mikeyds

Heya! This past weekend I was swapping out AP1 retainers with AP2 parts. On an intake valve of cyl 1 I found this valve spring looked odd. Looks like has some kind of lip from the retainer wearing away at the spring?



Worn valve spring AP1 - 1


Worn valve spring AP1 - 2


Its definitely a well defined cut, impression into the top of that spring... After finding that I just kept going swapping the rest of the retainers out. None of the other springs looked like this.


I think I know the answer, but should I get another spring for this before putting it all back together?

Any concern if I replace just this one spring with a new part from Honda? or should all springs be replaced at the same time if using new? would a used spring be OK?

Is there anything I should look out for which could cause this? maybe it was just a bad retainer?

Billman250

mikeyds

Yeah, there was definitely contact, just look at this intake cam, all cyls have similar wear.

Before getting into all this I found posts where you were talking about how this happens from cracked retainers, the powered metal wearing the cam lobe. Already bought a set of used rockers and an intake cam to replace them.

Still wondering about this spring though, it's the radial wear on the middle to inside edge of the top coil that's got me concerned, catchable with a fingernail. all the other springs tops seemed perfectly flat. I guess I just don't see how the rocker arm could've hit the inside edge of the spring to cause this wear. Or could it be from the rocker hitting the retainer itself and the retainer pressing into the spring?

Billman250

Check the underside of the adjoining rocker...

mikeyds

I'll check them tonight and post back.

rpg51

If you had a severly cracked retainer - doesn't that mean you likely had a significant overrev at some point?

mikeyds

Retainers were most certainty cracked. Not as bad as some of the pictures I've seen on here, but I'm willing to guess its been that way ever since I bought the car a year and a half ago. Don't recall giving it a money shift myself.

Here's the bottoms of the rockers, left side is intake cyl 1. Can see the impressions Billman mentioned on the intake but not the exhaust rockers - as expected.




So those are from contact with the springs then? I figured the roller on the rocker might be trashed based on the cam and didn't want to risk ruining a clean cam so I will be replacing all the intake rockers.

That spring still concerns me though, it seems like the impression of the retainer in the top, inner side of the spring might allow the outside edge of that spring to sit higher and possibly still make contact with the rocker? Maybe I'm more worried about it than I should be, I just don't want to go through this again

rpg51

Does the engine run well? Good compression?

mikeyds

It does. Compression is good, cant recall the numbers at the moment, leakdown was <10% across all four when tested before swapping retainers.

rpg51

Well, seems like it worth doing it right then.
How many miles?
Do you think the cam is ok to use?