howdy fellas. decided it was high time that i make a "build" thread seeing as i've had this car for nearly 10 years at this point. i'm creating this thread to track the car's progression/changes over the years. i'll be sure to add lots of photos since that's everyone's favorite part.

the car started life as a my03 in sebring silver. the guy i purchased it off of had lowered it on koni yellows and tein springs, ap2v1 wheels, hks dual exhaust (wish id kept this), and a replica ap1 lip. this pic is from early 2016, only a few months after i bought the car.



the car honestly looked great at this point and it only went downhill for the duration of my time in college with little funding and an undeveloped brain. the first real modification i made to the car was changing wheels for a set of advan sa3r in the worst spec possible (17"x9" +22). this is probably my biggest regret as i promptly ruined both of my front fenders (which could be easily found for $175 at the time). this is a photo of the car a mere 10 months after the above lol.



this would be a real learning experience for me. turns out being different isn't always better. especially when you need to rely on the car as your only means of transportation. the next modifications are two that remain with the car to this day - a 350mm nardi deep corn and a battlecraft shift knob. i think these are still one of my favorite modifications to the car after all this time. you can also see that early on i thought it would be neat to hack up my dash to fit this double din radio. in doing so you effectively lose the dash vent on the passenger side. you also just have to guess at where to begin your cut which is totally nerve wracking. goes without saying that i have since replaced the dashboard. if you were thinking of doing this yourself i would highly recommend you reconsider or at the very least, use the thinnest receiver you can find. the receiver i used was full depth and was not worth the loss of the passenger dash vent functionality in my opinion.



fast forward maybe a year to 2017. i was tired of wrecking my fenders. i made a rare adult decision to sell the advans. i wound up selling them to some guy on zilvia with a s13 which fit the wheels much better. with the spare funds from selling the advans i bought a set of buddyclub p1 in what was maybe a stock r32 fitment? something like 17"x8" +32. not perfect for an s2000 but i thought the look was unique. somewhere along the way i slipped in some clear corners and ditched the tein springs in favor of some ground control springs/adjusters to match the koni yellows. you can tell the front bumper of the car had seen better days in the photo below. many small game animals have met their maker via the front of this car. also check out that fender lip... the car was starting to look pretty rough between the college parking lots and the ignorantly low ride height. if you squinted it looked pretty cool, though.



the step forward in wheel choice meant that i could take a step backward in exhaust choice. the next thing i did was trade my hks dual for a greddy ti-c single. this was cool for the amount that i drove the car in college (maybe once or twice a week) but dear lord does it drone. the same exhaust is still on the car today and it keeps me from driving the car as much as i'd like. it's also somewhat embarrassing to start the car in my workplace parking lot. i also installed a single exit valence thingy which was cool. then i wrapped it in carbon fiber which was not cool. this would round out 2017 as far as the car went. i'll be posting more in days to come as i don't want to bog down the thread too hard. stay tuned, we still have a lot of years to go.

 

not much happened to the car for the first half of 2018 as i was living like pauper while still in college. i was also deep into an LS swap project on my FJ60 at this point. that didnt stop me from further ruining the car by wrapping it blue, adding APR mirrors (gross), ASM replica front bumper (college me was way too excited about this), and a set of SSR type C. i also threw in a set of AP2 tail lights at some point.





i drove the car like this through the end of college (2019) and then continued to drive it for the first year or so after school as a commuter. this sucked as my commute was roughly 20 miles across atlanta. not advisable. i stopped driving the car when some really strange electrical issues began. the car would run for 10 minutes or so (until it came up to temperature) and would then die while lighting up every light on the dashboard. after a lot of troubleshooting - replacing the alternator, replacing the PGM-FI relay, checking pretty well every fuse in the car and all grounds - i determined that the ecu itself had kicked the bucket. since my F20 was pretty worn out and burning oil i made the questionable decision to K24 swap the car.

 

I need this:




-- Chuck

 

time for the meat n potatoes of the thread. i decided to replace the worn out f20 with a k24a (3 lobe vtec) from a j spec mini van. the swap presents itself as inexpensive at first because the engines only cost $500 or at least they at the time. pulling an engine from this chassis is obnoxious. almost as obnoxious as my valve cover.



i went with the transmission adapter plate from 2nrs, intake adapter from the same vendor - both fit well and do the job - no complaints. the engine also got the typical gasket refresh, new water pump, new alternator, type s oil pump and related chain and baffle set. while this causes engine harmonics, it's the only way to make the swap make sense from a performance perspective. an s2000 with a 7k rpm redline would sorta defeat the purpose imo.

i elected to use the stock intake for one reason: cost savings. in using the stock s2000 intake, you get to keep the factory map, iat, iac, fuel rail, and throttle body. this saves a ton of money over going with some aftermarket k series ffim.



below you can see the intake adapter as well as the tractuff rear water neck. in hindsight i should've welded in a bung for a coolant temp sensor here as it would be more accurate than reading from the head.



