saving4one

That Monday morning in Delta was bright and sunny, as I let my son sleep in, I grabbed a cup of coffee from the continental breakfast nook at the hotel and checked the I-70 road cams for the Rockies. At that point the highway was showing wet roads with a chance of snow in the higher elevations. We picked up some McDonalds breakfast which we ate at the hotel, I showered and packed up, then we got back on the road, trying to beat the snow or at least be through the Rockies before nightfall. 50 hops over to 15 for a bit and then onto I-70. The drive out of Delta was pretty, with flat, sprawling farm land which quickly turned to following along a ridge of mountainous terrain with many variations of rock and cliffs.



As soon as we got on I-70 the speed limit increases and you enter into an awesome canyon area and from then on out Utah really shines, with rock formations, cliffs, mesa, butte, canyons, and some pleasant highway cruising. We passed by several parks that we will have to visit someday. We stopped at one overlook took some pictures and bought some Native American jewelry for mom/wife, which I let my son pick out.



Then we stopped a little farther down the road for some fantastic views and more pictures.



Then we crossed over into CO, and soon picked up the Colorado River, which then flowed into canyons that led to the gateway over the Rockies. This part was where I was really wishing I could put the top down







It was sprinkling off and on by the time we reached Eagle, where I had called ahead that morning to the local Starbucks, to make sure they had a CO, You Are Here mug (souvenir) . It was a little chilly there, as we walked across the parking lot in our matching shorts and tie-dye t-shirts. I had to wait for a coffee and we were joking about how we were dressed. Everyone else had light jackets and windbreakers on, and we already had a running joke about how we were from California. Shorts and t-shirts on a 50 degree afternoon? Oh, they're from California. Sports car in the right lane doing the speed limit? Oh, they're from California, etc, etc. We were busting ourselves up. After that I tried to keep joking as we hit the snow! At 10,000 something feet (highest elevation my S has ever seen) passing through the Rockies, I was doing a cautious 50 mph with slushy snow building up on my wipers, hoping we didn't lose it. I had S-02's with bald inside shoulders on my fronts and almost new rears, certainly not an all-season tire by any means. I have chimed in on several posts here on S2kI about how much I like the stock tire that came on my S. Yes they have out-dated technology and are expensive, but I have always ran them. I feel I have come to know their capabilities in the wet and dry, (which makes them very predictable to me) and now, after ~13 years I was seeing how they performed in snowy, wet, and slushy conditions. I have experienced hydro-planing from the fronts, years ago in a downpour on a Pennsylvania hwy, which was quite alarming, and those S-02's were in a comparable state of wear as the current ones. I never once lost traction at the front that day in the snow as we passed over the Rockies into torrential rains in Denver. There was even ice at the entrances and exits of two of the mountain tunnels! So kudos to the S-02 and too bad Bridgestone dis-continued them.

Eisenhower Tunnel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Eisenhower Tunnel, officially the Eisenhower–Edwin C. Johnson Memorial Tunnel,[1] is a dual-bore, four-lane vehicular tunnel approximately 60 mi (97 km) west of Denver, Colorado, United States. The tunnel carries Interstate 70 under the Continental Divide in the Rocky Mountains. With a maximum elevation of 11,158 ft (3,401 m) AMSL, it is one of the highest vehicular tunnels in the world. The tunnel is the longest mountain tunnel and highest point on the Interstate Highway System. Completed in 1979, it was one of the last major pieces of the Interstate Highway system to be completed. The westbound bore is named after Dwight D. Eisenhower, the U.S. President for whom the Interstate system is also named. The eastbound bore is named for Edwin C. Johnson, a governor and U.S. Senator who lobbied for an Interstate Highway to be built across Colorado.



That night we stayed in Limon, just on the eastern side of Denver. At the hotel I tried to park the S away from other vehicles, but of course by morning, people were parked all around it. This aspect of road-tripping with the S is always anxiety inducing

jyeung528

I'm guessing the ticking is now tolerable.

there are much better options than the S-02's nowadays for overall wet and dry conditions, and longevity.

I recommend the Sumitomo HTR Z3

saving4one

That's funny, I was going to answer your first question today when I got home from work. No, the valve train clatter is not, in my opinion, tolerable. It was quieter after the last adjustment before I put it in storage, but I came to realize on this 3000 mile trip, that as the car warmed up, the clatter seemed louder than ever. At times when we stopped for food or fuel, I would listen to the valve noise and think to myself 'that can't be good'. I will do another adjustment when I get into my new home/garage, right now my tools are in storage and my S is in a friends garage. I have taken it out for a couple of drives, it is close to stock sounding at first start up, but then gets to ticking noticeably louder when I park it. I still need to make an appointment with Billman, now that I am back in NY, so he can assess where I should go from here. No CEL, and the car is running great. I do wonder (Slowcrash?) if there was a way for the machine shop to 'cheat' the valve guides into the head without reaming them in? I will get back to this subject when I get into my garage to adjust those clearances.

