Good evening S2KI!

I recently purchased a S2000 and I am working on diagnosing problems with it. This is a road/race engine from 4P Racing with only 1,000 miles on it (I know, I know) but I would like to try and save it. They were very nice on the phone earlier when I called to ask about basic stuff like compression they build to and what their lash should be set at. Hoping to hear back about this now that I've dug into it more.

When assembled it looks like the cam caps were not properly torqued and because they were loose, they were not properly lubricated. The bolts to the burned looking cam caps were easily removed without tools and one was backed out a little. This car had air leaking through the 1 and 3 cylinder and was very tight on the valve clearances. .008 is the low end for intake and .010 for exhaust and most measured less than .005. (I don't have smaller measuring tools lol.)
I am wondering if I can replace the cam towers/caps with a full set and new cams, or just intake cam, and maybe be good to go? Assuming that adjusting valves will fix my leak on the intake side. Would the rest of the rocker assembly be okay with the distance from the cam caps?

Any advice is greatly appreciated!!

If anyone has a lead on the cam cap/tower replacement you'd be my hero!

 

OUCH! That looks unsavable.

Sorry.

 

Never good to hear

 

When you say unsaveable are you saying the engine? Or the cams? The towers and caps? Just LS swap it?

I am good if I can replace towers caps and cams if that ends up the case.

 

I would check the bottom end to be sure none of the metal from the top end got down there.

 

The cam cap bolts were loose because the caps melted from oil starvation. This is not a bolt torque issue.

Is the front cam drive gear bolt tight? 8mm allen bolt.

 

sad to see companies building race engines that don't last 1000 miles,

 

thanks for the reply! We bore scoped all the cylinders. They look like they have some decent carbon buildup for a new engine but we don’t see any metal inside. Cylinder walls look great.

The previous owner said he had some metal flakes fall from the valve cover screw when it wasn’t coming out of the cover. Possible all that metal damage was contained in the cam cap?

 

Thanks for the response! I have not checked that but I will when I get off of work. Anything else I should look for? I have a lead on a head I can scrounge the cam towers and caps from.

 

I'd inspect the connecting rod journals for damage before investing in fixing the head. A damaged bottom end may change your strategy.

Good luck with the fix!