wingz

Instagram: @roguemotorsports (http://instagram.com/roguemotorsports)

folks,

just wanted to publicly acknowledge and thank another member here, mario. he's a mechanic and he helped me over the weekend with the install of my timing chain gear. i also spoke with joey, who i know does excellent work for our members here, but his shop won't work with modified timing chain gear-related work due to potential liability. because of that, i decided to give mario a shot and i'm a super satisfied customer!

i did a full write-up my build there (in my sig), but i'll copy paste it below.

mario knows his way around cars, especially our beloved s2k. he can also get almost any part at a great price!

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i just want to give a shout out to my bro, mario (jr94513). he has a build thread here called "black magic".

mario helped me with two things this weekend:

• bearing/hub pressing out/in + install
• ballade sports timing chain gear

plus, he drove back and forth from brentwood --> livermore twice. once on saturday, and then again on sunday.

i needed some help pressing out the bearings from the hubs, and since mario is a mechanic by trade, and has a shop with proper equipment, i asked him for help! i disassembled the knuckles saturday morning and mario drove to my home (30min drive) to pick it up after he got off work. we chatted a bit and he drove back to the shop to get the hubs and bearings ready for the install the following day.


// new oem rear hubs and bearings



my schedule is a bit crazy, especially the weekends w/ the family and all. i appreciated how flexible and willing mario was to work with me. the fact that he drove out to me, instead of me driving out to him was a huge help and it meant a lot.



// ballade sports timing chain gear





from ballade's website:

Ballade Sports Honda S2000 Timing Chain Gear is the latest in Honda S2000 technology advancement. We at Ballade Sports have addressed a cam and crank sync error in the beloved F20C /F22C S2000 motor. Because of a clockwise rotating engine assembly, the F20c/F22c motors experience Cam and Crank synchronization loss due to chain stretch and guide wear. Notice in the description photos Perfect TDC on the Cam timing scribes will always leave the Crank position pulley off by 2-3 degrees at the bottom.

Ballade Sports Honda S2000 Timing Chain Gear optimizes the cam and crank synchronization by correcting the chain slack in the engine rotation with this newly improved drive gear. This simultaneously adjusts both Intake Camshaft and Exhaust Camshaft without the use of expensive Adjustable Cam Gears/Pulleys.

Benefits:

• Up to 6 Horsepower Increase.
• Optimized Fuel Efficiency and MPG.
• NO ECU Tuning Required!!
• Cam & Crank synchronization.
• Direct fit replacement for all year model S2000

timing chain gear installation

make sure you're at tdc cylinder 1 before removing anything. i wish i took pics of the gears at tdc, and the frank at tdc to show how both are not completely synchronized. here's a pic from ballade's website that will help.

you will notice that at PERFECT TDC on the cam gears, the TDC at crank is off by a couple degrees to the right. this is what mine looked like as well:



mario carefully loosening and removing the cams in a criss-cross pattern according to the helms manual...



cams + gears removed...





side by side comparison - ballade (left) vs. oem (right). just unscrew the 3 bolts from the oem gear, and directly install on ballade's gear. perfect fit.



i wanted to get a good close up the teeth comparison between both gears, but my focus wasn't great.





make sure you're at tdc on cylinder 1 at the crank by having the arrow point at the white dot.



also make sure when you install the timing chain gear that the tdc on the gear itself is spot on: 9 o'clock (left) and 3 o'clock (right), w/out adjusting the crank.



now, the TDC alignment on the cam gears looked pretty good, but the TDC wasn't perfect. you'll notice that the left gear TDC mark is a fraction higher than the right gear TDC mark.



so after some , mario thought it might be a good idea to turn the crank a full revolution (clockwise) to see if it "settles". i forgot to take another picture (probably because i was too excited), but yes, that did the trick! the TDC on the cam gears, timing chain gear, and crank were PERFECTLY in sync and aligned. via ballade's pics, it should look more like this:



the car fired up perfectly, w/ no odd sounds! i took it for a spin last night and everything was perfect!

my initial impressions so far are:

• a bit more torque
• the gears seem to climb in rpm a tad quicker

not sure if the latter has anything to do w/ the new timing chain gear. i'll need some more time in the driver's seat before coming to an officialconclusion. but so far, .

with that being said, the reason for this upgrade was not only for the additional power, but for the following 3 reasons in order of importance:

• cam & crank synchronization
• optimized fuel efficiency and mpg
• addtl power w/ no eco tuning required

again, big thanks to mario (jr94513) for the install. great work and super reasonable pricing! if any of you are in the easy bay and need some work done, i'd highly recommend him. i know joey is great too, but his shop is not only too far from me, but his shop won't do any mod installs related to timing due to liability, which i completely understand.

jr94513

Thanks for the review buddy! you should monitor you mpgs to see if it improves like ballade claims.

SoREALemjay

I would like to contribute to this, a little late but better late than never

Mario has helped me on my other cars before the s2000. He has reccently installed my radiator/thermostat/motor mounts/valve adjustment/etc. He even offered to lend me his vehicle for a few days. He is very knowledgeable and can get any job done.

Don't get me wrong I would love to visit Joey but because I'm in the East Bay (Concord) and Mario is in Brentwood it makes it so much easier for me.

By the way if anyone needs an alignment I HIGHLY recommend you go to Mario!! He didn't charge me a arm and leg AND he was able to diagnose/fix the errors on my car unlike the other shop I went to whom I won't call out.

Thanks again Mario, I'll see you soon

jr94513

Thanks Ernie! I really appreciate the review. Pretty embarrassing that a HIGH END "TRACK SHOP" had a problem adjusting your caster. I been txting you for the past couple days hit me up when you get a chance.

kmac

I would also like to add on to this thread, Mario helped me remove my supercharger and I drove it home the same day.

I was actually going to remove it slowly myself until I talked to Ernie who told me about Mario. So I met up with Mario and he looked at my car basically shot me all the links on what parts needed to buy to get my car back to NA. So we set a date and it was a long day but we got it done. He drove me to the hardware store 5 times because some of the screws that came off the SC brackets were too long to go back onto the car and one time because we forgot our wallets . Mario also pinpointed my ticking noise, which originally I thought was the supercharger pulley but still appeared after it was removed. The noise has disappeared after replacing that part which Mario shot me the link to, again thanks to Mario.

All in all it was a great customer service and excellent work. Would highly recommend Mario. I will defiantly be going back to him for other work

jr94513

Thanks for the kind words

RylisPro

Mario is the kind of guy that gets hella plastered the night before and still manages to wake up on time early the next morning all hungover just to hangout while a film crew documents your car.
I ran out of Casrtol RBF brake fluid one time and he said screw it lets go to Sonoma to pick some up without any hesitation, he is that dedicated.
Super cool and down to earth, he will treat you right when it comes to working on your car to get it track ready.

Drdoc

Shout out to Mario for upgrading my AP1 valve retainers to AP2 retainers. He even gave me the best place to buy OEM for less. He showed at my job and got to work. He did a great job

jr94513

[quote name='Drdoc' timestamp='1457919778' post='23907574']
Shout out to Mario for upgrading my AP1 valve retainers to AP2 retainers. He even gave me the best place to buy OEM for less. He showed at my job and got to work. He did a great job
[/quote

Thanks for the shout out dude take care of that beauty, clean low mileage stock ap1s are getting harder to find.

Ariel you know I got you buddy, anytime We need to hit up sonoma sometime soon

uh0h50

Big thanks going out to Mario. Met up with him this morning at his spot to adjust the ride height on the S. I'm definitely digging it. Good dude in my book. Stunning Berlina AP1 btw!