Don’t get me wrong I still drive the S2000, if it’s nice out I’ll drive a couple times a week, date night, ect
I sound like I’m being harsh on the s2k and that’s not my intention.

Well it’s been an interesting couple weeks with the S2k, I spent the weekend with my car, a U-Haul, my olé lady and a bunch of fast food. I tend to sway back and forth with my decision making on cars, I’m indecisive and sometimes spill my guts when talking about it, I’m flawed lol.

Anyway, I loaded the car up on a Friday with intentions of meeting a guy 4 hours away in Corpus Christi to look at a 280z. Car had a 83’ Turbo swap on meth, bumper deletes, new paint. I spoke over the phone with the guy a ton, nice enough guy and we settled on terms assuming a few rust spots on his car were as described, one spot on the door, one spot on the fender. My thinking is I’ll take the 280z on trade, freshen up the motor, repair the rust and paint. $10k later I’d have a nice , reasonably quick classic!

So we get the trailer and attempt to load up and be on the road by 10am, wrong. I knew the s2000 lowered with 2 lips would be tricky, but add in high 90’s temps with humidity and it took considerably longer. I finally tapped out and went to Home Depot to buy more wood, $30 in 2x4’s and hitting it in reverse got the job done without removing anything!




After a quick shower we were in the truck (Tahoe) and set out, I had never pulled anything of real weight with my Tahoe, but she pulled well and things were going good. I’ll tell you one thing, the s2000 gets a lot of attention. People taking pictures from their windows, 92-95 civic with the huge muffler giving the thumbs up out the window, we were having a good time.

So we get to corpus, and it’s hot, stupid hot. The guy is super nice and the 280z looks great from 15 ft, I’m excited. Then I was let down, as I inspected the car with my flashlight I found a lot of rust. The driver side frame rail had a few small holes in it, back hatch, headlight buckets, blah...

So I said ok one frame rail, I can cut it out, let’s go for a drive, car was quick, real quick for what it was. Enjoying the drive was hard because of the aftermarket seats mounted so high my head was touching the roof, then I looked over at my girlfriend and she had water balloons hanging from her face from the 100 degree weather and no AC! Shes a trooper though and was ready to make a deal after feeling boost for the first time in her life.
When we got back to the s2000 I appreciated it more than ever, it looked so much more complete to me.....everything working, no rust, a gem.
With a new found desire for the s2000 we left corpus with U-Haul in tow.




After Corpus we stopped at the original whataburger, round 2 for the day, and got stuck in the parking lot talking about the S2000.
About 20 miles out of corpus I get a call from another perspective trader with a 280 on the west side of Houston, 3.8 hous away...since I’m already loaded up I decide what the hell, and we take off for Houston, location 1 hour north from my house.

As we arrive I see a 80’s stanced corolla , blue, white cage, drift style bodykit with a big ass intercooler between the headlights. I figure this must be it.
As he opens the garage I see a 350z , full cage, dry sump LS swap with the prettiest wiring I have ever seen on the right and flat pearl white fully restored 280 on the left. The car was beautiful, rust free, bumper delete, wheels, custom interior, and a full done suspension. We agreed on a trade plus $10k on my end, then we discuss AC....
His car was originally an AC car but everything, EVERYTHING was removed. So I decided to wait and make some inquiries about the AC before jumping into anything. Well the cost of a full “cool air” ac system turned me off from the car so I decided to pass on the deal, as much as I wanted it initially, my new found desire for the S2k was still present.




After my weekend I took a few days to reflect, I found myself wanting to part from the s2000 less and less. I made a discovery about this whole situation, which is I realized the s2000 has been boring me because I’ve been to concerned with value, money, and trying to ensure some kind of return on investment for the car which is wholly unrealistic, and I know this. For some reason now that I’m older I’ve let these financial concerns ruin it for me and I don’t know why. This hobby doesn’t affect my financial situation, it’s just the overwhelming need to make the adult decision now that I’m in my 30’s?

The guy that owned the white 280 was probably in his early 30’s I guess, he was a true car guy if I’ve ever met one. We ended up hanging out with this guy for probably 2 hours and the meeting really left me feeling invigorated about cars in general, he reminded me of my 20’s when I would tear a car apart and do whatever I wanted just because I wanted to. With this I realized I’m bored with the S2000 because it’s boring to drive! Its quite and comfortable and reliable, all good things but it needs something.... I actually love the car but it needs more noise, I was brought back to years past driving the turbo 280, I miss the rush, the noise. So enough pussyfooting around, this isn’t some collector car with super low miles so I’m gonna have fun with it and keep it.

