I can vouch for mobil 1 burning some more oil at least in my ap1. I switch to castrol and OEM filter and noticed less oil lost. I use 5w-30 btw. :thumb up:

Can't really say much about the retainers though except the obvious.

 

It's not hard to inspect it. Pull the valve cover, the first time it look me about 30 mins. 2nd time it took me about 5-10mins. If you can install an intake you can pull the valve cover. And take a look, it's right there. You just need to look at the pictures by doing a search. There's a picture of how it looks when it's bad. It looks SUNKEN in.

 

Thanks for all the help guys, I will def. Be doing this soon.

 

You could look in my recent thread, I just pop-ed the valve cover off to check and there is def damage.
Billman and a few others helped identify it right away.

https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/1077005-ap1-retainers/

 

Yes don't think its easy to spot at all. His car ^ was trashed and he didn't see it.

broken retainers in their beginning stages are very hard to see.

 

Depending on where you are located, you can get some expert help. Post in your local subforum to see if anyone there can help with the retainer look..

As for oil, Mobil 1 seems to burn more easily than others in the S2K. I use Valvoline High Mileage syn blend on mine, at the recommended weight from Honda.

 

Going to take my valve cover off and take pics, hopefully billman can help me diagnose it.

 

Im sorry these are in no particular order.

 

I got rid of the pics that could not be used to verify damage, and left the good ones.

All of the above pics now show retainer to keeper relative position.

Your retainers are perfect. Good retainer pictures here, not many people get them that clear.

 

F@$k man thats almost like winning the lotto for me right now. Such a relief. I really appreciate the help billman.