Digitalair

What could be the worst case scenario here?

ceek732

Bent valves. Billman said the s2000 is built to withstand a 1 gear mechanical over-rev. Not sure about 5th to 2nd tho .

windhund116

UGH! He D/S into 2nd at 75 MPH? Check the compression, for sure. My guess is you may have floated a valve or two.

Digitalair

SpitfireS had a great thread on why valves do not float. The car had a rough idle after the overrev...I'm scared to have bent valves or have spun a bearing.

s2000Junky

Either cracked retainers with sunk valves ready to drop, or bent valves. Those are all misfire codes. Do not start the engine until you do a full valve retainer and clearance inspection. You can still save the motor, but not if you start the car and one of the hypothetical cracked retainers decided to fold up and drop a valve in your cylinder. Cracked retainers would be best case scenario, being you can just replace them and not have to remove the head, second best is bent valves. After that its no good, you replace the engine.

Digitalair

Roughly how much $$$ am I talking about here? Replacing retainers I can do myself, and I know the cost for AP2 retainers and keepers on the intake side wouldn't set me back too much. For bent valves, what all is involved in the repair and how much would the labour cost be? I've been entertaining of swapping in a low mileage JDM F20c and rebuilding ny current engine to flip. What would be the labour cost for just the swap?

s2000Junky

Considering the cost of having someone pull the head and put it back on, you could drop probably $800 there before they lift a finger on valvetrain inspection and treatment. On a head with 171k on it, I would plan on performing a full inspection and replace all the valve springs, valves, keepers, retainers, guides and seals even if you find just one bent valve. Your already over half way there in labor, might as well go all the way on this many miles. Valve seats may or may not be fine, but either way lapping in new valves. Probably another $400-$500 in labor to deal with this valvetrain stuff on top of what ever it cost in parts. Probably pushing close to $1800-$2000 for a total head overall as described. Going that route, you would probably save several hundred by just finding a solid lower mileage used head and swapping it on. Labor to swap in a complete long block with no messing around with engine assembly, just a direct swap, around $1000 on the low end. But again depends on who you take it to. Dealer vs general mechanic, vs private mechanic on the side etc. Given all this, cracked retainers is why I said best case scenario.

Digitalair

I have such an emotional attachment to my car. My father and I did a lot of karting when I was younger. This is my first car and will always be my forever car. I worked with construction jobs every summer in high school to buy this car and now that I'm in college I have a full time job and I'm a full time student so that I can pay for insurance and registration costs myself as well as maintenance. I was just about to go to a 255/40/r17 square setup and do a tons of suspension work to tame the oversteer. Going to a square setup and doing these suspension mods have been all I can think about. Luckily I have been saving up my money in case something ever happened to my car. It looks like my savings account is going to have to take a serious hit and my plans for growing further as a driver with the car by finally upgrading my suspension and wheel/tire setup will have to be post poned. Thanks for all of the advice you guys. Ill keep updates on the status of my car.

DesertWanderer

Someone more knowledgeable than me needs to chime in on the "255/40/r17 square setup" you refer to. Is this advisable?

Digitalair

As long as you get a wheel with a high enough offset it'll fit, if that's what you're referring too. I'm in college studying applied mathematics and like I said, my passion is cars so vehicle dynamics are something that really interests me. With the AP1 S2000 it is known that a square setup the oversteering tendencies will increase so you need to balance it out with wither a thicker front sway bar or a wing to settle the rear end. This square setup is actually quite common amongst the STR guys which is why I wanted to go to it as opposed to the common 225/45/r17 Fromt and 255/40/r17 Rear setup. It's definitely doable of your suspension is disled in right. I want to apply my knowledge of physics and mathematics to my S2000 and grow as a driver, but first I need to take care of this engine problem I'm having...