[Lotus]

oil, adjust valves, cam tensioner will be shot at 200k miles. Check the teeth on the ratchet mechanism. if they look pristine, keep it, but this is unlikely unless recently done. Timing chain, if not done the last like 50k miles.
Check the injectors. If you crank with the injectors out, make sure you get a good uniform spray pattern from all 4.
Or have them inspected and cleaned.

Engine can blow anytime if they run out of oil or ingest water, new or 200k miles.
They can detonate if you run the wrong spark plugs with a too hot rating. The OE plugs are very good, but expensive as they are iridium plugs. This can break ring lands or the entire piston.
Zero compression could me piston failure or stuck valves or completely burned valve seats.
Engines can fail from water in a spark plug hole. The plug rusts and weakens the spark. The gas condensing on the cylinder wall washes oil off leading to failure of lubrication etc.

Someone could have run that engine without air filer and a stone got inside.

Cam scuffing of Honda K-series cams, they are of excellent quality, points me towards lubrication issues.
The lifters use rollers on the cams leading to minimal wear in the presence of oil.
.....

 

[Lotus]

you don’t have to. Once you open it you can have a look at the bores etc.
But this is a dangerous path often leading to a full rebuild.

 

[Lotus]

OEM springs and keepers have a LONG life. I have not heard of any issues with these. I run the original OEM and retainers in my 9000+ rpm SC K20 build that came with the engine, but with Toda springs.
Bores wear on a k24, especially if it got rev‘d beyond the OE rev limiter. If oil supply was always there, the bearings last. Mains are more robust than the rod bearings. These go in short order if oil pressure drops.
They can be inspected by removing the rod caps if you take the oil pump and splash guard off.
Just make 100% sure you fit them in the exact same place and orientation they came from.
if you remove the spark plugs, it will spin fast enough to get oil pressure. It may take a while though, up to a minute if the engine is rather dry.

 

[Lotus]

Hondabond is what is used on the alloy pans. Removal of residues is plain manual labor. There is no trick. Peeling, cutting, pulling and finally you may wipe the surface with a slightly abrasive sponge to clean it.
Don’t overdo reapplying it. The tolerances = gaps are very small. It needs very little.

 

[Lotus]

you can get adapters.
Or fit a sandwich plate adapter with 1/8" NTP fittings. You'll likely fit one anyhow on your build for oil cooling. You would have to fit a loop to the oil lines as otherwise there would be no oil flow.

 

[Lotus]

You could manually check the rod bearings. If they are fine so will be the oil pressure. Mains rarely fail before the rod bearings.

The starters are the same, you just fit a starter and a flywheel.

 

[Lotus]

yellow
old and very hot oil.

 

[Lotus]

you can use white spirits and ethanol.
Do not use acetone. It will dissolve and attack many polymers.
I have no experience with aftermarket chains.