It's been a few years since Bumblestook's last valve adjustment which was back when she was still a full-fledged BSP car. Since she was already up on race ramp cribs and tucked away for the winter, I figured I'd tackle the valve adjustment. When I started the process I noticed some corrosion on the intake cam underneath where the oil filler cap would be. My current theory is that back when I ran BSP, when the car only ran during events, was on E85, and sat the rest of the time, condensation may have built up under the oil filler cap and wore away the coating on the cam.
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| Corrosion on the intake cam |
Whatever the reason, I'm glad I caught this as this might have resulted in some serious problems later so I went ahead and ordered a new intake cam and everything else attached to it like the cam gear and cam plate. I could've just reused what was attached to the old cam but I wanted to get a fresh set so I could compare my new and old setup and make sure I got it set up correctly.
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| New intake cam assembled |
I'd never done this before but thankfully my trusty S2000 service manual had everything I needed. I torqued the nut holding the cam gear to 118Nm and the bolt holding the cam position pulse plate to 39Nm (left-hand threads). I set cylinder one to TDC where the cam gear markings completely lined up with each other to ensure that I wouldn't mess up timing when I installed the new cam. I then start loosening the bolts holding the camshaft holders in the reverse order they are tightened according to the manual. I wanted to make sure the bolts I removed got reinstalled in the same spot I got them from so I used the box the cam was shipped in to store the bolts so I could remember where each of the 20 bolts came from.
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| Camshaft holders and intake cam removed |
I carefully removed the intake cam and inspected underneath. Thankfully, the corrosion was limited to the cam so I simply applied some fresh oil on the new cam and put it in the same orientation the old cam was in making sure the timing marks were still aligned. I put the camshaft holders back in place and incrementally tightened the bolts in the order specified in the manual (criss-crossing from the center outward) until I eventually torqued them down to 22Nm. Once I was satisfied everything was installed correctly, I then did a valve adjustment setting the intake to 0.23mm and the exhaust to 0.28mm and torqued the locknuts to 20Nm.
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| New intake cam lined up with exhaust cam |
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| Camshaft holders installed and torqued to spec |
One thing I also noticed when I removed my valve cover to do this job was that the paint had started to peel and it was starting to look a bit sad. I dropped it off with my friends at
JT Powder Coating while I was waiting for my new cam to arrive. They cleaned up the cast marks, blasted it clean, then put a fresh coat of crinkle red.
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| Valve cover looking beat up and tired |
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| Back from JT Powder Coating |
I got all new seals for the valve cover including new o-rings for the crank position sensors. Unfortunately, I installed the spark plug seals backward and had to redo those since taking them out is a destructive process. Luckily for me, I live only 5 minutes from a Honda dealership that was open and had them in stock but the bad news is that I got raped and had to pay full MSRP. I could've probably just ordered them elsewhere cheaper and just waited a few days to complete this job but frankly, I just wanted to get this done so I just had to suck it up. Lesson learned, if unsure about orientation, go find pictures!.
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| Everything put back together - 3-5-2022 |
I tried to start up her but she wouldn't start. For a moment there I was a bit disheartened thinking that I had screwed something up and I looked at all my photos and the manual and tried to remember if I missed anything. Then I remembered I had the car disconnected from the battery tender for weeks now because the garage isn't heated and you're not supposed to charge LiFePO4 batteries below 32F. I plugged in the charger to give it a bit of juice. A little while later I came back and sure enough, she fired up right away. Oil pressure looks good, no leaks anywhere and the engine seems to run ok. I still plan on changing the oil before I go take her out for a full drive but we're one step closer to being ready for the first track day of the season. I also took the opportunity, while everything was out, to go and clean and re-oil the intake filter as well.
