steve695

Hey all

I bought my 2001 s2000 in January, after wanting one for so long and spening a lot of time saving (as well as selling my old car)
It was the most fun I have ever had in my life.
Then 9 weeks later, I had to have the engine replaced. The cylinder was damaged (since I bought the car, it seems) and scratched the cylinder bore.

So I got a brand new F20C short motor with my old head re conditioned, it now only has 2800kms on it. It runs as good as new and feels so tight and smooth. Doesn't blow smoke anymore either
I always planned on doing some mods to the car, but now that it has cost me more than it's worth I figured I mase well go all out.

Next year I want to take it to the track occasionally and in the Summer I love to hit the Great Ocean Road (long, scenic twisty mountain road in Australia) every weekend.

Now for Modifications:

Handling:
Buddy Club N+ and Enkei PF01's 17x9's are coming soon, I ordered the suspension on ebay 3 days ago and I'm just waiting on a shipping quote on the wheels. I will be running 255 tires all around.
I am still working out what degree camber I'm going to go with, I will decide after I have worked out ride height.
For brakes I am going to go with slotted rotors and better pads, the standard callipers seem good enough and anything much bigger will not clear the offset of the wheels I am getting. I will install sway bars later if neccesary and already have a front strut brace installed.


As for performance mods:
I'm going to start with the basics.
For an exhaust I'm thinking either Buddy Club Spec 3 or J's 60RS and eventually Headers (I haven't looked far into headers yet, will decide on brand later)
For the intake I'm going to do with the K&N FIPK, yes I know it isn't JDM, I would much sooner have the Injen if this car was track only. However, we do get puddles and rain around here frequently in winter. The FIPK gives very similar gains to the JDM intakes, is much more practicle/safe in bad weather conditions and costs a quarter the price (probably because it's ugly . )
On top of the exhaust and intake, I also plan to put in a performance chip, Hondata perhaps, then obviously a tune.


FIRST QUESTION'S: With exhaust/headers/intake/tune only, roughly how much more acceleration do you gain?
Is it noticibally quicker to 100kph/60mph?
How much more response do you feel in the throttle?

I am more concerned about "feel", than I am about the WHP number that comes up on the dyno.

Now for the more serious performance mods:
These are things that I don't fully understand, and am not sure if people will be able to answer these questions. Currently these mods are only ideas and may not happen, if they do, it won't be until after I have done the mods mentioned above.

Firstly, I have read that you can change the diff gears in the car to increase torque (I'm not sure on the exact ratios, but I think it's 4.44). However, doing this loses top speed in gear.
Wouldn't the acceleration gained by doing this, be lost again in the sooner gear shifts?
For example, accelerating from 0-100kph, the car would no longer be capable of achieving 100 in second gear. Therefore, wouldn't the split seconds gained in acceleration to the peak of second (say around, 93kph), be lost again with the extra shift into third?
The standard set up feels good, I am rather curious about this though.

The next thing that intrests me greatly is the Spoon S2000 2.2 litre that I saw on Best Motoring. It's a stroked F20C and still makes good power from 5000RPM up to 8600RPM and can still rev to 9.
It is not so much the power that impresses me in this car, it is the torque in the low rev range. Having this would make the car feel so much better and the engine wouldn't have to work as hard to be driven fast.

I do not fully understand stroker kits and how they work exactly. Obviously to do this would also require some stronger pistons. Has anyone done this though? If so - How much does it cost?

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I love the way the S2000 looks stock and won't be doing a whole lot as far as aesthetics go.

Thank-you to those who read this and I look forward to hear response and constructive critisism.

chViETnk

you will notice no big improvements with i/h/e if you ask me.

yes, with gears you will accelerate faster, lose top end

if you want torque, just go FI

search button is your friend.

H22toF20

You feel good gains from bolt on's if you buy the right parts. They'd probably feel even better with a tune. Also, JDM doesn't mean it't the best part. They're typically(not always) overpriced parts that do little to nothing to the car other than add noise or look pretty. Before you do anything, research research research.

steve695

Yeah I have been. I don't want to buy any crappy parts, only parts that will improve performance.

