I will have to do that. But if it's cracked now, I'm just gonna replace them with ap2's.

 

It'll help to post photos of those retainers. Several angles, to help catch hairline fractures or other issues. I hope you don't find anything unusual under the valve cover.

 

Learn proper shift technique as well

 

Yes, but the cracks are usually impossible to see and the first indication is often the drift of the retainer in relation to the valve stem that may happen after some use... so even if everything looks normal now the symptoms can show later.

 

What are those symptoms? At least prior to a dropped valve.


Thanks!

 

There are no symptoms prior to a dropped valve with the exception of the visuals. That's what makes it so bad. IIRC you will start to see some scarring on the lifters and possibly the cam lobe of an affected valve from metal dust/debris. There was a thread floating around with some good pictures of that.

 

Well here are some pictures. The lighting was rather hard to do but i did what i could by myself. I would have posted last night but i had no internet nor service at home. And just looking at other pictures, I wasnt so sure if I could remove the those bolt thingies on top of the retainer. If I can, let me know how so maybe i could get some better pictures if needed and as I am still quite noobish.

But here are some pictures so far of the intake side retainers. Let me know what yall think.

Retainer 1



Retainer 2


Retainer 3


Retainer 4


Retainer 5 and 6



Retainer 7


Retainer 8 was complicated to take a picture of but definitely looked in place like the rest of the intake side retainers. I did check exhaust side retainers and they all seemed well seated.

Let me know what yall think. To me, I think the retainers are okay in comparison to pictures of bad retainers; but I'm no expert and this is my first time checking this out. And since I am the 3rd owner, I have no clue as to whether the previous two owners had changed them with new retainers or not.

 

To my knowledge there are no symptoms. The retainer is a 'beveled' (not sure if that is the right word) circular lip on the edge of the valve spring and the keeper holds the valve to it. The fact that the retainer is cracked means that that valve can still function, but eventually the cycling of the vavle up and down on that piece will cause the cracks to widen and widen over time allowing the keeper to slip through the enlargened opening and eventually compeltely slip through and drop into the cylinder

 

6 7 look cracked from the picture, I'm guessing #8 is not going to fare much better. Those are typically the ones that tend to break, for some reason the cylinders close to the fire wall are the first to suffer on our cars, I guess since that part of the engine has all the other stuff bolted to it, and also happens to be furthest away from the oil pump. The head has very tiny oil openings as well but it kind of has to to minimize windage in the valve train.

 

Jesse, i replied to you on Facebook.