Thanks for the tire recommendation, I have another set of wheels with RE-11's on them, and I have run the BFG R-1 as a race tire.

jyeung528

you are definitely good to go with those re-11's, but they will wear out very quickly.

if you're taking your car to billman, then that chatter will have met it's maker.

jyeung528

i just listened to your youtube video, and that is definitely noisy.

it sounds like TCT chatter, although billman doesn't think so, then it probably is not.

good luck, keep us posted.

saving4one

Been unable to post here for quite some time, heck I haven't even finished my cross country trip write up! Major events happening in my life that kept me from posting - my wife delivered a baby girl (our third childrens) closed on our house, moved into said house, and my mother board sh!t the bed as soon as I plugged it in at our new (old) house.
I haven't touched my S in 2 months, it's just sitting collecting dust in my garage, it seems to excel at that So last night I took the cam cover off and adjusted the valves. Tightened 2 exhaust and 4 intakes. Went for a spin today after work and it was nice and quiet at start up and idle. Always hard to gauge after so long of not driving it.

saving4one

Yeesh, has it really been 6 years? I'm pretty sure I am going to start this back up, I have some mechanical work planned for my S this winter while it is sitting out this salty season. And I have an abundance of past stories to tell.
I just turned this comic in for my buddy's college comics course anthology that he invited me to participate in. I had a lot of fun making the urban legend about the S2000 and it made me think how much I enjoyed posting here. What better place to share some S2k horror comic art?

saving4one

Now...

All washed up and ready for storage, sporting it's "roller" wheels for that purpose. I will be doing two (at least at the moment) wrenching projects on my S this winter. The first is I will be removing my OHLINS that I installed in 2015, to send them out for service. Nothing wrong with them as far as I can tell, but they are definitely past their recommended time and mileage intervals. Any suggested shock service facilities would be appreciated, because of course, I have yet to do research into this topic. The second project is I will be swapping my inner CV joints (axle buckets). As noted earlier, I lowered my S when I installed the OHLINS in 2015, and had previously done the axle nut re-torque, and just this fall started to experience the tell-tale symptoms of the pitting of the bearing surfaces in the CV joint housings. Especially the vibration under almost any acceleration. At first I thought it might be my tires because I was alternating between some quite bald RE-11s and an end of track-life RE-71Rs, but the vibration did not change between the two. I must say the vibration went from slight to almost un-bearable very quickly. I thought from what I have read on the forums here, that the vibration increased in a more gradual fashion. I checked some other driveline and suspension areas to narrow down my diagnosis, but they all checked out. So for now I am keeping my fingers crossed that this is my issue, and at least if I do the procedure correctly the only cost will be high temp CV grease and my time.



I almost forgot, an additional cost for the axle job will be new axle nuts, because the Helms manual says to replace and mine have already been staked twice. And from my posts you can read that I am a stickler for the details. I put my S in my tiny dilapidated garage, replete with it's heaving/cracked concrete floor and sometimes functioning overhead door.





Next up...I'll actually start wrenching.

saving4one

I did some reading and will be sending my coil overs to OHLINS USA, I'm sure I'll get what I am paying for. I've been refamiliarizing myself with my suspension, I'll have put ~40,000 miles on them since I installed them in 2015, and about ~12 hours of track time on them (not including Hill-climbs). I had to chuckle when I was reading the instructions that came with them, "Recommended Service Intervals" stated "Racing: Every 10 hours of operation. Max 20 hours without service and oil change." and "Regular street use: Every 30 000 km"! That would add up pretty quick when, at around $1000 for factory service you're almost paying half of the original purchase price, and you had a lot of serious track time.

saving4one

The first thing to do before I even put my S up on jack stands was to break loose those axle nuts. I ordered the axle nuts from Majestic Honda and the CV grease from Amazon. When the axle nuts arrived I thought maybe the finish was different, but side by side, they were pretty close, must just be an age thing.



I also picked up an iron pipe from Lowe's to slip over my breaker bar for more leverage. I un-staked the nuts and....



Broke my breaker bar. The passenger side wouldn't break loose, but the drivers side must have been considerably tighter because, after I had bent my breaker bar and flipped it to bend it back straight, the noise and feel led me to believe I had broke it loose, when in actuality I had snapped the "fork" off. Bummer, I've had that bar since I was a teenager, used exclusively at all of my hill-climb/autox/track-day adventures. I then tried my electric impact and the passenger side broke loose with minimal drama, then I put it on the drivers side and after several lengthy trigger pulls it was still not budging. I was about to give up and just get a new breaker bar, but I put the socket on the nut with my 1/2" ratchet attached and it practically just turned right off. Must have broken loose with the impact and just not realized it.



This is the back side of the driver's side nut. Maybe the rust had something to do with it being stuck, and the fact that I had done the axle nut re-torque by nut position not an actual torque wrench figure.





I did order a new breaker bar, I liked the round handle end and the swivel head on my old one so I got one with those features. A bit longer, but it still fits in my tool box. I also picked up a 1lb ball-peen hammer because I've always needed one in my own tool box and to stop using that hatchet/hammer tool you see in the upper picture. Ordered both from Lowe's because they only had the shorter breaker bar in stock at my local store and free shipping if you spent over $50, hence the hammer.



Then it was time to get the S up on jack stands. I am a partial owner of a two-post lift at my buddy's shop but I can't really keep my vehicles on it for overly long periods, so....