Yeah, with the JDM thing, well take K&N intakes for example, I have heard nothing but good things about them, from on all sorts of cars. The dyno sheets compared to stock show rather impressive gains.

steve695

My goal is to make the car into a nicely done N/A.

In my opinion, putting FI on an s2000 sort of ruins the car a little bit. It's designed and known as a fast N/A's and I would rather keep it that way - but each to their own.
I'm not allowed to have FI anyway, because of Australian p-plate laws. Even if I was allowed though, I would still keep it N/A'd.

ZDan

Obviously you want improved handling, so I'd say go with something like -2 to -2.5 degrees negative all around, maybe more even. Keep toe minimized (zero front, .2deg total rear) and tire wear won't be that big a deal. You might lose 10-15% of tire life vs. less camber.

For your usage, OEM pads are fine. Some "better" pads are much much worse, btw! And any pads that *are* actually better will have dust and noise issues. Unless you're tracking the car, OEM pads.
Plain rotors, even if you are tracking the car. Slotted will reduce pad life, and give no real benefits other than looking cool.

More usual approach for a street car to go to stiffer sway bars first to improve handling. Cheaper way to minimize body roll. With stiffer springs, stock sway bars will be doing less.
Front strut brace for this car is totally useless.

Regarding NA mods, you can spend a lot and gain a little, and you can also spend a lot and gain NOTHING, or even lose power! Research every mod/component. Personally, for me, the return on investment isn't worth it, particularly if hundredths of a second per lap or autoX run don't matter.

For sure you're going to HEAR the mods you're talking about much much much much more than you're going to actually *feel* any modest increase in acceleration.

I wouldn't "lose top speed" with 4.44s, and from a practical standpoint what difference does it make if the theoretical high-speed test track "top speed" is 145mph or 155mph? That said, I'm not a proponent of gearing changes vs. the stock 4.10.

EXACTLY! Power/weight doesn't change, no real overall improvement in acceleration. What gears DO give you is quicker acceleration times *from a dead stop or very low speed roll*. Above some low speed, it's going to be a wash for the reason you mention. At some speeds, the geared car will have an acceleration advantage. At other speeds, the stock-geared car will have the advantage.

Unless you specifically want quicker acceleration times from zero or some very low speed, gears offer no advantage. If the standard setup feels good to you, I wouldn't spend the time/money/effort on changing diff gearing.

You shoulda gone with a stock 2.2 instead of 2.0 when you replaced your bottom end. They should have the same lifetime at 8500rpm as the 2.0 has at 9000, and can deal with occasional excursions to 9k.

This would have been an extremely cost-effective thing to do when the bottom end was being replace anyway. But now it's going to be pretty cost inefficient. Probably still more bang/buck than intake/exhaust/tune mods, though! +10% more torque everywhere isn't going to be easy with mods to the 2.0...

steve695

Zdan, I don't know how to quote each of your comments, but thanks for the tips there

Yeah, i was thinking maybe 2.5 all around with the camber, 15% loss in tire life isn't a huge bother too me. I am a little worried about rubbing, but I already have another thread on that.

Standard brakes, alright. I thought slotted rotors would be a big improvement - thanks, I won't waste my time.

After installing the front strut brace the front did feel slightly more stable and turn in felt a little more responsive, so I wouldn't say that they are entirely useless. Nice little add to the engine bay anyway

I see what you mean with the N/A's parts. I had a thread on ozhonda a while back asking people how much they managed to squeese out with N/A'd mods. Responses with similar exhaust/intake/tune setups were all around the same - 150-160WKW (205-515 WHP).
That being said, I do like to spend money on my s2000 and want to make a bit of a hobby out of it. I will do my research though before buying anything, I do want the car to sound good as well though, I certinly don't want to lose any power with the wrong stuff.

I'm glad I'm on the right page with the diff gears. I have been curious about that for quite some time and don't really know a whole lot about them. Thank-you for confirming.

Yeah, I should have gotten 2.2 litre done when I was having the engine rebuilt. I didn't really know about the Spoon s2000 at the time and didn't really think about it, I just wanted my car back on the road. Oh well. At the moment it's just something I'm thinking about anyway.