Honda S2000 Build/Rebuild
Discussion
Having owned a bike engined kit car for 5 years, I had got a little 'used' to it and fancied a change (one that I REALLY regret!) so I sold it and didn't have a replacement planned, but at least I had to cash ready to buy something.
Then along comes an offer of a 2002 Japanese Honda S2000 with fairly low miles for the age (81k) and at a decent price. So I bought it! I was thinking it would be a slightly more useable alternative to the kit car and I wouldn't have to wear a helmet to drive it!
It came with a few tasteful mods, coilovers, wheels/tyres, exhaust (which is far too loud!). So didn't really require anything doing immediatel. So I drove it and enjoyed it.
Then one day, for reasons unknown (I have my theories) a piston ring failed subsequently destroying a piston and cylinder wall.
Now I had to make a decision, there were a few options. Firstly, buy a used engine and stick it in, buy a used block/pistons and rebuild the engine, get my block sleeved and rebuild it, or, just cut my losses and scrap it.
After much deliberating I settled on having the block sleeved.
Thinking about it now, this was by far the riskiest option (you'll see why below) and possibly not the most economical.
Due to it being April at this time, I knew the summer was a right off, so my plan was to rebuild it over the course of a year and get it ready for 2019. This would also spread the cost out and ease the pain.
So the first step was to ensure I could get the parts I needed. Due to it being a jap import I struggled to find a replacement piston so I ended up with a set of CP Carillo forged jobbies, the next critical part was sleeves. These were pretty easy to come across and I went for a set of Darton dry sleeves. I knew everything else would be easy to find so I got the block, sleeves, pistons, rings dropped off with AMAC Engineering to get the machine work done.
A few weeks later the work was complete and ready for me to start building.
Now, here's why it was the risky option. I'm pretty competent with a set of tools and do all my own work on my cars, however, I'd only ever rebuilt (partially) one engine in my life. And it was a cheap simple engine.... But what the hell, I'll give it a bash!
Having just forked out for the machine work I didn't want to dip into funds too soon so set about doing the laborious jobs, cleaning the block and engine bay etc.
Then there wasn't much to do but start building! First things first I needed bearings.
Having looked about at various aftermarket items I decided to use the genuine Honda bearings and get the correct tolerances. To be honest, this was one of the more difficult bits of the build, trying to get the right sizes, fitting them, checking them with plasti-gauge etc. But we got there in the end and had a set of main and rod bearings with nigh on perfect and equal tolerances.
Once I was happy with those, the crank could be installed with a nice smothering of assembly lube on all the journals and the pistons and rods fitted.
After this the rest of the engine seemed to fly together in no time!
One of my theories for the failure was a dodgey oil squirter jet, so I replaced all of these for the newer version from Honda.
Other parts were then refitted and slowly but surely it started looking like an engine again. The cylinder head was absolutely fine and hadn't been damaged so not a great deal was done to that. I did replace the valve retainers for upgraded Honda ones as these were prone to cracking!
I also re-set the valve clearances to the tolerances required.
I Also removed the front bumper so the body shop could fit an oem style front lip for me and paint it.
Once that was all back together, I gave it a turn over by hand to make sure the timing was set right and that everything still moved freel, thankfully it was ok!
The car came with a competition clutch stage 4, which was literally like an on/off button and made the car horrific to drive, so this was removed and a new Honda one was fitted.
The next job was to drop the engine back into the car.
Now, anyone who has seen an S2000 engine bay would think this would be an easy job as it's huge! you'd be wrong!!
Theres a cross member sat right in front of the engine that is welded in place, this leaves very little room for maneuver, especially when trying to do this on your driveway with an engine lift that doesnt quite reach far enough! haha.
However, with the help of my brother, a lot of swearing and almost some tears, we managed to get it mated up to the gear box. The last hour of this was done in darkness with the use of torches, so it was time to call it a night.
When I got chance to work on the car again it was a case of fitting the ancillaries and connecting pipework up, which was a little tricky as I hadn't photographed anything or labelled it (doh!) but I managed to figure it out eventually.