i also opted for the clutchmasters steel flywheel. the steel flywheel is said to dampen engine harmonics to some degree but that is admittedly hearsay as i have no firsthand experience with the aluminum flywheel. common sense would support the hypothesis, though. fresh nachi pilot bearing and arp b-series hardware to top it off.



engine in! easy as that. i initially used the hasport swap mounts which are very nice pieces for the price. my issue is that they take up quite a bit of space on the exhaust side which makes snaking a header in a challenge. they also contribute to nvh a considerable amount even though i went with the softest durometer available from the vendor - this is an inherent quality in a through-bolted engine mount as opposed to the oe design. i eventually fabricated my own mounts to use a hardened rubber oe-style mount. you can see i whacked a hole in the coolant expansion tank. ended up ordering an oe replacement. the beauty of this swap is how many oe components you can use. the thing that always bothers me with swaps is having a ton of parts that couldn't be replaced at a local parts store if need be.





the next steps were to wire in the ecu and build the header. both of which were photographed zero times. i basically bought a harness from an rsx for $50 and merged it with the s2000 harness and terminated them both at the link g4x that i decided to buy to run this thing. i didn't buy a kpro like most people who do this swap because the whole process was ushered along due to a faulty oem ecu. i think people fail to consider how old these boards and components are getting and expect too much out of them. the link g4x is awesome to work with, especially when compared to other stand-alones i have experience with.

 

took the car to evolved tuning in duluth, ga and they knocked out the tuning. i want to say the car made around 210 to the wheels but dont quote me.

I was able to enjoy the car for a couple of months before i decided i couldnt look at the paint in that condition anymore. summer 2023 i began taking the car apart for paint.



The whole paint job was done in the driveway of my family's shop. this is where i mention that neither myself nor my dad are painters but we have painted a handful of cars together over the years.



got the car in epoxy and then wet sanded with 400. we could definitely have taken more time with the paint work but it still came out oem or better. if i wanted to spend more time this would have been the step to spend it on.



taking the masking off was like christmas






in the end i decided to go with an ap1 bumper i had lying around - filled in the emblem and license plate holes by melting zip ties into them - didnt even need filler. i also went with a j's half lip which fits surprisingly well. i also picked up some re30s in 17x9 +45 (didnt know this spec even existed). they popped up on marketplace so i ran up to nashville and got them. when i got them back to georgia i immediately took them to a friends shop so they could powdercoat them. shoutout harris custom coatings.

future plans with the car include making my own brake kit out of some ap racing calipers i found on a 350z at a junkyard.

 

Nice build thread! How much did the swap end up costing? Ya that's always the problem with these swaps.. The engines are the cheap part, it's everything else you need..

 

Those RE30s look excellent. Love it.

 

Looks wonderful!

Looking forward to how it runs later this year -- and the next color and wheel change.

-- Chuck
BTW, I still want that rabbit!

 

yeah i honestly do not wanna know what the total cost involved is for this swap. i KNOW it would have been cheaper to rebuild an f20/22 but honestly wanted a good excuse to tear the entire car down. plus the additional low/mid range torque is nice and genuinely noticeable. i still rev the car to 9000 too lolol

 

update time. drove the car on and off throughout the latter half of 2023 and it's a blast; however, i noticed during my commute home (approx. 10 miles through Atlanta) that the car would run hot. to make a long story short, the way i originally plumbed the cooling system is very meh and needs to be redone. for starters, i used some cheap ebay swivel thermostat housing because i assumed it was necessary given the awkward location of the thermostat housing on the k series.




fast forward to this weekend. engine is out because thermostat housing is hard to reach. i also wanted to install ac which is a challenge for various reasons. the engine is ever so slightly wider on the accessory drive than an f series so the ac compressor needs to be milled down to fit among other things. while the drivetrain is out i plan to paint the bay to match the exterior because it was driving me crazy knowing it was still silver.



i used the Ballade AC kit because i wanted a comprehensive belt routing solution. turns out Ballade did not deliver a comprehensive belt routing solution but rather a combo of missing or low quality parts that needed extensive modification. i have never bought from them before but have heard plenty of scenarios similar to mine so that's on me for thinking i could take easy street.



scuffed and painted some brackets because they were looking rough. learned my brake master has been leaking and then came to the realization that honda discontinued the AP1 master so that needs figuring out. noticed rockauto also does not carry any aftermarket brake masters anymore either. i'm aware of Centric CEB-130-40041 which is still carried by Summit Racing but if anyone else has a solution pls post. checked Amayama and they seem to have rebuild parts in stock but its not super clear if they are for pre 2006 cars or not.

on a side note - i bought a new (to me) daily! it's a 2011 TSX wagon. high miles but shockingly clean and totally unmolested. appears to have been maintained meticulously as all of the replacement parts look to be OEM honda/acura. stoked i was able to find one in white, too. came with a very granola roof rack that did not include the requisite key for removal and also has premium sound which is actually surprisingly good. most importantly, 30+mpg!