I noticed several (many!) sunken valve stems when I inspected my new (to me!) 2002 S2000. My initial plan was to replace the retainers and keepers with the AP2 parts - but I can't get them in western Canada for six weeks!

I *can* get AP1 retainers within two days. I'm nervous driving the car at this point - so I'd like to park it until I get them replaced - so two days is obviously better than six weeks. I can always get the AP2 retainers and keepers and do the upgrade in the future.

My question is this...

Am I safe replacing just the retainers (and therefore using my original keepers) or is that bad practice? I'm not sure if the keepers are "seated" to the retainers over time. I'm sure that it would be best to replace the keepers and I'm sure the new retainers with the old keepers will be better than what I have now. Or am I just wasting my money and asking for trouble?

Any comments?

Thanks,
Rob

 

You can reuse the keepers but like you said it bad practice. I would just get new keepers that way you it new and threw time it won't fatigue as bad as the old keepers. It up to you, if you have the money to spare for new one then go for it but the old will just work fine

 

I am not sure, but I thought the angle was changed on the new set. I don't think that it would be wise to mix them.

 

No - I wasn't planning on using AP1 keepers with AP2 retainers, I was going to buy new AP1 retainers (since the AP2 parts are back ordered) and reuse my AP1 keepers.