Funtimefrankie

Hi guys

I have been on here for a little over a year now and it's time to give something back..

In Feb 2012 I picked up a pretty standard 2000 plate Silverstone AP1, with GT Kit, Red and black interior & AP2 Wheels. The S2000 was my dream car for sometime before getting it and unlike most fantasy's that come to life, the S2000 was no let down!



I had a fun month or two in the car but then the urge to play became too much..

At the end of March 2012 I paid a visit down to Dixon Motorsports (Highly recommend!). I told Dixon that I wasn't getting enough throttle response and didn't like the quietness of the OEM exhaust.



He quickly linked me up with his in house PRO65 full through de-cat system and threw a set of Buddy Club N+1's on there whilst he was at it..

The difference was night and day. The car A) felt like it was on rails & B) Just wanted to pull harder in the lower revs.. It also sounded amazing going back through Dartford tunnel

I then went about upgrading the brakes to drilled, grooved disks and HEL braided lines whilst fitting a AEMV2 CAI which added to the air mods...



Then the weather started to turn and the fun was taken out of the s as I could feel her getting tired of all the work miles I was putting on her..

In October 2012 I made the decision to buy a runabout and take the S off the road for some restoration..

I picked myself up a old Audi A3 1.8T for a few bob and prepared my garage for the landing of the S..





The plan was to investigate a intermittent smoking issue I had been having with the engine, seemed to bee coolant related. After some investigation I decided the head gasket had to be swapped... However there were other things that I wanted to get done and the head alone wouldn't last me all winter so I decided to make the brave (or foolish) leap and remove the whole engine..





After a long weekend and a mates help the engine was out..

In a moment of clarity or madness I decided that since the engine was out it would be a good idea to get the car resprayed.. I originally wanted a S in Platinum pearl white but couldn't find one in my price range when I was looking..

I was now in a better position to potentially go out and buy one but they rarely come up for sale and I was too committed this S I decided to go ahead and continue stripping the car ready for paint.

In the mean time I collected the following parts for the car, mainly from various members on the forum.

1x AP2 Front Bumper OEM
1x AP2 Front Lip OEM replica
1x AP2 Rear Bumper OEM
1x Lightend flywheel 8.8 lbs.
1X AP2 Gearbox on 30K
1x AP2 Rear tail lights (set) OEM
1x Mugen Replica HT
1X Full red leather interior OEM (including dash etc)..
1x New Private Reg, I FINALLY SOLD THE HORRIBLE D14SAD that came with the car!

Unfortunately these are all now at the body shop and I didn't take any photos but coming soon..

Oh actually I still have the red dash on the dining room table which I'm understandably getting grief about



The car got collected this week and I just popped into the body-shop to see their progress. They're not far off from laying down the base coat for the 3 stage pearl paint onto the door sills, rear quarters and engine bay :-)




The car is due back to me next Thursday, just in time for the Easter weekend to start putting all of the lovely red interior back into it.

I'm having the Mugen HT painted in gloss black to match the windscreen surround so hope the outcome will be something like this -




I'm still undecided on wheels but thing I will be getting some BBS LM style wheels, maybe with a gold centre and polished lip.

While the car is out of the garage I intend to power up my powder coating system this weekend and get some of those old parts nice and shiny again, I currently have 4x callipers, rocker cover, radiator brackets, engine mounts, battery tray etc all at the sandblasters in prep for powder :-)

Now away from the aesthetics and back to why I took the car off the road in the 1st place!! I have the engine currently sat at my local Japanese car specialists and Friend's - www.Briftbiz.co.uk.. They are taking care of the head for me as well as de-coking the engine, replacing ALL gaskets, seals, piston rings, new oil & water pump.

Once it has all been put back together they will either deliver it back with the Aluminium head / block nice and shiny or paint it in a colour of my choice.. Any ideas what to go for against a white engine bay? I'm contemplating black block and head with read rocker cover and gold spark plug cover..?



Since I'm confident in how the engine will be preforming after it's overhaul, I decided to take the leap into forced induction...

Luckily a fellow member not too far away from me had a turbo set up for sale which I quickly snapped up last week -






It is a custom turbo kit based on the Mase kit, sing V bands for all connectors. The turbo is an unusual set up being a garrett tr30r ball bearing turbo which was only available to source if you where in motor sport. The turbo is designed for WRC cars with minimal lag and limited boot. Kit alo included a spare bigger Garret turbo (Not tested), Trial mvs wastegate, Trial 50mm BOV & pace products charge cooler system.

This set up is good for 350WHP as the turbo is limited (WRC). However I think that will be a big enough leap for me to begin with and if i need more power I have a bigger turbo to play with in time..

My intention is to leave all the turbo kit off the car until I I have the car up and running N/A again. Once I'm happy with the engine I will then start source an AEM v2 and some 1000cc injectors for the car.. and fir the whole kit.

So as you can see I have ALLOT happening to the car at once.. I do have couple of questions which I'm hoping you guys can help me out with.

1) I test fitted the AP2 lip I got of a member on here and it doesn't have the rubber gasket that you see on the OEM ones.. Without that it doesn't quite look or sit right.. Does anyone know where / if I can source on of these from Honda?



I don't want mine to turn out like this!!! -



2) What are people's experiences with using carge coolers on FI set ups? Has anyone got one? How do they compare performance wise to a traditional intercooler? The guy I got the set up from obviously rate's it but if I put it back into my car I'd want to tidy up the install or even relocate it somewhere..

Parts still to buy -

1)Clutch - I'm thinking OEM clutch plate and heavy duty housing.. Any recommendations? I want something man enough to deal with launch control @ 350 whp.

2) APR head stud kit - Anyone know of a UK supplier, I need these pretty quickly!
3) Possibly intercooler depending on how the cargecooler performs.
4) New Radiator - Was looking to save money here and get a non branded ali one.. Anyone have any input?
5) 2nd hand Air con rad.
6) 2nd hand aerial unit.
7) Injectors
8) ECU
9) MAP Sensor

I'm sure there is plenty more that all the typing I'm doing for now..


THANKS ALL, MORE PHOTO'S TO COME ONCE THE CAR IS OUT OF THE BODY SHOP!!

whaninoz

You can get the front lip gasket from Si@Hendy, its not the s2000 one but the same thing...you just cut it to length.

this stuff:
http://www.civinfo.com/forum/hendy-p...ing-kit-4.html

it was about £13-14 posted.

eSeM

An old set of BBS RGRs that I used to have ....

mr-pitts

Nice, Well done.

whaninoz

P.S. looks really good so far.

nick300zx

No such thing as an ap2 in the UK just pre-facelift and facelift, I would use an intercooler, that's what I ran on my turbo S. The pipe work is very simple and gives you more scope to run higher boost and more power.

Funtimefrankie

Perfect thanking you kindly

Funtimefrankie

AP1, AP2.. I know, I know, bad habits. It just feels so long to type pre/post facelift the whole time..

OK thanks for the comments regarding the intercooler.. As you can probably tell this will be my first venture into turboing a car. So there will be a few noob questions over the next few weeks.

A random question I do have is regarding the functionality of the AEMV2 ECU.. With my car being Preface lift it doesn't have traction/stability control.. Is there a way of retrofitting the control mechanism and letting the AEMV2 do the work?

Funtimefrankie

Very nice.. Not sure I will be splashing out on genuine BBS after the past few months spend but I do like! I take it these were sold long ago?

Kitesurfer s2000

Message me if you want my number mate i know alittle bit .