Well I called it! Retainers were great, valves checked out pretty well, one exhaust valve seemed like it may have been at the high end, but I could not get the lock nut loose and decided it best not to push my luck. Then came putting her back together and wouldn't you know I lost one of the rubber grommets to the valve cover. I looked for 3 hours all over, even looked inside of the head just to be sure, but no luck. I have no clue where the damn thing went. Hopefully it is a universal part for many Honda valve covers and they have one in stock.

There is no way it could have dropped into a place inside the head where I couldn't see it is there? I am just paranoid somehow it fell into there. I was fairly certain I could see everywhere, and the couple spots that went down further seemed too large for it to fit into.

On another note I swear my valves now sound louder. Is there a chance by checking them I actually made them out of spec? I didn't adjust anything, but felt like I was being quite intrusive with the feeler gauge, is that normal? Can you actually mess anything up if you are too rough with those gauges?

Never again will I do something I don't absolutely need to, something always goes wrong.

 

Actually, I do believe mileage might play some part in cracked retainers. My car has 154000 and cylinders 1 and 4 were cracked. The car was previously owned by a girl so I'm not exactly sure if she was vtecing around where an overrev could have happened lol. But it's definitely good you checked them. Oh and that rubber seal you lost.. you can buy a valve cover gasket set, might as well change it all while you're in there

Here's a link for the kit on ebay:http://pages.ebay.com/motors/link/?n...775510&alt=web

 

Oh and as long as you didnt loosen the adjusting screws/bolts on the rocker arms, there's no way you could have changed the valve specs, so i wouldnt worry.

 

Is it ok to be scraping those feeler gauges around in there, or am I being too intrusive? It was difficult to get it to the point where it would slide in, so I am banging around. Then once it did slide in it certainly had drag and I am sliding back and forth, felt like a dental tool!

Also any idea if I can get just one rubber seal? Is it ok to drive the car until I get the kit? I have an alignment appointment tomorrow. I just hope to god it didn't get inside the engine!

 

You would definitely see it in the engine, just check around with a little dental mirror of some sort. As to where it went, check down by your intake, youll be surprised how things can hide down in there.

As for running the car, im not completely sure, i would avoid it though. You dont want oil leaking out and getting all over the engine. If I was you I would just replace all the gaskets for the peace of mind, but that's just me. I'm REALLY OCD over things haha

Good luck with the car!

 

Believe what you want. I have 317,000 miles on my '03 with the original retainers.

 

Believe what you want. I have 317,000 miles on my '03 with the original retainers.

 

Holy cow that's a lot of miles!! Maybe mine was overreved, but I replaced them so not a big deal. That's amazing though, these cars truly run FOREVER when taken car of

 

You need the entire valve cover gasket kit, which comes with all 5 washers and metal tops, and new lower gasket. $23 from majestic Honda. I suspect this is a special order part so you probably wouldn't have much luck trying to grab just one washer from a local dealer.

You could drive it I guess, but you may leak oil.

And the feelers shouldn't be difficult to slide in. If they are, you don't have the correct angle, or you're using too thick of a feeler. I start with a very thin feeler and work my way up. Even when there is drag, they should slide in fairly easily.

 

Actually it just hit me, you might have ap2 retainers because I know for the later portion 03 Honda started changing over to new banjo bolts, not sure about the retainers too though.