This happened earlier today for me. When I first joined the forum, I saw a thread talking about how the balance shaft seals were prone to popping out on single cams. The thread also talked about the retainer that Honda made to fix the problem. I never had a problem with the seal when I had my single cam and I thought, now that I have an H22, no worries, that won't happen to me. Well I was browsing a Prelude forum to help out Kevin Chinnn with a timing belt job on his H22 and I saw the retainer in the DIY pics and thought, "Nah, I don't need that." Well on the way to the junkyard to get the last 2 bolts for his manual tensioner conversion, I noticed a funky smell. I looked down at my oil pressure gauge and it was reading lower than what was normal. Got off at the next exit just as the dummy light started flickering. Pulled into the first gas station I found and shut her down. Towed the car to work, put it up on the lift and, go figure, the balance shaft seal went and popped itself out. If you value your investment, F22 or H22, go ahead and buy the $6 (yeah that's the Honda dealership price) retainer kit and don't have a heart attack like I did today.
Comment