nope... it was thru a friend, and everything seemed totally legit, until I said I thought something was wrong and their response was "pull the engine and bring it back down" well... that's not an option I legit have hand tools and no way to pull this engine, so i said "will you trailer it down" and they said yeah for $500... well now I'm dumping more money into something that should have been right from the beginning.

 

Genuinely not trying to be mean here but when you're playing with that much money on the line, more thought needs to go into it than "everything seemed totally legit." 1200+ hp out of a 4 banger is a ton of hp and would warrant a very serious build. Having a build like that requires a lot of compromise in terms of running costs, longevity, and reliability. If $500 to have someone look into it seems like a big deal, I think you either need to be able to work on it yourself or not have a built engine. Built cars are finicky by nature, especially if they're theoretically built to 5x the stock power. To have a built car, you are either going to need to be able to understand it yourself or pay a shop a lot of money to understand it for you. That is just the nature of the thing... Otherwise you're going to constantly be chasing issues and throwing money at it to fix problems. Pay up front or get nickel and dimed to death by not having thought it through well in the beginning. Also, cheap shops are usually not good and good shops are usually not cheap.

Where to go from here... If it's not your DD, maybe you can either let it sit and save money to figure out the best way to handle it. If you have access to a garage or driveway where you can leave the car undriveable, you can remove that engine. I haven't done it on the S but have done it on older B-series machines in an open driveway. An engine hoist from Harbor Freight isn't too expensive. It's really not that difficult and is a great learning experience. Just make sure to take pictures and/or mark everything very well. Baggies and a sharpie are great tools to keep all your bolts/parts in check. In your case, you'll also need to have a plan beyond that step but that's up to you. You're a little bit stuck because nobody of sound mind is going to buy a "built" motor blindly. I really think that for most people, the OEM engine is the best bet. They are stupidly expensive now but that's a different discussion.

 

I understand, I have owned turbo S for several years, it makes right around 500whp and is very daily friendly. I have never broken down or needed to fix anything, until my engine got a little tired. The deal was "i have this built engine, I'm not going to use it, bring me $5,200 bucks plus your engine as a core and its yours"

I was fully expecting to drop it in and everything would be just fine. I do the engine swaps myself, but I work full time and pulling an engine I just dropped in that I this all that money for is just not acceptable. The shop owner should have said "I'll get it down here for you and make sure its right" not constantly ignoring my calls, questions and just saying "pull it back out and bring it down" with no guarantee of ever seeing it again. I just feel like the owner of the shop, who says he does 20-30k per day in sales, should have been more helpful after I spent all that money.

There were other sketchy things too like the TCT was junk and he admitted to throwing one from a box of cores on the engine... liiiikkkke wtf?

 

I hear you, man. time is money. If this shop sold you the engine and did the labor to put it in, I agree with you. If you bought the engine from another source and that shop did the labor to put it in, it is not their responsibility to back the quality of the engine that you provided. If somehow their labor to install it is causing this issue, that is their responsibility but the burden of proof is likely on you to front the money for the labor to prove it. In this particular scenario, it does not seem likely that this is an install issue. This is the very reason that shops do not like users bringing in their own parts. They are not responsible, nor should they be, to do free labor because that part that you paid them to install was no good. The TCT option may be a red flag if they did not ask you first but the information provided here is incomplete to judge. It's not clear whether this is a decision from the engine builder or install shop or even if those two are mutually exclusive.

Either way, at this point, I do not see any reason to trust any of the things that you believe to be true about that engine without a complete teardown. Why should you believe that it is "built", can handle 1200hp, has bigger ring gaps for FI, etc.? Is it a drag engine with aluminum rods? Is it sleeved? Does it have pistons with super short skirts to reduce weight? What oil should you spec with the tolerances on this engine? What maintenance intervals should you expect out of any of this stuff if you don't know the build? Head components are a bit easier to figure out but do you have Titanium retainers with much shorter service intervals? There are just way too many unknowns here to move forwards without taking a few steps back. I mean, you can either just try to address this current problem and chance all the other stuff or spend more money up front to ensure that your pile of parts is built into something proper and that you bought the right pile of parts to begin with.

 

Any way you can contact the builder? See if they are perceptive? Also 12-1300 whp would be the most powerful s2000 engine ever built and dynoed I believe so that to me is a bit of a red flag whoever stated that.

 

Couldn't have said it better my self.

Alot think because the motor was "built" its better than oem, and in reality its not always the case.
Can a built motor act like a oem motor, Sure it can, but when you start putting aftermarket pistons, rods, bearings, etc and the motor is built to handle 250-300 per hole, your going into different territory.

My "BUILT" motor gets torn down by me IF IM LUCKY once a year, sometimes twice, depending on how hard I've ran it, if I ran into any issues, if I'm seeing any issues/wear etc.

When your running 250-300 hp per cylinder, its going to take WAAYYY more maintenance and attention than a stock motor on boost making 100 per cylinder.

MOST owners are better off on a oem block when they are below 500-600ish mark, my stock engine pretty much survived 3 years at 700ish, with just oil changes, of course I eventually decided I wanted more power, and needed to adjust for it.

SOOOO in your case, the motor needs a tear down, and it needs looked over, if you don't know what your doing find a reputable builder, and have them do it.