Last night I was working on my car and pulled off the oil pickup, when I flipped it over and crawled out from under the car something fell out on the floor from the pickup....



Now the car was running fine when it parked and i've put almost 30k miles on the motor since I bought it. Not once have I touched the internals or the head. So maybe someone has done valve seals before it was imported and he lost one retainer and couldn't find it. But my question is, could the motor still run with one of the valves missing one keeper?

I really don't want to pull the cams and inspect it since the motor is coming out very soon anyway but then again I don't want to drop a valve either

 

They work as a pair to lock the valve stem into the retainer. If one of the valves is missing one of keeper pairs, the other one will eventually pop loose.

It's not hard to see if you're missing one and put it back into place.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by IN VTEC &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">They work as a pair to lock the valve stem into the retainer. If one of the valves is missing one of keeper pairs, the other one will eventually pop loose.

It's not hard to see if you're missing one and put it back into place.</TD></TR></TABLE>

You can't see them without pulling the cams though, something i'd rather not do. I know they work as a pair, I just didn't know if anyone had ever lost just one and ran that way for a period of time. I doubt i'm missing one but just trying to eliminate all my options.

 

Only safe way to tell is to look at all the valves to see if one is missing, which requires pulling the cams..

You can also tell if your missing one when the other one falls out and the engine swallows the valve.. I personally think its a better idea to pull the cams and check it out, I really dont see why there would be a keeper in your oil pan and not come from your head..

 

Like I said before, people drop keepers down oil passages doing valve seals all the time. Since I don't know the history of the motor I don't know what has been done so that very well could be the case.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nsxmatt &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Like I said before, people drop keepers down oil passages doing valve seals all the time. Since I don't know the history of the motor I don't know what has been done so that very well could be the case.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Not saying people dont drop keepers all the time, I would only assume that most engine builders would get the keeper out of the oil pan after they are done..

 

dayum that sux

 

Well, I bit the bullet and took apart the top end and removed the cams and.......

All of the keepers were nice and snug in their homes

Guess who ever had the motor in Japan had done valve seals or some type of head work and dropped a keeper which they couldn't find (stuck in oil pickup) so they just replaced it.

Well back to reinstall everything again

 

damn thats almost as crazy as pulling your motor apart and finding the valve adjustment locker nut stuff in the screen for the oil pickup

 

Or finding one in your head with a nasty ticking valve...have pics:

https://honda-tech.com/zerothread?id=1042185

 

well its better to be safe than sorry. Plus its not a big deal pulling the cams out, but it would be a big deal if a valve dropped.
Its good that everything checked out ok.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by nsxmatt &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Well, I bit the bullet and took apart the top end and removed the cams and.......

All of the keepers were nice and snug in their homes </TD></TR></TABLE>

See, I told you not to pull it apart to check..

Its better that you did because there would have always been that though in your mind everytime you revved your car..