hey guys. I have a '94 lude with an h22a4 swap and the hydraulic tensioner has failed TWICE after putting in Skunk2 Stage II cams, PortFlow dual valvesprings and titanium retainers. WHY would this happen? After the second time it failed, I called Skunk2, they say its the valvetrain. I called PortFlow they say its the cams. And the Skunk2 tech has the nerve to tell me that it is 'suggested' to use the h23 tensioner after upgrading the valvetrain. WHERE AND WHEN has this EVER been suggested to ANYONE.

Has anyone ever heard or had this happen to them? Who is responsible and should compensate me for the repairs? Thanks in advance guys.

 

Its the valvetrain, its too stiff for the tensioner to handle, the only way around it is using the h23 tensioner.

 

Actually if you talk to Skunk2 the majority of the time they will recommend that you do the manuel tensioner conversion. I hate to say it but neither of those companies are going to repair anything for you, its for you to fix.

 

Ya, try a search on this, you'll see there are a lot of us who have switched to the manual tensioner from the H23. In fact, it is the main reason I did a complete rebuild this past summer. Valves meeting pistons is not a good thing......

 

wtf... then why did nobody warn ME about this. Neither Skunk2 OR PortFlow suggested the switch. I mean, now I know, and now its fixed but still. It should be a disclaimer for one of their products. I mean, skunk2 recommends upgrading the valvetrain, so I did that. And in their valvetrain package, nowhere does it say anything about a tensioner. It's really about them assuming that the customer has seen this issue before. And I'm f-n PISSED

 

damn son, you got your valvetrain upgraded like that
and never heard of the auto to manual tens crossover
do a search for it
i think 2poin6 did a whole thread on the swap

 

Not only have I not heard about it. Two separate mechanics that did the tensioners haven't heard about it. If it's such a 'normal' thing for this to happen, these big companies should watch out for us consumers.

 

Well if you actually talked to Skunk2 yourself they should of mentioned it, if you had a shop get yours stuff they should of mentioned it. But you are correct no where does it list on there site to do this.

 

So doesn't give me that a leg to stand on as far as asking for compensation?

 

Who did you buy the Skunk2 parts from?

And on another note you really don't have anylegs to stand on, sorry.

 

I bought the cams from this company on GroupBuyCenter.com ... His name was Chris. I forget what the company's name was, I'd have to look at my receipt. Why do you ask?

 

The reason I ask is because he should of recommened that you change to the manuel tensioner.

EDIT: I'm not sure but I think the directions that come with the skunk2's say on there somewhere that they recommend it, can't remember though for sure.

 

I don't know if I agree. I don't think its the resellers responsibility to mention that to a consumer. It should be the manufacturer who should recommend that upgrade. Therefore, putting Skunk2 at fault.

 

I wish i still had the instruction sheet from the stage2's we put in a customers car so that I could look at but we threw it away after the install. By all means you can try to talk to Skunk2 and see if they will compensate at all but good luck.

 

I had someone in a speed shop open one up. No such disclaimer on ANY of their products, be it the valvetrain or cams. I gotta call em up and see what they can do. Thanks for your comments guys.

 

There new products come with a disclamer and new specs for adjusting the valves, if there wasn't then someone either opened it up and dropped it or took it out and threw it away or they where not new.

 

Unfortunately no, there is no responsibility here because it's not something you can prove. Considering the cams are for race use only yadda yadda yadda I don't think you're going to get very far. It's just generally accepted by most people around here that if you have bigger cams you should do a manual tensioner and a super strong timing belt.

Like this



Should have asked honda-tech first.

 

Who makes a good super strong timing belt for the h23a?

 

http://www.power-enterprise.co...t.htm

They don't list H23a....the only thing you can try is e-mailing them possibly, other than that I don't think there are any other makes.

 

My Auto Tensioner just failed too. I have 60k miles exactly and My Prelude is STOCK. Honda is starting a full on investigation now. According to Honda, that auto tensioner is designed to last for atleast 105,000 miles.

My "premature wear" seems like a very big issue with Honda already. And It almost sounds to me like a RECALL may be comming out soon.

When Mine failed, I snapped my Timing belt. This JUST happened last weekend. Who thinks I have valves to replace now?

 

That's an AWESOME pic!

BTW, I see you're in Kitchener...I have relatives up there. Been meaning to go visit them.. heh heh

 

Maybe you do and maybe you don't. When my auto-tensioner let go, only two valves met the pistons (guess that was lucky) and they didn't hit that hard, just needed to be reground (guess that was even luckier). So there is no definitive answer to your question, your going to need to crack that sucker open and do some sort of a leak down test to see if your valves are either bent or just needed a regrind. My motor had 141000 miles when it happened, so maybe the carbon build up in there helped save me.

Not to mention I think I got really lucky (again) because it didn't throw the belt, it just caused enough slack to allow a cam gear to jump a tooth or two on the belt, thus not a total catostrophic breakdown. And the fact that it happened IN THE DRIVEWAY (again, lucky). It sounded like someone was shaking a coffee can half full of marbles under my hood.

I probably could have gotten away with just a new $160 auto tensioner, but then what fun would that have been???

 

My auto tensioner on my 94 JDM H22A just went out also. I ordered all the parts for the conversion from hparts.com and will be converting over this weekend. Should be fun.

AM cams + valvetrain NEEDS a manual tensioner.

 

I've sold the Prelude, and moved on to bigger and better things. I picked up a 2000 Audi S4 6spd in nogaro blue. oooooooooooooh.. ahhhhhhhhhh.....

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by pythaguras &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">I've sold the Prelude, and moved on to bigger and better things. I picked up a 2000 Audi S4 6spd in nogaro blue. oooooooooooooh.. ahhhhhhhhhh.....</TD></TR></TABLE>

In the same day a posting about this...you move fast!