would a compression test detect a cracked retainer? My car is used and I am paranoid about previous mis-use. If so could you post the normal compression ranges. THanks

 

No it will not. Definitely have it inspected. The little bit of money it would take to have it inspected could save you thousnads of dollars on an engine repair (sounds like a Geico commercial, lol). The over-rev can be symptom free for a long time, Billman has documented this on AP1's he has worked on.

The valve retainers are what needs to be inspected. It is my understanding the compression or leak down tests won't tell you much unless the problem has already gotten real bad. There is a write-up available complete with pictures from Billman of what to look for. The valve cover will need to be pulled, from there its possible to inspect them without removing the cams, but a dental mirror will have to be used and the person will have to know what they are looking at. I would not trust a regular Honda dealer with this unless they have an s2k specific mechanic. Try to find an aftermarket shop or some kind of performance shop that works with S2000's. If nothing else print up the write-up from Billman and take it to the mechanic (again I wouldn't recommend a dealer) and point them in the direction of what to look for.

Whatever you do, get it checked out ASAP! It's worth it even if the risk is minimal . . . its a very expensive motor.

 

[QUOTE=digs2k,Jul 27 2006, 05:20 PM]would a compression test detect a cracked retainer? My car is used and I am paranoid about previous mis-use.

 

i missed a shift in my wifes accord 6spd. into 2nd. the engine (so i was told) went to 9211rpm. basically i bent some valves and shaved some lobes off of the cam. i ended up buying 2 new heads and payed somewhere around $4k. yes, the engine has a rev limiter, thats electronic. when the car is forced to physically over rev-by the wheels- the engine has no choice. hope your fix isnt as expensive as mine. i couldnt lie about what happened it was obvious, i had printout of the diag. but i lost it. it went something like this. misfire on cylinders 1,2,3,4,5,6 blah blah blah 9211rpms blah blah blah $3000 odd dollars in parts blah blah almost $1000 in labor.

 

OK, so it's a Nissan 200SX engine. I'd still like to know what you did that would have constituted an "over-rev" in your story. And what's the redline on that motor?

 

I had no story, I just posted a link to the SR20DET

 

OK, I'm sorry. Mistaken identity. It was "robert112" who had the story. I'm just trying to figure out how he could over-rev the crap out of that motor and not do any harm as he stated. Maybe that motor's redline is low enough and the engine built well enough that you can "over-rev" it and still not float the valves. If, for example, that motor has a 7000rpm redline (I'm guessing, 'cause I don't really know) and he over-revved it to 10,000 rpm, it may have survived and seem like you can "over-rev the crap out of it". The S2000 motor can survive to brief moments up to 10,500 rpm.

 

No worries on the mistaken indentity, you are correct in assuming the 7000 RPM redline (just found some data on it). Just doing a quick google search though, it seems many people had overrev issues with this engine as well.

 

^ Well, thank you muchly.

As I had posted, given this information, "revving the crap" out of that Nissan motor is nothing like doing a moderate over-rev on an S2000 engine. They're two different concepts.

 

XViper, the SR20DET is a serious little I-4. Here's the way Cindy's S-15 motor looked when it was stock:



Can't post a picture of the way it looks modified because right now it's all apart.

I don't know how much of an over rev the motor will tolerate because so far nobody has over reved the car. LOL, we try to avoid that kind of thing. It is a nice motor though, and they can make impressive amounts of power without breaking the bank.