Honda S2000

[giant_mtb]

What're the miles at?  I feel like Tacoma could use a tranny fluid change but she's at 145k and I dunno if it's been done before. Last time I did a fluid flush at high miles, the transmission tore itself apart a few thousand miles later. 

[MrH]

Yeah that's pretty high as is...

That looks sick.

higher?  are you a pussy

He's running -2.7 degrees in the rear too. Wasn't really wanting to go quite that much. I was thinking -1.5 to -2.0. Somewhere in that range.

[MrH]

What're the miles at?  I feel like Tacoma could use a tranny fluid change but she's at 145k and I dunno if it's been done before. Last time I did a fluid flush at high miles, the transmission tore itself apart a few thousand miles later.

I went out to check to see how the tranny felt and get gas, and when I filled up I was at 40,969 (nice). The car is pushing 16 years old though.

I went through the spreadsheet I got from the previous owner.  He changed the engine oil regularly, but man, I've got a lot of maintenance stuff I should probably do just from age alone. Still need to flush the radiator, new spark plugs, and another oil change. Diff fluid can probably wait until spring or summer.  Probably going to replace the cam chain tensioner just to be safe.

[MrH]

Also cool, the blue seats from the Suzuka Blue S2000s.  Blue/black interior would be different on a silver car.

[BimmerM3]

Also cool, the blue seats from the Suzuka Blue S2000s.  Blue/black interior would be different on a silver car.

Those are worse than the red interiors!





I'd love to swap a tan interior into my car, but finding a donor would probably be difficult. IIRC, the tan was only made for a couple of years and were only sold with the white exterior.

[MrH]

Ugh! The tan is the worst color available.  It's way too light.  It would look in place in a Buick Lucerne maybe.

Here are the production numbers btw:



Interesting Stats:
Total S2000's - 66,860
Total AP1's - 36,968
Total AP2's - 29,892
Total CR's (including those w/o a/c and audio) - 699
Total CR's without a/c and audio - 59
First S2000 - MY00 serial #27
Last S2000 - MY09 serial #357
Last S2000 from Tochigi - MY04 serial #6062 (11th digit of VIN = "T")
First S2000 from Suzuka - MY04 serial #1 (11th digit of VIN = "S")
Most common color - Silverstone (18,814)
Least common color - Apex Blue (200)
Most common color combination - Silverstone / Black (13,261)
Least common color combination - Grand Prix White / Yellow/Black (90)
Black Interiors - 47208
Blue Interiors - 6148
Red Interiors - 6986
Red/Black Interiors - 3896
Tan Interiors - 1923
Yellow/Black Interiors - 699

Less than 7,000 all red interiors.    Over 47,000 black interiors.  Oddly enough, a totaled red interior S2000 popped up on craigslist.  He wants to part the entire interior.  If it's $500 or so, I might do it.

[BimmerM3]

Ugh! The tan is the worst color available.  It's way too light.  It would look in place in a Buick Lucerne maybe.

lol, it's funny that we seem to have completely opposite opinions on this. Especially on my black car, the tan interior would provide some nice contrast on the black exterior. The black on black is a too Darth Vader for me.

I would prefer the tan to be a bit darker though. 

Less than 7,000 all red interiors.    Over 47,000 black interiors. 

Oh, yeah, I didn't mean to imply that they were actually more common, but the good condition, yet reasonably priced, examples all seemed to have either the red or blue interior, which was a 100% deal breaker for me.

Oddly enough, a totaled red interior S2000 popped up on craigslist.  He wants to part the entire interior.  If it's $500 or so, I might do it.

Best of luck if you pursue it, but I doubt it. The seats alone are probably worth more than $500.

[SJ_GTI]

How much does it cost to just reupholster seats? I wouldn't have expected that to be too expensive, but maybe there is something unusual about car seats. 

[Soup DeVille]

How much does it cost to just reupholster seats? I wouldn't have expected that to be too expensive, but maybe there is something unusual about car seats. 

About $800/per when I looked into it 20 years ago.

[MrH]

Ripped apart the windshield trim last night.  I swapped out the strikers that the soft top latches grab on to.  These are the updated hardtop design, and should pull the roof on tighter and kill all the wind noise I was getting from the top not sealing to the frame.

Also took off the latches themselves to stuff them with some foam to try and kill the rattles.  I'm actually following the TSB from Honda on how to stop the rattles, but it seems a whole lot like some hillbilly engineering.

Since I had the windshield frame all apart, I went ahead and ran all the wiring for my camera (www.waylens.com).

Next steps are to add a 12 volt outlet near the passenger knee area and route a charging cable for my phone through.  I'll start having OBDII data-ified videos of the S2000 if it's warm enough outside.

[BimmerM3]

How much does it cost to just reupholster seats? I wouldn't have expected that to be too expensive, but maybe there is something unusual about car seats. 

My brother had just the center bottom and center lumbar sections of the driver's seat redone in his Boxster, and just that was $280.