Now I top up the coolant and noticed a small leak from the 16yr old radiator... so obviously I HAD to order a new alloy one!
I'd also managed to pick up a K&N FIPK induction kit for an absolute belter of a price! Everything was still in it's packaging.... £72 posted!
Next on the job list was to stick in some oil and give the engine a turn over with the plugs removed, I'd gone for Millers running in oil. This is so there's no compression in the engine and allows a bit of oil pressure to build and supply the bearings. I'd fitted a Stack oil pressure gauge so I could monitor it in the future as this is a great tell tale to problems arising. Everything seemed to turn over nicely.
Now, for anyone whos built an engine, you'll know this feeling I guess. I was terrified.
Having read so many horror stories online of how difficult these engines are to build and that even engine builders avoided them (I read these after I had commited!) I was adamant that it wasn't going to run.
My plan was to wait for my brother to finish work so that he could have a check over to make sure I hadn't missed anything and also console me when my engine failed again. However I was sat in the drivers seat after finishing a slight adjustment with the oil pressure gauge and suddenly I get the urge just to press the start button and see how she turns over with the plugs refitted.
So I press it....
The engine turns veryyy slowly as though the battery is almost dead, one turn.... then gets another half a turn.... and then....
woah, that wasn't suppose to happen! it fired up!!!
So, in a bit of a panic I quickly shut it down and sit in silenced shock. Actually, that sounded alright?!
After a quick check under the bonnet for any signs of leaks with the oil, fuel and coolant, I go for another start, this time to let it warm up to temp, which will give me a better idea if alls ok.
So I leave it idling while I'm constantly checking on stuff and listening for any nasty noises. But there's nothing!
Unfortunately it was a bit late in the day so I decided I'd be best leaving it and come back to it another day.
The next day, it was time for a test drive.
Unfortunately the very first thing I did after reversing off my drive was catching the new front lip on the kerb and scratching it. Thankfully this was the worst thing that happened.
I did an initial drive around town so that I was close to home should I be required to walk, after around 5miles I decided it was time to go for it!
So I ventured out onto the country roads so I could start the real running in. This involved varying loads, revs and throttle. Going to approximately 4000rpm max with a mixture of throttle positions in different gears and using engine braking to create a vaccuum to 'suck' particles out of the engine (So i read anyway....)
Having never ran in an engine before, I didn't really know what to do as there's so much conflicting stuff online, So I was kind of trying a mix of alsorts I guess.
On the first drive I think I'd covered around 50miles before returning home to change the oil.
The oil looked great! still lovely and golden, no nasty bits in it etc! There was a little bit of 'fluff' on the magnetic sump plug, but nothing drastic at all.
Then came a further 250 miles of driving. Again using millers running in oil and a similar driving style to before, maybe a little more aggressive.
Then 500 miles before another oil change.
This time I decided to drop the sump off as there was bound to be debris in it that needed clearing out. But there was nothing! spotless!
So the sump was refitted and I filled her up with Castrol!
There are still jobs to do though. The soft top is in dire need of replacement and a little bit of rust to get repaired. But tbh, I'm just glad it runs!
Then along comes an offer of a 2002 Japanese Honda S2000 with fairly low miles for the age (81k) and at a decent price. So I bought it! I was thinking it would be a slightly more useable alternative to the kit car and I wouldn't have to wear a helmet to drive it!
It came with a few tasteful mods, coilovers, wheels/tyres, exhaust (which is far too loud!). So didn't really require anything doing immediatel. So I drove it and enjoyed it.
Then one day, for reasons unknown (I have my theories) a piston ring failed subsequently destroying a piston and cylinder wall.
Now I had to make a decision, there were a few options. Firstly, buy a used engine and stick it in, buy a used block/pistons and rebuild the engine, get my block sleeved and rebuild it, or, just cut my losses and scrap it.
After much deliberating I settled on having the block sleeved.
Thinking about it now, this was by far the riskiest option (you'll see why below) and possibly not the most economical.
