Hi all, Iv had my S2k for 3 months now, stock 00’ ap1 96k miles, car has good service history and no weird noises from the engine. Iv read a lot about replacing the valve retainers to the stronger ap2 ones but is this really necessary? Obviously I have no idea if the car has been over-reved in the past but in 22 years? I’m hearing mixed opinions on this so thought I’d just put a post! Thanks

 

Should at least have them inspected.

 

I just had mine done at R2 in Tilbury - £700 or there abouts - it's more of a piece of mind thing with age. Have them inspected next time the valve clearances are done.

 

thanks for this I am not far from them! Do you remember if any of your stock retainers were cracked when they changed them? Thanks

 

I think they were fine for the most part, IIRC there were 1 or 2 that were showing signs - but nothing that forced me to change them - just preventative measure...

 

I would just do them, are you afraid of doing them yourself? I did mine myself (with a friend) took about 2.5hrs and before I did the job I watched a half dozen videos to make sure I knew what I was doing. There's a pretty clever tool that makes doing this job pretty much fool proof, link below. I promise you, once you take off the first retainer with this tool you'll wonder why people pay to get this job done, it's insanely easy. The ONLY thing you can screw up is dropping a retainer in down an oil drain in the head and into the oil pan. Easy solution for that, jam some paper towels in those holes.

Also, FWIW you're already in there I would do them all. People have cracked both exhaust and intake retainers, literally adds like 10min to the job to do the other side.

 

Thanks for the link. I'm at 150k mi on my 2001 AP1, with no service history. I tried to inspect the retainers when replacing the valve cover gasket and didn't feel like I could get a good enough look at them. That tool looks like it would be a huge help.

 

I borrowed a tiny angled mirror from a friend that got me one of the best possible views of the bottom side of the retainer and I 100% thought every single one of them were cracked. Turns out, it was the reflection of the light that made it look like a crack, cause all of them were fine lol. Moral of the story is you really can't get a good look at the bottom of the retainers. If they are really bad you can see the stem of the valve sinking down through the retainer, that's another way you can check them but again it's really not going to give you solid evidence whether one is cracked or not unless it's literally at the point of complete failure.

 

Cheers for the link, must do my own as preventative maintenance. Did you do the stem seals while you were there?

 

thanks for this, I’m convincing myself to do the job at home! We’re any of yours cracked?? I only really see 90% of people changing their retainers to find they were fine and no cracks?