tominboise

I bought this S2000 in August with about 120000 mile on it. Since then my son and I have been running it hard in the local autocross events. Pulled the valve cover and replaced the intake valve retainers and keepers over the holiday. FOund one retainer cracked on the #1 cylinder and both retainers cracked on the #4 cylinder, so the job was needed. Managed to do the job without dropping anything inside the engine.

I was amazed at how clean the inside of the engine is. I have no idea what oil any of the previous owners have used. I have changed it once with Castrol 5W-30 syntec. I will change it again now that I've had the top open and plan to use Castrol 10W30 syntec this go around, as we had some consumption issues last summer.

Tom

tbpom1003

glad to hear that you found it early

hvAlfaWant_S2000

Billman may want to add this to his stat sheet of AP1's that had cracked retainers. Are you keeping count still, Billman??

Billman250

I'm at about 36 cars I've found with broken retainers during routine valve adjustment.

If the engine is super clean inside, synthetic oil is the reason. If it's dark brown and stained, conventional oil is the reason.

Yaupon

For reference purposes, just had my AP1 valve retainers replaced with AP2 retainers [intake side only]. Exhaust side was left alone. The valve retainers taken out were in perfect condition, i.e., not cracked at all. Having purchased this MY 2002 AP1 with 35,000 miles within the last year and not knowing the prior driving history I had the retainers replaced for peace of mind. For those in the Southeastern North Carolina area the work was performed at Carolina Dyno in Wilmington, NC. Excellent shop and the cost was $430.