Due to it being April at this time, I knew the summer was a right off, so my plan was to rebuild it over the course of a year and get it ready for 2019. This would also spread the cost out and ease the pain.
So the first step was to ensure I could get the parts I needed. Due to it being a jap import I struggled to find a replacement piston so I ended up with a set of CP Carillo forged jobbies, the next critical part was sleeves. These were pretty easy to come across and I went for a set of Darton dry sleeves. I knew everything else would be easy to find so I got the block, sleeves, pistons, rings dropped off with AMAC Engineering to get the machine work done.
A few weeks later the work was complete and ready for me to start building.
Now, here's why it was the risky option. I'm pretty competent with a set of tools and do all my own work on my cars, however, I'd only ever rebuilt (partially) one engine in my life. And it was a cheap simple engine.... But what the hell, I'll give it a bash!
Having just forked out for the machine work I didn't want to dip into funds too soon so set about doing the laborious jobs, cleaning the block and engine bay etc.
Then there wasn't much to do but start building! First things first I needed bearings.
Having looked about at various aftermarket items I decided to use the genuine Honda bearings and get the correct tolerances. To be honest, this was one of the more difficult bits of the build, trying to get the right sizes, fitting them, checking them with plasti-gauge etc. But we got there in the end and had a set of main and rod bearings with nigh on perfect and equal tolerances.
Once I was happy with those, the crank could be installed with a nice smothering of assembly lube on all the journals and the pistons and rods fitted.
After this the rest of the engine seemed to fly together in no time!
One of my theories for the failure was a dodgey oil squirter jet, so I replaced all of these for the newer version from Honda.
Other parts were then refitted and slowly but surely it started looking like an engine again. The cylinder head was absolutely fine and hadn't been damaged so not a great deal was done to that. I did replace the valve retainers for upgraded Honda ones as these were prone to cracking!
I also re-set the valve clearances to the tolerances required.
I Also removed the front bumper so the body shop could fit an oem style front lip for me and paint it.
Once that was all back together, I gave it a turn over by hand to make sure the timing was set right and that everything still moved freel, thankfully it was ok!
The car came with a competition clutch stage 4, which was literally like an on/off button and made the car horrific to drive, so this was removed and a new Honda one was fitted.
The next job was to drop the engine back into the car.
Now, anyone who has seen an S2000 engine bay would think this would be an easy job as it's huge! you'd be wrong!!
Theres a cross member sat right in front of the engine that is welded in place, this leaves very little room for maneuver, especially when trying to do this on your driveway with an engine lift that doesnt quite reach far enough! haha.
However, with the help of my brother, a lot of swearing and almost some tears, we managed to get it mated up to the gear box. The last hour of this was done in darkness with the use of torches, so it was time to call it a night.
When I got chance to work on the car again it was a case of fitting the ancillaries and connecting pipework up, which was a little tricky as I hadn't photographed anything or labelled it (doh!) but I managed to figure it out eventually.
Now I top up the coolant and noticed a small leak from the 16yr old radiator... so obviously I HAD to order a new alloy one!
I'd also managed to pick up a K&N FIPK induction kit for an absolute belter of a price! Everything was still in it's packaging.... £72 posted!
Next on the job list was to stick in some oil and give the engine a turn over with the plugs removed, I'd gone for Millers running in oil. This is so there's no compression in the engine and allows a bit of oil pressure to build and supply the bearings. I'd fitted a Stack oil pressure gauge so I could monitor it in the future as this is a great tell tale to problems arising. Everything seemed to turn over nicely.
Now, for anyone whos built an engine, you'll know this feeling I guess. I was terrified.
Having read so many horror stories online of how difficult these engines are to build and that even engine builders avoided them (I read these after I had commited!) I was adamant that it wasn't going to run.
My plan was to wait for my brother to finish work so that he could have a check over to make sure I hadn't missed anything and also console me when my engine failed again. However I was sat in the drivers seat after finishing a slight adjustment with the oil pressure gauge and suddenly I get the urge just to press the start button and see how she turns over with the plugs refitted.
So I press it....
