My question is...how the hell did you get into 1st gear at that speeds?

 

How fast were you going when you downshifted to first?

 

the question is what gear was he in when he accidentally downshifted to 1st....

 

That doesn't matter. He could have been going 30 mph in 6th, downshift to 1st and he'd still be fine. What matters is the mph he was going.

 

Okay PLEASE read this as I have been in a situation like you before (although I was not paranoid about myself over-reving, but a mechanic who had my car who I suspected might have) and I researched it like crazy and spoke with Xviper on many occasions (via PM).

The car can run TOTALLY 100% SYMPTOM FREE for a long time, I think the longest we have heard about on s2ki is about a year. The retainers are usually the first thing to go. A good S2K mechanic such as billman can inspect the retainers by simply pulling the valve cover without removing the cams. This requires a dental mirror and some patience. If you have more time (or more money for the mechanic) they can pull the cams and make it easier on themselves. Regardless EVERY RETAINER SHOULD BE CAREFULLY INSPECTED. Do a search and you should be able to pull up the pics in Billman's threads of how to spot a bad retainer. The cracks can be so small that you CANNOT see them, but you can see if they have moved up a bit compared to the others. It really takes someone who knows what they are looking for.

That being said, like someone else has said some people don't think its worth pulling the valve cover to inspect with no symptoms, but what those are usually the people who never toasted a motor. If you have a messed up retainer and don't notice it and a valve drops later, you are looking at several thousand dollars. If you just get the retainers inspected properly you are only looking at $150-250 and you can sleep again at night. At 58k miles you are probably due for a valve adjustment anyway if you have never had one done, might as well kill two birds with one stone. Pay $200 or so to a good shop that knows s2k's and get your valves adjusted and your retainers inspected properly so you can sleep at night.

I do remember BILLMAN saying that if you find ANY broken retainers, they all need to be changed. I also want to say I am not a mechanic and do not even have a great understanding of the workings of a motor, but I have done a lot of searching and reading up on the subject. Be careful in the future. In the meantime I think the general opinion is don't drive the car until you have the retainers inspected, its just not worth a several thousand dollar risk. Hope it helps and God bless,

- J

 

I'm not sure, i almost maxed out first, then let it drop, took it out of gear rev matched and put it back into first, because i figured the car had slowed down enough to were i could just accelerate back up from first. But well, i was wrong. and i'm stupid for even trying it, but oh well we all make mistakes. lets just hope i don't have to learn this the hard way.
any suggestions for a good shop down here in south georgia, or north florida?

 

I'm not sure, i almost maxed out first, then let it drop, took it out of gear rev matched and put it back into first, because i figured the car had slowed down enough to were i could just accelerate back up from first. But well, i was wrong. and i'm stupid for even trying it, but oh well we all make mistakes. lets just hope i don't have to learn this the hard way.
any suggestions for a good shop down here in south georgia, or north florida?

 

If you were in 1st...and rev'd to 8k, then took it out of gear and rev matched and put it back into first gears...chances are you did not over rev your engine. Instead you hit your rev limiter...which in that case your engine was saved.

 

It doesn't sound like you over-revved at all. If you went up to 8,000 rpms in 1st and you never put it in 2nd, then there is no way your car would have accelerated enough (unless you were going seriously downhill) to cause any damage. You probably just hit the rev limitor.

 

I agree, are you absolutely SURE you never shifted into second? The problem with an over-rev is you go to a higher gear and mechanically get the car going faster then pop it back into a lower gear (on the downshift) that the engine needs to jump way up there to support, hence the over-rev. If you never made it into second, you probably just hit the rev limiter. I just sent you a PM back but I hadn't read this yet, you might have been saved.

Regardless I'd get it checked out if your not absolutely positive about what happended, just not worth the risk. Besides I'm sure you could use a valve adjustment (unless you recently had it done).