[giant_mtb]

Upholstery work is pretty pricey AFAIK, especially for something with contours like a car seat.

[68_427]

http://urgedesigns.com/

[MrH]

NA power upgrades on these things are super pricey.  We're talking about an engine that only Ferrari could top in terms of HP/liter.  It's pretty high strung from the factory.

[FlatBlackCaddy]

NA power upgrades on these things are super pricey.  We're talking about an engine that only Ferrari could top in terms of HP/liter.  It's pretty high strung from the factory.

Yes yes, it's just sooo amazing. Praise honda.

[MrH]

Yes yes, it's just sooo amazing. Praise honda.

You need some peanut butter to go with all that jelly, bra?

[MX793]

NA power upgrades on these things are super pricey.  We're talking about an engine that only Ferrari could top in terms of HP/liter.  It's pretty high strung from the factory.

Have you looked into any ECU upgrades that change the VTEC changeover point?  Guy I autocross with did something to his ECU that not only moves the changeover point to a lower RPM, it makes it throttle position sensitive, so it will change to the hot cam sooner if he's hard on the throttle, but hold the mild cam longer at lighter throttle loads.  At least that's how he explained it to me.  Seems like a pretty nice setup.

[Soup DeVille]

NA power upgrades on these things are super pricey.  We're talking about an engine that only Ferrari could top in terms of HP/liter.  It's pretty high strung from the factory.

And IME, iffy

[MrH]

Have you looked into any ECU upgrades that change the VTEC changeover point?  Guy I autocross with did something to his ECU that not only moves the changeover point to a lower RPM, it makes it throttle position sensitive, so it will change to the hot cam sooner if he's hard on the throttle, but hold the mild cam longer at lighter throttle loads.  At least that's how he explained it to me.  Seems like a pretty nice setup.

Was it a Hondata reflash?  Has to be 2006 model year and up to reflash.  If you want to do that to my AP1, you have to basically adapt an RSX ECU to it, and then you can reflash.  That requires replacing cam and crank sensors.  It's not as simple as an ECU swap for the older S2000s unfortunately.

And IME, iffy

Yeah, not a good sign when this high end S2000 part place that Cale linked to says: "...Honda made the best OEM header on the planet, Ferrari & Porsche included. Header swaps on another car typically make 10-20HP per bank of cylinders. Not one aftermarket S2000 header has made more than 5-10HP throughout the entire RPM range till now."

They then proceed to post dynos with gains that are well within the margin of error for a chassis dyno

[Soup DeVille]

Patrick Bedard (the C/D writer) tried to win the world land speed record in one (for NA 2 liter cars in production form at least). Headwork, cam and header changes were all allowed and he did all of them in several different attempts. None of them got over like 280 HP, and that was running on race gas.

[Soup DeVille]

So yeah, I'd stick with shocks and springs and maybe a couple other things like some of the chassis bracing arrangements you can buy, there seems to be a decent improvement possible there (which is of course far more subjective): but other than supercharging the damn thing, leave the motor as is.

[MrH]

Yeah, that's the plan.  Pretty much just working on maintenance and preventive things (timing chain tensioner will happen this winter).  Coilovers, wheels and tires too.  Outside of that, it's just interior comfort stuff.  Sound system and convenience things.  I might see if I can get a cheap homelink transmitter from eBay and build it into the car somewhere.  I'd like to get an AP2 center console as well.

Exhaust is plenty loud stock and sounds good.

[Cookie Monster]

Quit being a bitch and do the TSX bottom  end swap. Get your F24 on. 

[CaminoRacer]

Patrick Bedard (the C/D writer) tried to win the world land speed record in one (for NA 2 liter cars in production form at least). Headwork, cam and header changes were all allowed and he did all of them in several different attempts. None of them got over like 280 HP, and that was running on race gas.

He didn't bore it out?

[Soup DeVille]

He didn't bore it out?

It was specifically for a class with a 2 liter max. That would be a lot of work for 3 CCs.

[MrH]

Quit being a bitch and do the TSX bottom  end swap. Get your F24 on. 

This is a thing?

[Cookie Monster]

This is a thing?

Yep, bore on the K24 is the same as the F20 so you just put the TSX crank and rods in and get a stroker F24. There's a shop here with an F24 S2k.

[Rich]

Wouldn't that increase piston speeds?  Seems like a TSX rod wouldn't be able to handle S2000 speeds/forces let alone a stroker S2000 speed/force

[MrH]

Found the thread on S2ki of the first guy doing it.  Seems a lot of things aren't optimal, but apparently it runs fine and makes 260 whp.  Seems like a lot of work for not a ton of gain.

Honestly, I don't need anymore power.  The car is plenty fast and exciting as is.  My issues with the car are mostly just annoying things that need fixed, not the powertrain.  I'd rather get rid of the clutch buzz and the unsettled ride than make more power.

[Soup DeVille]

Yeah, I can't really see myself doing a crankshaft swap for less than 100 HP on anything.