There are dots on the retainers that are equal distance and surround the valve locks. They are not visible in the pictures. I was told they were ferrea but the ones on their website are branded with their logo. Could these be an older version? I tried looking for type r retainers but notice most of the oem type are fairly flat and black - these are embossed (rounded).

any help would be appreciated.

 

they look aluminum, I heard some auto b series had aluminum retainers at some point in time, but I havent seen them first hand.

 

they are aluminum from auto b16, i lost a good engine becouse of them .

 

you have the head apart.....replace them.

 

looks like i'm going have to replace them. damn i just bolted the head studs and nut in too.

 

my ferreas dont have the logo..they could be...

 

does it have dots around the retainers?

exhaust side

 

You don't have to pull the head off to replace them.you can replace them by pressurizing each cylinder on it's firing stroke(TDC with both valves closed) and using a overhead cam spring compressor tool to replace them.

 

dual springs for intake side.

 

yeah i know about that trick but i ended up removing it anyways, it looked like one of the studs went loose so i have to remove it to re-torqued it to 10lbs. i decided to wait till next paycheck and order some supertech or something decent.

 

those look rough...mines dont have dots and are polished...they are titanium thou..i dont know about those..