my gsr died an impressive death this weekend at watkins glen. Top of third gear, shift to 4th and 8200rpm and boom, dropped a valve. just thought id share some carnage pics. retainer failed in #1, valve is jammed into the head like a pizza cutter, metal in every other cylinder, every combustion chamber of the head is beat up.

been a long time since ive built a honda motor, anyone have insight/recommendations for the following for a strictly road race car (running under honda challenge 2 rules, so pretty restricted)?

valve springs - single vs dual?
retainers - thinking steel over titanium?
valves - any real benefit to type r valves (supposedly safer at higher revs?)
bearings - anyone run king bearings or just oem?

 

Wow, looks like it was fun while it lasted.

 

Looks like you and I are building GSR H2 spec motors this winter (unless you are doing it earlier)... IF you keep it to 8,200 (like I plan to) this is what I am planning to do. I pick up my used motor this Friday. this is my plan.... I get my OEM parts from Autofair and my aftermarket parts from IPGparts!

1. You need the 62.5mm throttle body, max bore or just get an ITR 62mm (I will keep the 62mm handy on the dyno in case I blow way over on power)
2. You should get the Moroso 5.5 of Canton oil pan
3. Get your hands on the Blox or Skunk2 legal manifold (you can get them used all day on Facebook… but some people jack them up for H2 with port work)
4. Ferra Valve Guides… my old school machinist complains the Supertech are “too hard” and a pain to install
5. ARP head studs… you never know if you are going to pop a head gasket at the track… but they aren’t hard to replace.
6. OEM lost motions and valve locks
7. Supertech dual springs with steel retainers (you aren’t reving much higher than stock, stock seats are steel… its peace of mind)… I am running the BC double springs with steel retainers in my B20, and so far so good… I might pick up a set instead of Supertech.
8. I’m just going to run the Supertech stock replacement valves. ITR intake valves are lighter… BUT IMHO they are iffy with the H2 rules
9. ACT light weight flywheel/Exedy stock clutch
10. Toda Header/2.5 inch exhaust (18 inch magnaflow resonator/14inch cherry bomb)
11. I'll most likely be running OEM bearings. I'll pull the pan and do a check... I might not even replace them unless they don't spec out.

 

saddest [art is it was an old school RLZ head. im scrambling to get another motor together for the last race of the season...in 10 days.

but yes over the winter i have another one to build that im gonna try some tricks with.

 

i know you said this motor was "refreshed" when you bought the car...how much time did you put on it since it you bought it?

Was it properly broken in?

it seems "bone stock" might be the most reliable way going forward but thats not competitive for H2

 

literally no idea what the ACTUAL history on the motor is. i dont remember exactly but I think the previous owner said maybe half a year/handful of events. i got 1.5 seasons out of it, but in the motors defense it was the head i swapped on this year that killed it. that head was the northeat H2 ****, has been on nmany motors over something like 10 years and of course had an unknown spring/retainer history. its my fault basically, but i did check them awhile back and saw nothing obvious...but retainer fatigue can be hard to spot.

i also found all of my water in my oil pan

i have my fingers and toes crossed that i will manage to get a bone stock gsr in it this weekend after my buddy re-rings it to not miss the last race in 10 days...but 160whp (if im lucky) may not be very useful

 

are you unable to get your GSR motor close to the 175hp cap? is it safe to assume the new motor will only be missing the decked head/valve job vs. your old motor?

 

that head allowed me to make power cap. a stock gsr head will be lucky to get 165whp with a manifold. the real problem is the torque, i was making like 126 i think. If that can be upped by 10 id be ecstatic (and i need to go to a 4.9 fd)

 

This is a dumb question - where do you go to find car parts on facebook?

 

click marketplace on the side

 

It also helps to sign up to a few Honda Classifieds groups. For example, I'm part of Race Cars for Rent or Sale and Honda Prelude Marketplace.

 

I can't disagree too far from what you said except for a few things...
1. ITR valves are not "iffy" on H2 engines, they are fine...except when they are not in a Type R (B18C5, B16B), because that's illegal
2. Any stock, Stage 1, or Stage 2 clutch is fine. Exedy and ACT would be at the bottom of my list for options though, many failures historically
3. No need for a Toda or other high-end header unless you're competing at the National level. Even then, PLM is fine
4. I wouldn't necessarily replace the valve guides as a going in game plan, do it if necessary

 

from what i understand exedy was/is a parts supplier to honda so there is a good chance an exedy oem replacement clutch is more or less the same thing as buying one from the factory

ive been running exedy oem clutches on both of my cars (one that i track pretty heavily) and havent had any issues

 

Baker the new rules are coming... from what i hear, using the ITR valves will just require you to run ITR weight

 

looks like it had titanium retainers, if so one reason it likely failed. They are lighter and help you rev higher but they are not long term parts compared to steel oem. If I was to run Ti retainers I'd swap them out every so often if I was on a bottomless racing budget.