Mans Best

Quick story:
Car went in for occasional overheating issue to be looked at - blown head gasket identified.
so far, so bad
On removing and inspecting head other work identified (apart from a very light skim) is valve guides, stems and seals require replacement, idle gear collar, etc. General sensible precautionary/servicing stuff while the head is off.

I trust my garage completely (run by Ayrton Senna's engine man from McLaren days) and if he recommends it, I listen. He's surprised at the wear in particularly the exhaust valve guides. Car hasn't even covered 60k, has had regular services and I've had it from 1300 miles. It's probably made too many short journeys, but only ever been thrashed (ie driven properly!) when fully warmed up.

He is trying to source parts to do the refurb at a decent price. I have all the Honda part numbers and honestly it's a list only 10 items long (though I require 4, 8 or 10 of some of them). Does anyone have any suggestions of the best source? Also not sure of general availability of parts and will find out soon from local Honda dealer. Am also wondering if it's going to be cheaper to buy a completely new head (that would save all the labour involved in reconditioning mine). Does anyone have any experience of having work like this done on their S or obtaining specific Honda engine parts (cheaper sources, etc) that they can usefully pass on?

Thanks

Ultra_Nexus

I'm sure that being Ayrton senna's engine man is a good credential, but has he referred to the service manual to check the limits on both the guides and the valve stems? The head must be stripped for this so you must already be in for a couple of quid bill. A new head will be expensive.

So valve guides and stem steals or new valves and stem seals?

Stem seals are cheap, but if your doing all of this you might as well change the retainers.

Nout special about the head so a skim will be fine.

Best place to get bits is the US.

Mans Best

Thanks Ultra. I understand some scepticism, however thankfully this dude is an engineer, rather than a 'technician' or 'mechanic' (no disrespect) and he has checked.

Valves themselves are fine and it's the guides, stems and seals. Will ask about the retainers. I've realised this afternoon that from the US is the way to go (bugger, I was there only a week ago and could have saved on the shipping, ho hum!)

Still don't understand any excessive wear, though I don't know if I can rule out the car having been abused when it was new and this having taken a long time to manifest itself It was the very first model to arrive on the Isle of Man and there's always the chance someone took the opportunity to sample some 9k before it was sold

Nottm_S2

Valve stem? As in the valve then? Are they pricey from Honda?

Price it up on lings or ask a dealer on here? US will be tough as theyre not supposed to export

surfer_crx

I just had my head off to have the valve guides and stem seals replaced.

I took it to a place in doncaster, mainly because they have one of the best valve seat cutters on the market. I was very happy with the work that was done, they replaced the valve guides with bronze ones (can't remember the brand but I got them from Tegiwa) recut the valve seats and refaced the valves and they managed to do all that and keep within the incredibly tight tolerance that is required by Honda.

If you want I will get you their details.

I'm certain that a lot of the stories of high oil usage are actually down to worn valve guides rather than anything else.

weatyGT

Post those details up. Yummy

surfer_crx

Here you go.

Mans Best

Thanks for responses. Can't really take the repair to anywhere else at this stage, but I have a US address through which parts can be relayed, so that shouldn't be an issue if that's how I end up going. Haven't had high oil usage, so I'm not sure there's any connection with that and my problem.

f20rob

I managed to snap a valve a while back and had to have a head rebuild.

I bought an OEM gasket kit and ARP bolts/studs from tegiwaimports.com

For the valvetrain I went with Brian Crower parts (guides, keepers, valves, retainers & dual/high lift springs). BC were recommended to me by a friend who is running their gear on a high-power Supra and he in turn was given recommendations from other Supra owners. Overall the parts weigh less and are stronger than OEM. Engine is running very nicely now so I'd definitely recommend them however they're based in California and on top of £80 shipping I also got stung £176 on import duty.

robski

I'm in the process of doing what rw168342 mentioned, bought the OEM gasket and ARP bolts from tegiwa.
Also replacing the TCT and other bits on the re-build.

Just following the s2000 manual, contains every little bit about the s2000.
http://www.manualslib.com/manual/466...nda-S2000.html