loosen, then retorque. No need to fully remove.

But probably worth removing to inspect, since its so little additional effort, and much value to be gained from inspecting.

Background:
A torque wrench is only accurate when its actually turning a fastener, not when its static. A previously torqued fastener often requires more torque to initially break it free (to loosen or tighten it) than the torque is was tightened to.

In other words, threshold to initially turn a tightened fastner much higher than what is needed to turn it if its already turning.

Therefore as a general rule, only ever measure fastener torque as fastener is being turned to its final position.

Like if you wanna check lug nut torque, don't just set torque wrench to 80, then make sure it clicks when you hit each nut with it. They could be 200 lb ft and it'd definitely still click. They could be 70 lb ft and it might still click. Loosen slightly, then torque them back down.

Chuck S

New plugs came with anti-seize. Don't add any.

-- Chuck

B serious

Loosen

Tighten to 22LB.

Make sure the torque wrench is moving at a constant pace when it clicks. If not...back the plug off and try again. Use a 3/8" tool for this, so you get the proper feel and a reliable setting.

That "constant pace as it clicks" applies to anything you want to torque.

FWIW, those Iridium plugs aren't the recommended plug.

Jub

When you say oil on the plugs, what about the coil pack? I'm betting the coil pack is covered in oil. If it's the electrode of the plug itself, disregard everything else I say. You'd be in a different place than I'm expecting you to be.

It's a common thing on these cars for the spark plug tube seals to not seal and to leak oil into the coil packs. This can likely cause a misfire and coilpack failure. I think a compression test is a good place to start just to know what you're working with. If you have no compression, buying all the other crap is pointless. It's pretty normal to feel air pulsing out of the oil cap.

Here's what I'd do if it was my car:

1. Compression test. If bad, do a leakdown. If good, move to step 2
2. Pull valve cover, do valve adjustment
3. Replace Valve cover gasket, PCV valve, Spark plug tube seals
4. New plugs directly from Honda (98079-571BH). They're expensive but they last 100k miles and you want the right ones. Honda pre-gaps them and apparently the electrodes don't deal well with adjustment. Better to buy them from Honda than trying to gap ones from elsewhere. Also, plugs have been known to be faked recently so dealer plugs guarantee authenticity.
5. Torque DRY plugs to new torque value (22 ft. lbs)
6. New factory Honda coil packs (k20 plugs from I believe an 06 Civic Si fit perfectly and are cheaper than the S2000 ones). Part #30520-RRA-007

Aside from that, what TCT are you using? If you bought one of the goofy manual adjustment ones or installed one wrong, that leaves you open to problems.

If leakdown is bad, figure out where air is coming from. I have an 06 car and recently had my head re-done because of a leaking exhaust valve. It doesn't sound like that's the root cause of this issue you're having but you may find trouble if you go looking for it.

B serious

^Excellent post