Civic of Doom: Honda Challenge Recycling

[Kaan]

After two trips to cali, the diff is back with Deren so he can finish my transmission overhaul.... I've also been nursing a chronic tennis elbow issue, but it seems to be better, so i decided to tackle some of the motor maintenance since its out of the car. 
 

You may not believe it, but i keep the car on a maintenance schedule (edit: you see on one of the packages, these parts were ordered in January 2020... plan ahead to beat the questionable availability of parts that happen from time to time) ... especially the motor. 2020 wasnt a full season but I dont want to "wait" another full season and sure dont want to do this mid season... 

 

I need to bump my rev limiter a bit all around, so fresh OEM keepers/retainers and new valve springs were in order. JDM life and a design i prefer over straight coils... i went with TODA springs. 

 

so I replaced everything with the head on with the "rope" method/spark plug method... if you dont know what this is... you basically work one piston at a time, turn the crank so the piston is low in the stroke then snake some rope in there and slowly turn the crank until snug. If you use paracord, you might get things snagged in the head (cylinder 1 took me 1 hour, the next 3 took me 45 minutes) ... so i switched to dropping the piston to the low position, installed the spark plug for that cylinder, then adding air pressure buy turning the crank... and did the valve springs/keepers/retainers.

 
TIPS: use THICK assembly lube to put the keepers on the tool you use to slide them in the spring compression tool and then onto the valve... this will help you from losing one and help them seat as you decompress the valve spring. If you use the HPT type valve spring compressor tool... use hand tools to mount the valve spring compressor tool to the head, you can use an impact (small light weight, easy to control... not the one you use to rip the crank pully bolt off) to compress the spring BUT when its time to release the spring and seat the keepers... use a hand tool and take it slow (i was wearing a head lamp and staring at the keepers while they seated in the retainer)