I don't post on here or visit this forum much but im a member on both crsx and ephatch. A little history about my setup... I have a 02 Honda Civic Si with 47,XXX miles currently on the clock. ***THIS IS A K20A3*** Ive been having a recurring camshaft problem lately.

The first time this problem happened my mods were:

I/H/E/IMG/Kpro/TB Bore/S2000 Valvesprings, Retainers, and Valve Seats/STOCK CAMS/5w20 Mobil 1 Synthetic

The valvetrain was installed by professionals at a local shop... The car was never put into the wrong gear or taken above 8200 rpm. It has been through normal oil change intervals as well. This is what happened:





As you can see in the pix above the cam is grooving on the lobes... It is only on the exhaust cam... I asked around and posted this on ephatch and we thought the problem was faulty exhaust rockers or the pressure of the s2000 valvesprings, reatiners, and seats on the camshaft.

So, I needed a new set of camshafts and new rockers, valvesprings, retainers, and seats. At this point in time I opted for all of skunk2's valvetrain. I bought their: Pro series valve springs, titanium retainers, adjustable exhaust cam gear, and their stage 2 cams. I also bought a new timing chain tensioner and new 04-05 OEM honda exhaust rockers. I towed my car 230 miles to Church Automotive and Epic Motoring to have the cams/valvetrain installed and tuned. All the parts were professionally installed and tuned. I made 179 hp and 138 tq on a dynapack which greatly disapointed me. Oil is royal purple 5w30.

My new skunk2 cams are being destroyed the same way my stock cams were ruined after I totally replaced almost everything in the head. Its been probably 3,000 miles max since I had the cams installed at Epic motorsports...

They are cutting and gooving even quicker then my stock cams did. I have no ******* clue what is going on here... I have replaced the valve springs, reatainers, rockers, and even the cams and I still have this problem. Im royally pissed off and about done with this ******* engine.

Pictures







The engine is back to knocking and will be unable to drive as the mileage increases.

This brings me to my next point... Here is a quote from a honda tech on club rsx:

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Drag68Bird &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Well, I am a Honda tech. and have personally talked to Honda's tech line about this. I have replaced about 4-5 cams, 2 complete cylinder heads, and 2 complete engines, caused by this. From what Honda told me some cams for, 2002, 2003 and some 2004 for all K-engines, are not heat treated properly, causing exactly what you have. If Skunk2 uses Honda cores to make thier cams, then they will have the same issues. I have only seen wear on the exaust cam, never the intake??</TD></TR></TABLE>

From clubrsx...

I have called skunk2 and verifyed that they do in fact buy their cam cores from the same place honda does... So my new idea is that they sold me a defective cam just like honda did.....

That is just my idea and im not blaming skunk2 at all. Hopefully we will get this resolved soon... Im posting this to hear more advice/input from other k-series owners....

Has anyone seen this before or know what is going on???

Thank you.

 

*Bump* I need some info...

 

TTT again....

 

TRY clubrsx.com in the all motor forum.. They should have a lot more info for you there Good luck man

 

oil starvation?

 

might want to check the oil pump

 

Its not an oiling problem. If it were there would be signs in other places in the head and on the intake cam lobes as well.

 

It has to be something with the s2000 valvetrain.

Incorrect installation maybe?

 

Everybody is forgetting that this has happened to other people with completely stock engines... this is not an installation error.

 

try mobil oil, i used royal purple in my old b20-vtec and scraped my cams up like your first pic

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by C4rb0n F1b3r D3s1r3 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Everybody is forgetting that this has happened to other people with completely stock engines... this is not an installation error.</TD></TR></TABLE>

You dont have enough data to say this with absolute conviction. I think if you are basing your decision on the what the Honda tech said your evidence is anecdotal.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Red_EM2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">It has to be something with the s2000 valvetrain.

Incorrect installation maybe?</TD></TR></TABLE>

This could be a possibility. Remember there arent a lot of people who have done these kind of valvetrain mods on on a3 engine.

If you discount an incorrect install I think you have to allow for your vavletrain components not working with those cams. This is where you are going to have problems finding enough info. It seems like everyone with an a3 has gone fi.

See if Chunky has any feedback, he has made his own cams for the a3.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by giff74 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

You don't have enough data to say this with absolute conviction. I think if you are basing your decision on the what the Honda tech said your evidence is anecdotal.</TD></TR></TABLE>

The only real way to tell, is ask the OP if this happened BEFORE the installation of the S2000 valve train...

So, OP, did it?

 

Ive seen pictures and talked to 2 people that have had the same problem on 02 k20a3s...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by C4rb0n F1b3r D3s1r3 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Ive seen pictures and talked to 2 people that have had the same problem on 02 k20a3s...</TD></TR></TABLE>

So they had the same thing happen with a stock valvetrain?

 

I concur with the first tech. I myself am Honda Technician as well and I've also repaired a customers vehicle with the same problem.

Vehicle had about 26-28 thousand miles at the time.

2003 Accord k24a4 (completely factory obviously)




Customer came in for a clicking noise while driving, could be heard at all times while engine was running, loudest @ 3000rpm. This only happened on the cylinder 1 exhaust camshaft lobe. I replaced the camshaft and rocker assembly for cyl 1 on the exhaust side. I had also contacted our Honda tech-line and they had no clue what I was talking about. This happened back in march I've just been waiting for the right time to post that picture. I saved the cam and rockers so I could have them for future occasions, and this one seemed like a good time.

From what I understood this was not uncommon on older hondas, particularly 98-02 v6 accords I've heard most often. And now apparently this is becoming more frequent on the k-motors.

The explanation given to me was also because of faulty manufacturing (improper heat treating, and softer metal used as the core).