Hey everyone,

Long story short.. I have a turbo AP1, it has 400hp on a completely stock engine. I was being stupid and raced a turbo brz on the highway yesterday and now I have a ticking / knocking sound coming from my engine.

I have absolutely no experience with internals. I have installed turbo kits, suspension everything, roll cages, etc but I've never taken apart an engine so my lack of experience scares me a little bit.

I do not know what the problem is. I have heard that the F20C has weak retainers that crack, and that it also is common for them to spin a bearing.

Also, I checked the oil level thismorning and it was extremely low. In fact, it barely read on the dipstick

So my questions are..
1. Should I just take it to a shop and tell them to fix it.. or is this something that I can tackle myself with DIY's?

2. What are some typical causes of Rod Knock, and what can/should I check?

3. I kind of want to turn up the horsepower in my car. Should I use this as an opportunity to build my engine?

4. If I decide to build the engine, what all would be involved in getting it to a reliable state at a higher horsepower? To be specific, my S2000 is a daily driver, but I would also like to bring it to the track/drag. Ideally I'd like to have a toggle switch with 2 tunes and a manual boost controller so I can safely and reliably run 475hp ish while I'm daily driving, and then switch the map to the higher one and manually turn up the boost and sit at 600hp-650hp comfortably. (dependent on the difference in what's required to get there, I might settle for a little less)

I do have another car, so if my S2000 is out of commission for a little while it's not a huge deal. But I would prefer the downtime to be as minimal as possible.

After hours of research I have found information on rods, pistons, springs, cams, retainers, bearings, sleeving, and some other random stuff.. but I don't have enough knowledge to put all the pieces together.


Someone... please shine your light of vast knowledge on me and help me understand!

 

I just talked to the guy who I bought the car from a few months ago. He said that the car has cheap spark plugs in it that he changed frequently. He said that if the cheap spark plugs are fouled then that might cause a knock. Does anyone know if there is truth to that? Could a cylinder be misfiring, which I am mistaking for knock?

 

When you start the car does the engine sound normal at idle? If it was a misfire it would be spitting and carrying on. If it sounds like its normal when idling and you rev it and it makes a loud tapping sound its probably a rod bearing. If it makes a ticking sound might be your tct.

 

Thanks for the response!

The car doesn't sound normal at idle. In fact, the car sounds bad at idle and then as you give it a bit of gas the sound slightly decreases.

Also, I just checked the oil level and it's so low that it's barely reading on the dipstick at all..
I'm an idiot for letting it get that low without checking it!

I will take a video of the noise in the morning, but in the meantime I would say the noise is closest to this video I found on youtube. Note that the sound is strong at idle and then gets a little quieter (or maybe just gets drown out by engine noise) as the RPM's go up

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hiws_y_lYfU

 

very interesting to know & to tally how many knocked on the turbo install vs supe.
i read this everyday -- the knocking rods continue....

 

get video of it. could be the tct, could be a rod, could be piston slap, could be a thrust washer, the list goes on and on.

 

Bumping this,

The video I posted sounds exactly like what mine does. Ill take a video of mine tonight after work.

Any ideas on what I should check first?

Also, I'm leaning towards building my engine as I noted in #4 but nobody has commented on what it takes to build it to those specifications. Any input?

 

Build and in sleeved and all?


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Also cams are the biggest waste of money for your power goal.
Just deside what amount of cash you want to toss at it 1st. Because the track power you want will sooner or later break diff trans or both also need a strong clutch to hold that power.



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A little update,

Since the oil was super low I stopped at Wal-Mart and picked up a quart of oil. The oil wasn't even reading on the dipstick before, and after a full quart of oil it's still barely showing on the dipstick!! It must have been super low on oil..

Since I put more oil in it, the ticking does seem slightly suppressed as compared to the night it happened. I'll pick up another quart tomorrow and hopefully that'll help it a tiny bit more.

This is the first time I have started it since the ticking happened a few nights ago, so the engine was stone cold.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuwE2...ature=youtu.be

Any ideas?