Just go high boost SC. Base SC is weak for sure. I've had my SC kit for 8.5 years and have no regrets. You shouldn't have to work on your car except for basic car maintainence.

The way I see it is that you already spent so much money and work so far to get where your at and still you have not enjoyed the joy of driving a turbo s2000. Why give up now? Your already did 95% of the work. It's just the last 5% into get the car perfect is always the hardest part. Just stick it through and fix the problems that arise. Just think about why you did all this? Think about how bad it was driving an NA s2000.

Let's not jump out the window on this. A stock S2000 is a great car. Sometimes we in this forum tend to forget that. Lots of guys have gone the other way and are happier because the headaches aren't worth it to them.

Hey mate it sounds like you dont have the cash flow to keep the S2000 high HP on the road.

It is so relaxing driving an S2000 that is NA. No issues at all and hassle free.

Perhaps sell it and buy a car that will give you no grief as you sound like a high HP build is not for you.
Good luck :thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

OP,
Keep the car. (you'll regret selling her)
Remove all turbo components minus AEM ECU.
Put back to N/A.
Tune.
Sell as much of the crap you removed as possible.
Move-on with many lessons learned.
Boost in the future when you are making $$ and ready!

wow! This sounds incredibly like my situation...2 times! I owned a 1994 Honda Prelude VTEC which I boosted on a very tight budget and cut corners like you wouldn't believe! I ended up replacing A LOT of parts (all used...even with the replacement parts) and in the end it was okay at best. I drove the car boosted with minimal issues for a short while and then sold it soon after so I'm certain that it encountered many more issues. Was glad to get rid of it.

Fast forward to my current S. I bought my car about 6 years ago and knew that it was going to need a power upgrade so I started buying parts but stupid, old thinking me decided to do the same thing as before and buy used parts and cheap parts! You'd think we'd learn from old mistakes. As I collected the parts, I drove the car stock for maybe 2 years and then finally got everything I needed to turbo it...I even used Emanage ultimate!! Blah!! In any case, I boosted it, and it ran and all for around 2000 dollars but for some reason, I had issues with the e manage so I ditched it and went aem. Drove the car for about 9 months and blew it racing a bike so had a shop from this site (Jason from CNC I believe...there's an entire thread on him) sell me a "built" bottom end which in the end was bad and lost even more money from them.

I finally said, "screw it" so I gave the car to a friend who runs a shop here in my home town and he basically got rid of everything that was crap (which was pretty much my entire set up!) and started over. We tried to reuse what was salvageable from my initial setup but even those things eventually gave up and needed to be replaced. As a matter of fact, I had the car finally tuned after being in the shop for over 2.5 years having everything replaced and was able to drive it this summer. So much fun but again, another problem occurred. Up until then, the only things I haven't replaced were the turbo, exhaust manifold, intercooler and injectors. The turbo finally shat the bed and I am currently having that replaced. It was an older garrett t3/t4 journal bearing unit and I'm getting it replaced with a borg warner unit. It's winter so no worries but I'm just waiting for my log manifold to bite the dust now!

In the end, I feel your pain and all I can say is, if you like the car, stick with it and buy a beater to drive around in while the S is in repair mode. Buy quality/new parts if you can and just stick with it if your wallet will allow you. For me, if I were to get rid of it now, I'd have nothing to show for it and when I would want another S, it would be a hell of a lot more money for me to start from scratch rather than just taking a break.

I really hope that when I get my car back this spring, the turbo is even better and I don't have to worry about any issues but we all know that in this game, there's always something that we'll need to look at!

Good luck bro!

The biggest problem of turbo builds is cracking manifolds. They all crack. Some last for weeks and some last for years...But they all crack. This is one of main reasons we sell Kraftwerks supercharger kits, 23 S2000 kits installed and no issues.
Don't give up on the car, you will need to spend $40K+ to get anything better.

That's the price to be paid when using pipe in an application where pipe should not be used.

It's because literally every vendor outside of Killer B Motorsports, MPFab and a few of the boutiques use garbage 304L which just plain isn't meant for high heat turbo applications. God forbid you coat one of these timebombs and expect it to hold your heavy turbo AND all the heat inside of it without cracking. I don't understand why the vendors who charge 1200+ for a manifold can't be assed to spend $200 on materials instead of $100 to ensure that they don't crack. 321 isn't that expensive.


Good luck with your quest to get your car finished OP. Turbo cars can be a pain if you don't know exactly what to do.

Correct, The cast elbows used for this cost around $6 each and manufactured for everything except'Turbo manifolds'

We use 321 Stainless with rigid mount turbos and double slip collectors.(See our K-Sight AWD) But like I mentioned...They all crack..It's the one thing you can bet on.