Best way to make N/A power
 

Hello Fellow S2k owners. I just bought my 04 honda s2000 about a little over a year ago, and i was amazed with the potential of the car. I love how it reacts and handles. But..... In the future maybe another year or less, I'd like to make more power than what it already makes. I got a K/N Cold air intake and a Cat back Skunk 2 60mm megapower exhaust and i felt a little bitty difference.Im wondering what are the best cams, tunes or etc that would be good enough to make good decent power N/A. I heard that with Cams, headers, Bigger TB, TB spacer, And a good tune, i could make at least 250whp. Any suggestions?

You'd be very lucky to break 230whp NA. Short of forced induction, the only significant power adder would be ITBs and they are about as expensive as a supercharger kit.

If you want to avoid spending thousands of dollars, you may want to invest in a tuning solution and find a reputable tuner. You won't necessarily pick up any peak power but you'll get a lot of mid-range/area under the curve by dropping vtec engagement. I don't know what the tuning options are for 04-05 but I think you can get K-Pro or some other engine management system. If you were 06+ I'd recommend Flashpro without question.

Would buying an aftermarket Intake manifold help out any? From my knowlegde i know that if i go with K-Pro i have to change some sensors and other things or something like that to make it compatible. I mean correct me if im wrong. And even if its 230, 240, or 250 whp im ok with that. What do you think about the AEM EMS? What are the pros and cons to it?

Breaking 230 is going to be tough. Again, it depends on the dyno, and the correction factor used by the operator. With a good tune, big single exhaust, test pipe, and 3.5" cold air, 230 will be about it... even with the bigger tb.

There hasn't been many guys who have tested aftermarket intake manifolds in n/a form. It would be a gamble.

In regards to ecu, both K pro and aem series 2 are great. The differences require a seperate discussion. Go look in ecu section; there is a huge thread comparing the two.

You would be looking at spending some big bucks. You're looking at a 2.4 or 2.7 Stroker kit, ITB's, an expensive header (J's thermal wrapped header maybe), cams, 70mm single exit Titanium exhaust, and a really good tune. The works. N/A is fantastic but not wallet friendly

do a 2.4 bottom end .. its tough to make more than 250 on a 2 or 2.2 liter. A 2.4 will do it with a stock head and cams pretty easily.

The best horsepower per dollar changes will be a test pipe, followed by Brian Crower Stage 2 cams (if you can find a set for sale). This assumes you're already going to be tuning anyway. Also, 60mm isn't big enough for your exhaust. 3"/75mm single exhausts tend to make the most power. You'll be around 230 whp with those added to what you have.

250 whp isn't happening without increasing displacement and/or ITBs.

http://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/...ovement-page-2

If time is money, where does that leave horsepower? With a base price of $32,740, just one of the Honda S2000's 240 horses costs $136. Sounds to us as though horsepower is money, too. Case in point: Want even more power from today's most overachieving engine? Okay, bring more money. In the case of the Mugen S2000 we tested, expect to pay almost three times as much for each pony above the stocker, or $393 each — more than the cost of an ounce of gold.

As has been said already, the car is so well tuned from the factory that extra horsepower aren't cheap unless you're putting a turbo/supercharger on it.

You might look at getting the car tuned, it doesn't increase overall horsepower very much but it improves the VTEC changeover in the AP2 engine by an amazing amount, and totally changes the driving feel in the 5K-6K RPM range. Here's my before/after dyno with a Hondata tune on an '06:

http://imageshack.com/a/img43/1126/b4e4.jpg

VTEC changeover was moved down from 6000 to 5100 and the difference is obvious, it's a gradual onset of power that ends up being 19-20HP higher at the old VTEC engagement point.

If you want to improve N/A power here is all you can really do.

Displacement increase to 2.4 or higher, you will be lowering your redline to 8,200 rpm
Cams
High compression pistons 12.5:1 (you'll need bigger injectors)
Test Pipe
EMS to tune for drivabilty
Adjustable cam gears to take advantage of the increased compression(Incredibly rare to find and very expensive)
Intake manifold
Exhaust
Headers
Intake
Polishing the head ports, not porting as they're already as big as they're going to get.

If you do all that you may very well go over 250whp but you'll have spent close to $8,000, and that's if you install everything yourself.

Obviously you haven't built too many motors. Use proper rods and a 2.4 can goto 9k-9500 all day. The ports have plenty of room for improvement. Simply "polishing" them does nothing. With proper cams we won't need gears. That's one of the main goals of the can development I'mworking on. As it stands the cams on the market are so bad that adjustable gears won't really help

230 whp on a dynojet is pretty easy to achieve in an ap2. all you need are the right bolt on's and a tune.

No I have not, my experience is limited to overhauling the bottom end on my motor, new sleeves, pistons, rings, connecting rods, and a reground crank. 9,500rpm with a 102mm stroke is nuts, that's 32.3 meters per second piston speed compared to a F20C which has about 25 mps piston speed at 8900rpm. You would have the same piston speed as an F20C at 8,600 rpm at about 7,300 rpm with that much stroke. Given the volumetric efficiency of the head I don't think you would be making a heck of a lot of power at 9,500 rpm with a 102 mm stroke, plus you would definitely need to upgrade the valvetrain. Of course I've never done anything like that so I don't know.

Out of curiosity how would proper cams eliminate the need for adjustable gears?

I can't really answer your question bro but I know there are at least 2 companies that are in the process of producing new aftermarket cams for the S. I can't wait to see the results and I wish both guys the best of luck. Once these cams come out I'm getting new cams one way or another. Either 1) the new cams will be a hit and destroy everything that's currently on the market. Or 2) they'll at least lower the demand and price for BC stage 2's and I can pick a set up for pennies lol.

You’re going to spend a fortune on splitting hairs NA. The best bang for the buck is to swap out the cat for a TP so you can effectively lower vtec to 3500-4k rpm and gain a substantial amount of power in the mid range where there is power to be found in this engine. (If you retain the CAT you will only see gains from about 5k rpm.) You can effectively do this with a simple Apexi Neo/vafc and raise the fuel pressure with an adjustable regulator to add more fuel in that area where it will be needed. You will get 90% of the power gains from this as you would from a full EMS, but at less then half the cost. If your rich and want to eek out every fraction of a hp then do that, otherwise go for value and simplicity.

Ding Ding lol

Not really a power adder....more like a multiplier....

Get a set of gears too.

It's been a little beaten to death. A test pipe and tune is the best thing you could do.

You could do all the math of the bolt on's.
T1r-70mm EM seems to be best producing exhaust 14Hp (source: Evasivemotorsports)
PWJDM seems to be the best producing intake 12.5hp (source SOS web site)
J's seems to be the best producing header 7 hp (source S2ki header thread).
You would have to tune for all of them.
So that's 33.5hp bolted on. A test pipe, and lower vtec engagement should be good for 10hp to the wheels.
S2000's typically make 200-206 stock hp. On the high end you're looking at 245 hp.
Maybe, as none of this is proven. I doubt the combination would prove that effective.

Thats also the cost of a superchager lol
1099 intake
1300 exhaust
1600 header
80 testpipe 70mm)
1500 tuner (or ability to tune)

or maybe an URGE head would net you 240 to the wheels. That's only 2000, but you will still need to tune.

Is it true that headers hurt peak hp on the f20c? I purchased my car with dc sport's installed.

The best way to make NA power is to drop a v8 in. In my eyes there's no real other way to go about it if u want a fast NA s2000. It's that or turbo your s2000 or just stay slow with a NA 4 cylinder.

Agreed :thumbup: