Have a little over 60K on the car, pretty sure they are still the stock crappy AP1 retainers. Would like to get them out first thing in the spring. Go AP2 OEM or something like this?
http://realstreetperformance.com/sto...-f22c-128.html

Also what would be a good shop to go to in the Chicagoland area for this?

 

I have someone that will do it as a side job for u. If your not changing your cams then these are overkill IMO. If you want to stay OEM I have them from my ap2 with only 33k miles. Let me know if your interested via pm. I have OEM ap2 cams, valves, retainers, ect...

 

AP2 should be all you need. The ap1s won't fail though unless you've over reved it.

 

ap2 oem. also if you can wait, you may be able to do them yourself with the help of others at an s2ki event. I did mine a couple years ago at Keiths KBAB..... only down side is that we did drop a retainer into the abyss and i did have to drop my oil pan and get it out (which i did promptly)

 

How long did the job take you? Any special tools needed?

 

it took awhile, and it sucked ( lotta leaning over the car and trying to push things down very hard....its also a two man job).... there is retainer tool that lets you push down the spring enough to loosen the retainers, a magnet to grab them away, and also a air hose assembly to pressurize the system so the valves stay in place..... i do not own the tools, and was fortunate enough to use what was brought to the KBAB

 

Yea be careful if your not removing your head and I suggest a second person if you haven't done this before. Just recently did this myself for the first time and can only imagine it's a PITA if the heads still on the car. I had a tech and the specific dealer tools so that helped out. I replaced everything since I had too take it apart.