look at these retainers and let me know what you think... they look aftermarket to me. The person who owned the head before me and robstunner and another member on this board obviously raced with it or atleast put some type of money in it. anyhow take a look and give me some feedback.

 

get less shity pics..h:

 

good point...but how does that help me decifer if these are oe or not? pointless posts dont help people. If this is the only camera that I have, then what am I supposed to do? This is a forum where people come here to learn and to teach and give honest words of advice, if you dont have anything under the guidelines to say, then dont say anything...

Now since you, yourself have a b16, are your retainers chrome or are they a brownish color? This should determine if they are infact aftermarket or not yeah??

 

We can't really tell by those pictures. They're too blurry.

 

ok, well just let me ask a question...do the valve retainers come in chrome from the oem?? these retainers have a domed shape to them and they are chrome and some of them have e21 written on them in dot matrix.

 

Don't think so.

Will a magnet stick to them? If not, they're probably aftermarket.

 

wow thanks for the lecture on posts I was being completely serious that if you have a question that require a visual inspection that maybe a picture you can make out would be a better choice.

 

sorry dude, i was just really iritated at the time, but i was looking for an easy way to tell if they were aftermarket or not. also if they are aftermarket, how much of a difference does it make between brands. I plan on upgraded valvetrane. Just trying to see if I should chance the retainers or not? Also there is possibly a good chance that the valve springs are upgraded as well if the retainers are, wouldnt you guess... Anyhow i am sorry for chewing you up oneside and down the other, just figured you could give a better answer from the description since you yourself own a b16...

 

personally, if there is no way to tell what company made said components, like the previous owner had no receipt or couldnt remember what kind they were, then I would buy new shit. I only trust my own work unless backed by receipt/knowledge from the previous owner. I might just be paranoid, but I dont want to chance the whole build because of retainers/springs I am unsure of..........this is all based on IF they are aftermarket....but as KAI mentioned earlier the magnet test is a good start.

 

well the magnet test seems valid enough for me, the magnet attracts to the springs, but not the retainer. Isnt there a tool that i can measure the springs with... if so, I can see if they are good enough for stage 2 or 3 cams. Also the stock cams were not used in a previous setup so i am guessing that the springs and retainers are not oem... I am still gonna take em out and spec em down and see if i cant measure the strength of them, because i am gonna get flat faced valves. Anyhow i appreciate the help
thanks,
Steven