local to me shop charges $180 with gasket. Car has to come in day before so that its nice and cold for the adjustment the following day.

 

Why would the plugs have to come out to rotate the crank? You can rotate the crank with a ratchet all day without removing the spark plugs. I'm genuinely curious because I never removed them when I did my own valve adjustment and they weren't part of the DIY i followed.

 

no issue keeping the plugs in during valve adjustment.

darcy

 

Its just harder to turn with them in. No biggie for most people

 

I stand corrected! This falls into the "why not" category.

Yep, the plugs can stay in. Just re-checked the shop manual. As noted it is easier to align the engine with no compression. It's an extra minute of labor to change a plug and they're cheap. OEM plugs are gapped and have anti-seize on the threads already (don't apply any).

We did two cars on separate weekends this spring and decided to check compression and change the plugs while we were in there. Already paying for the gaskets, etc, Good chance to check for any unusual symptoms around the plugs and the torque setting for them has been raised a bit since the original specs (not handy, sorry). Engine needs to be under 100°F. Car is so low that bending is very hard on my back. You can save your back if you do this with the car raised to chest height. Adjustment is simple albeit tedious and repetitious. Less than $15 for a set of bent gauges and the "exotic" wrench/screwdriver tool.

-- Chuck

 

Get a back brace, helps me I and I have a relatively strong back, I learned the hard way removing an intake manifold.

 

Valve cover seat set is not really necessary IMO.
If nothing is leaking there is no need to replace anything.

(including spark plug tube seals)
Nothing will get damaged by removing the valve cover.

 

I would replace the vc gasket if it's been over 40k miles on it. I've seen them go bad with 50k, but my criteria for bad isn't leaking. If I have to use a rubber mallet on the vc to get it off I consider it bad.

 

Having done the valve adjustment myself: you don't need to replace anything that doesn't need replacing. Take the valve cover off, do the timing, put some oil on the gasket and put it back on.

You MUST do it with the engine stone cold.

It took me 3 hours the first time (could have done it way faster but I never rush and triple check anything I do), so as previously stated in this thread, if you have back problems, it's a pain in the... back.

 

Well I picked up my car yesterday and requested that they record the before and after specs. At 66K miles, the car wasn't that out of spec.

However, even with the small adjustments, the car seems to be performing better (could just be my imagination).

It was also comforting to hear him say that my car was one of the best conditioned S2000s he has ever worked on.