I found this when disassembling my head to go to the machine shop (have a couple leaking valves). They are Skunk Ti Springs and Retainers on stock valves in a stock unported 2000 GSR Head. All the retainers look chewed up like this or worse, and there are a few scratches and markings in the aluminum throughout the head.

Has anyone see this before? What causes it? Also, is is bad that the flashing is chipping off like that?

https://honda-tech.com/attachment.ph...1&d=1294717457

 

what cams are you running?

 

Stock GSR Cams, Turbo Motor 16 lbs, Revving to 8-9K

 

ive seen small little chips in the retainers with aftermarket higher lift cams. But that looks pretty bad

 

And I checked the lifters, not a scratch on them.

 

Are they hitting anything on the head? like a small burr or something?

 

actually it looks like someone hit it with a grinder or something. look at the grinding on the head, the grind markings on the head look the same as on the retainers...???

 

The rocker arm is hitting the retainers

 

yea its cause by rocker arms hitting retainers....check under ur arms and ill bet you gonna see the marks...might have to grind them down..

 

Why would this happen with stock cams? It has not been ground on, the scarring is too random and rough to have been made on purpose.

 

If the head was rebuilt and weld to hold a seat or the seat is machined up in the head the valve/spring/stem sit higher and cause the rocker to still touch the retainer. it looks like the valve adjustment is right but you dont see the rocker touching.

 

H22 heads are popular for this. You need to machine the rocker moldings. Let me guess the car is falling on its face past 8k?

 

your not gonna see any wear on the rockers. the middle rocker is either slapping the retainer caused by bad lma's or your installed height is wrong.

vtec isnt set way high is it?

we see this alot w/ n/a setups running pro series cams, lma's dont support the ramp speed causing the rocker to slap around when its out of vtec. lowering vtec engagement solves the problem.

you also lose clearance when your installed hight increases as the rocker angle changes. check your installed height.

also check your lma,s and assemble the head, set the valve lash and check your rocker to retainer clearance by pushing down on the vtec rocker and using a feeler between the retainer and edge of the rocker

 

The car seemed to do this, I got to a point where I was trying to break into the tens and no matter what I did I couldnt go faster.

 

Yup looks like the middle rocker is slapping the retainers.