Thanks for the response Floppy. I went ahead and took photos of the intake retainers as per Jordans advice. A bit hard to get good shots of them all thanks to the crap in the way.

In order 1-2, 3-4.




I don't see anything out of the ordinary (i.e. no visible damage) but as Floppy said it probably wouldn't be noticeable from up top anyways. I'm going to give adjusting the valves one last shot as I don't think I did it right. Any other recommendations while I have the VC off would be appreciated.

 

pull the pan... could be a bearing... it does sound like a valve though

 

Ok, its not the retainer itself you need to look at but the keepers in the middle, essentially they need to be flush with the retainer and not recessed in any way (that indicates cracked retainer) ...there are few threads with comparison pictures of "bad vs good".
Its very hard to tell from yours photos but they do look ok-ish.
(maybe in the top photo, left side keeper looks little recessed but that could be just photo so don't freak out just yet)

At this point i would re-do the valve clearance adjustment one more time on both intake/exhaust valves (its possible its just one valve out of whack, that's why its only such a look frequency "clack') and make sure the locking nuts are tightened to correct torque (its pretty low torque anyway so dont strip them)

What feeler guage did you use?

Did you make sure the valve is "unloaded" (cam lobes pointing up) when doing the adjustment?

What gaps did you go for on both sides?

Engine was dead cold when doing the adjustment?


EDIT: going back to the TCT ..i know you said 'new', it was brand new TCT from honda?

When you pulled the pin thru the hole on the front of the engine did you hear it make "snap" sound as it extended?

How is the chain slack?


Sorry i know its many questions but probably only way to get to the bottom of this...

 

I'm not sure if "keeper" is a technical term but I have no clue what you're referring to and google searches for "s2000 keeper" don't exactly help. If you could link to a comparison thread or a photo of what I'm supposed to be looking at I would appreciate it.

Exhaust: .011mm/.010mm
Intake: .010mm/.008mm

For the exhaust I could still jam the .011mm in with enough force (wasn't easy) but tightening even slightly more made .010 unable to fit so I settled for what I had.

I did not make sure the cam lobes were pointing up just set them to TDC based on this guide. I fit the larger feeler gauge into the slot then tightened it in place and pulled the feeler gauge out. Always double-checked my clearances with the smaller gauge. Engine was dead cold.

I bought it from eBay so who knows if it's new but it came with the pin. The TCT made a distinctive latching sound when I pulled the cotter pin. I started the car once after the TCT swap and let the engine get warmed up before taking it for a test drive. It was then that I noticed the TCT noise was gone but the noise that started up the day before I swapped was still there. Revving above 2500 RPM gave me a nasty clatter which I figured was the valve clearance after some research. I have not driven the car since, only turned it on a couple times after trying some things out but no dice.

Chain slack is non-existant. That thing is fixed to the crank gear.

I thought so too, so I spilled the oil but couldn't manage to get the AC compressor bolts undone, last owner must have torqued the f@#k out of 'em. Anyways I'll try again when I see how this goes.

 

Check this out...in regards of the keepers https://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/521...ner-check-101/


redo the adjustment i think i found your issue if you used feeler guages in milimeters.

what you posted was:

Exhaust: .011mm/.010mm
Intake: .010mm/.008mm


And thats WRONG as these figures are in inches!!!!

check that guide again http://robrobinette.com/S2000ValveAdjust.htm

in mms it needs to be:

Exhaust: 0.25 -0.29mm
intake: 0.21 -0.25mm

 

My mistake I read the wrong numbers, those are inches. My gauges have both displayed so I was using:

.254mm as "go" for exhaust and .203mm for intake.

I'll be redoing it anyways, is there a better spec to follow or is the manufactures clearance best?

Edit: I'll check the retainers now, thanks for the link.

 

Just checked them out and all retainers are sitting flush like Billman's photos on the left here. Thank god for that.

 

yeah i didn't think gauges with .010 mm even exist (that would be like hair thickness or something

Like the guide says the clearances get tighter with time/wear...so i would aim for little looser (within spec) and yep the honda spec is the best.

Cool about the retainers (more for peace of mind i dont think thats your issue anyway)..redo the adjustment and let us know how that goes.

 

Well, just redid all the valve clearances and no change. It almost sounds like there is something bouncing around inside the engine as the rattle increases with RPM but at idle the engine doesn't move much so its an off kilter "tapping".

I'm out of ideas, is it even possible for me to have done the TCT swap wrong? What problems could driving on a bad TCT for as long as I was have caused?

 

Hmm.. can you take the spark plugs out and see whay they look like? Also just for peace of mind take the bolt out on the front of the engine(where you pull the TCT pin) and check to make sure its fully extended touching the chain guide ..you will probably need to shine torch in there. (Probably waste of time but since you recently swaped TCT makes me wonder if thats it).
Driving with bad TCT can make the chain skip teeth on cam wheel or break one of the guides etc

I know its bit of wild goose chase just trying to eliminate all posibilities... better be safe than sorry