Im gonna shoot for a Turbo making moderate power around 300, doing this so I can beat on the car without constant downtime. I'll have the noise, the peppy quick spooling midrange gains in traffic, keep AC untouched and retain factory fuse box locations. Picked up a Greddy kit with PFAB manifold, I had this kit before on a EM1 and I have the best memories in that car, it was fun without the headache. The greddy kit is a great kit as people know if you address the obvious shortcomings. I'm Sending the Turbo to SoCal porting to get the wastegate opened up and all the hotside parts Cerakoted, Gotta wait 2 weeks to get on the schedule. Got a stack of parts, clutch, flashpro, devils own meth kit, etc piled up in my closet. Once I make some significant progress I’ll start documenting here.

sorry for the blog-like post, just wanting to share my experiences.

Will-

Awesome I’m glad to see they’re giving it another go.
Kit should be here Tuesday, I’ll keep this up to date. Found some more pics from the weekend on my Canon.

Ok , I’m gonna document as much as I can do here we go. First off I will be critical on the kit I received, but it in now way reflects the seller I got it from on here. I understand used parts have gremlins and the previous owner never installed the kit so none of the negatives are his doing.

Ok before I could do anything I needed a new work bench, when I built this house I left my workbench at the previous house at the buyers request. I didn’t want anything with a huge foot print. I ended up with a pretty nice table for $105. 15 - 2x4’s and one sheet of plywood. I already had the vice.





Now that that’s done I can work in peace, just need a new shop fan. I ordered a ACT+OEM clutch kit with an AP1 flywheel, while I wait for that I figured I would tinker with the Greddy Kit. I inboxed it and started inspecting parts. Turbo looked good upon visual inspection, piping looked good, intercooler looked good. Oil relocation kit was....rough.
Upon further inspection I found two AN fitting where bad, flat spots from being dropped probably. I also noticed this...

There was Teflon tape on everything, even the AN fitting, sigh. Looking from the inside the 1/8” plugs had balls of Teflon exposed to the inside on the adapter. Previous owner is lucky the didn’t suck Teflon through the motor. I decided to tear it down and make a parts list, new AN fitting, all 5 O-rings for every fitting, new 1/8” plugs. Parts washed everything clean, waiting for new parts.


Part numbers for everything needed here, in case other Greddy Kit users are reading.

12005103, -10AN M18xP1.5, LIST $20
12401101, QTY 2, List $2ea.
12401103, QTY 1, List $4ea.
12401102, QTY 2, List $2ea.

After seeing what the original owner was capable of I figured I better send the turbo in to get looked at. I noticed the kit had a second oil line that had a AN fitting on it (covered in Teflon) , it was a full port fitting where the fitting in the turbo had a restrictor originally. Turbo looks great, no scarring, pits, oil, no shaft play, so im gonna run it.

Next was the Pfab manifold, after a very close inspection with my flashlight I found this...

Manifold looks great everywhere except that small crack. Luckily Pang is stand up, and so is the seller who agreed to pay for the repair. Off to Pfab it goes. Other than that the kit is in great shape and given the price of the kit I have no complaints, it’s gonna turn out very nice. When the turbo and manifold get back I’m sending them off for ceramic coating, I’ll update when I start getting parts back.

Decided to leave the office early today and get this clutch done. Had the olé lady cook up a burger while I skim through the FSM.

Gonna work on it a bit tonight, try and have everything pulled out tomorrow, Majestic Honda is being a little slow with my AP1 flywheel so, no rush

Of course I rarely get any alone time, even in the garage, so I have to account for small talk.

Couldn’t work on the car yesterday, school clothes shopping for the kiddos. But I got out there this morning and got it down. I’ll say this job wasn’t bad, I did more than needed to keep from breaking the knock sensor, removed the tensioner and alternator so I wouldn’t have to use swivels for the starter bolt. One thing that does have me concerned though is putting the trans back without damaging the TO bearing. I need to really torque the motor more towards the ground more so it’s a straight shot and less likely to “hang”.

Well I’ve had the clutch done for awhile, unfortunately I can’t get the trans back on by myself, just too awkward to do on jackstands without banging the tunnel around. I know it sounds trivial but I don’t want to dent the tunnel or scratch everything up, so I’m waiting on a helping hand tomorrow to help lift and stab the trans.

Also I was talking with THMotorsports about the Clutchmasters FX300, they sell a kit exclusive to them that includes a fully enclosed spring face disk, no risk of dislocated springs. This set up also comes with OEM Honda Nachi TO and pilot bearings. I had also talked with LHT about this clutch. I decided to go with this setup and returned my OEM set up. If I ever decide to switch kits and go for more power this will work great. Paired with OEM grease and text book installation I have high hopes.


Paired it with a new OEM AP1 flywheel. Once my helping hand gets here tomorrow I’ll get this puppy put back together.
I also had my flywheel spin about 1-1.5” in the wrong direction because of slack in my ratchet. I’m probably being paranoid but I need to pull the valve cover and check timing, hopefully I won’t have to open her up further.