Billman250

Your most important factor is finding the underlying cause of your tight valves, and low comp in #3. Has the car even had a VA done? that is usually the only way this could happen. You drove the car with tight valves due to a previous botched VA, and burned the valves and seats causing low compression.

Being that its an ap2, you will likely not find any bad componenets such as retainers, springs, seats, etc.


Did cylinder 3 show very tight valves? what would you say the clearance was at?

Its important to resolve this stuff, or your new head will fail also. Stock parts just dont fail for no reason.

Billman250

I'm confident your issue was not due to money shifting or broken retainers. Even if you DID have broken retainers (and you dont) they dont cause any symptoms till the valve drops. They dont affect compression (at high RPMs they could, but not during a comp test), they dont make noise. They have no affect on valve clearance. They are a silent killer.

Billman250

BTW...dont even think about using anything other than new OEM head bolts. ARP studs are a big failure on this engine.

agthad

I've had the car since it was brand new. The only valve adjustment was the one I did about 10k ago when I originally found everything to be tight. That's when the CEL disappeared. I'm looking forward to finding out what is really wrong here when I get it all pulled apart. I'll post plenty of pics.

As far as studs, have you had any luck reusing the OEM ones? I know the service manual has a procedure to measure the diameter at two places to check how much they've been stretched. They've never been taken out so I was planning on doing that before I ordered new ones.

Thanks again for all the help guys.

Billman250

Either way, they are stretched. but they can be re-used.

used head bolts get a half turn from torque setting.

New bolts get 3/4 turn.

Billman250

Are you 100% sure you did the VA correctly? In over 600 s2ks, I've never found one valve with little or no clearance.

agthad

I'm pretty sure I did it correctly but I am human. I'm a mechanical engineer with machine shop experience. I've also done all the valve adjustments on my motorcycles. I was surprised as well to find everything so tight. That's why I've always suspected the retainers. We'll find out soon enough.

Thanks for the heads up on the studs.

Utah S2K

It's nearly impossible to over rev an S2200 even during a downshift. Listen to Billman..........

Utah

Billman250

Yes a wide open one-gear money shift will not hurt a 2.2l that spins to 8k.

agthad

I believe you guys. I take every bit of advice I get on here seriously. What is for certain is that something is wrong. Pulling it apart will tell us what it is and hopefully point to what caused it. I'll just be glad to have it fixed.