The engine turns veryyy slowly as though the battery is almost dead, one turn.... then gets another half a turn.... and then....
woah, that wasn't suppose to happen! it fired up!!!
So, in a bit of a panic I quickly shut it down and sit in silenced shock. Actually, that sounded alright?!
After a quick check under the bonnet for any signs of leaks with the oil, fuel and coolant, I go for another start, this time to let it warm up to temp, which will give me a better idea if alls ok.
So I leave it idling while I'm constantly checking on stuff and listening for any nasty noises. But there's nothing!
Unfortunately it was a bit late in the day so I decided I'd be best leaving it and come back to it another day.
The next day, it was time for a test drive.
Unfortunately the very first thing I did after reversing off my drive was catching the new front lip on the kerb and scratching it. Thankfully this was the worst thing that happened.
I did an initial drive around town so that I was close to home should I be required to walk, after around 5miles I decided it was time to go for it!
So I ventured out onto the country roads so I could start the real running in. This involved varying loads, revs and throttle. Going to approximately 4000rpm max with a mixture of throttle positions in different gears and using engine braking to create a vaccuum to 'suck' particles out of the engine (So i read anyway....)
Having never ran in an engine before, I didn't really know what to do as there's so much conflicting stuff online, So I was kind of trying a mix of alsorts I guess.
On the first drive I think I'd covered around 50miles before returning home to change the oil.
The oil looked great! still lovely and golden, no nasty bits in it etc! There was a little bit of 'fluff' on the magnetic sump plug, but nothing drastic at all.
Then came a further 250 miles of driving. Again using millers running in oil and a similar driving style to before, maybe a little more aggressive.
Then 500 miles before another oil change.
This time I decided to drop the sump off as there was bound to be debris in it that needed clearing out. But there was nothing! spotless!
So the sump was refitted and I filled her up with Castrol!
There are still jobs to do though. The soft top is in dire need of replacement and a little bit of rust to get repaired. But tbh, I'm just glad it runs!
Edited by Matt 211988 on Saturday 13th April 08:12
Interesting read... I drove my S2000 like I stole it for 25,000miles and had nothing but fun (and several brown trouser moments).
The only Issues I had were:
- washer pump
- sticky bonnet catch
- worn cv cup (common issue - swapped them over to put the worn side onto reverse)
Really great cars, enjoy it!
The only Issues I had were:
- washer pump
- sticky bonnet catch
- worn cv cup (common issue - swapped them over to put the worn side onto reverse)
Really great cars, enjoy it!
VTECMatt said:
Nice one, I'd never be so bold to rebuild and engine let alone a Honda VTEC, very impressive, how come you didn't get the rocker cover repainted?
I just wanted the engine running, the rocker can be painted at any time and is on the job list. Just have to wait for the wife to be out before I use any more kitchen appliances for engine work 
Red 4 said:
Nice work, nice car.
Not many red ones about and the car certainly looks better on coilovers.
You're right about the F20C having a reputation of being difficult to rebuild. You're a brave man !
Why do you think that is ? Surely it's just an engine much like any other ?
Thanks!Not many red ones about and the car certainly looks better on coilovers.
You're right about the F20C having a reputation of being difficult to rebuild. You're a brave man !
Why do you think that is ? Surely it's just an engine much like any other ?
Well I hadn't read much into it at first other wise I think I would have scrapped the car!
From what I gather the issue with rebuilding is mainly down to the FRM lining in the cylinders, however I obviously had this machined out in order to fit steel sleeves.
Aside from that, yes pretty much the same as any engine I guess. I made sure the bearings were the correct tolerances and torqued everything to spec, what else is there?!
Gilhooligan said:
Looks epic. I spy Roseberry Topping in the background of some of those photos. Some great driving roads in the North York Moors.
Yup! All on my door step too Hi, I would like to ask how satisfied are you with your dry sleeves engine modification, do you have any problems after x km? I'm going to do the same job. In addition to the new pistons, is there still any need for work? Anything with a crankshaft? Don't need a block guard? Thank you very much for the info
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