Did you know that the rev limiter actually cuts in at 8950 RPM? The tach shows 9,100 at that point, and even the RPM memory in the Modifry shift beeper records 9,100, but the actual engine speed is only 8950 (unless you're running a non OEM ECU). I actually refused to believe this when it first came to light, because it didn't make sense to me (that good old "common senese" ) that the shift beeper memory and the tach could both be off by the same amount. However, Modifry himself verified that the tach, and ECU, were off a little, and his beeper memory is just recording the RPM as reported by the ECU, so it has the same error as the tach. I absolutely believe Modifry, but still had to log the revs to see for myself, and it's really true. AP1's don't really rev to 9k, even though it looks for all the world as if they rev a little beyond 9k. LOL, and since I figured that out I've wondered whether or not Honda did it that way on purpose.

PK, are you running a stock ECU? If so, you need to do a money shift to reach 9,200 RPM, and that really is apt to shorten your engine life.

According to my shift beeper memory my car has seen 18,000 RPM twice.
I didn't catch the glitch when it happened the first time, but the second time the 18,000 RPM data was actually recorded when the engine was turning about 6,000 RPM. I noticed the second time because the shift beeper beeped, and it's not suppose to do that until I'm a little over 8k. I actually stopped and read the beeper memory to see if the little beep had recorded another insane "over rev," and indeed it had.

I know you, but have never been on any kind of run with you, so I don't really know how you drive or maintain your car, but based on your posts here and elsewhere on S2kI, I have gotten the impression that you and I drive in pretty much the same way. Basically not worrying so much about the car (because there is nothing to worry about) and driving it any way you like. Is that a fair assessment?

People worry too much about things that don't matter, and then people use their common sense and lack of knowledge to deepen their concerns. To me, this is very sad, because it is really just baseless fear mongering based entirely on ignorance.

 

His engine may have run rough but 5th and 6th gear were pristine!

 

Well, there's no need to continue an argument by responding to the above posts, but through all the arguing, no one said specifically that my driving the car hard played no role in my engine wearing down permaturely, so I'll take it people think it's likely I caused the engine to wear quickly due to my hard driving habits.

Perhaps it's possible my bad vtec habits on the car played no role in my engine eating oil and wearing down prematurely, but it's something that cannot be proven or disproven, so all you can do is learn from your experience, and take it at that. I personally don't want to be replacing an engine before 50k miles, so using vtec at every traffic light and stop sign in first gear up to redline, and my frequent habit of holding the car not far below 6krpms so the power was there much like the high torque cars I have owned and still own, easy to go fast in cars are capable of is something I simply do not do on my 06. It's perhaps hard to understand, but when you spent most of your life driving cars that you mash the pedal and go, the S2000 feels awfully slow (even though it isn't), so the way around it is to keep those rpms as close to vtec as often as possible. I suppose I wanted this car initially to be what it isn't, but after all these years of ownership I love the car for what it is, and it's the best vehicle I have ever owned. I lived I learned, so if people disagree, it's ok. That's how the world works.

I drive my S2K like most, just normally, with my occasional vtec burst to remember what this car is all about. I'm just taking more care, because I don't want history repeating itself, and YES, reliability IS a factor in this car for me now, being as I'm using it to commute to work during this season up until November, and I plan on keeping it as long as I can, so I want to get to 100k+ miles. No harm no foul, perhaps just a misunderstanding.

 

LOL, I woldn't buy into that either. If you take two S2000's, start them both, then drive one in VTEC until it fails, while the other sits and idles, the car that is sitting and idling will actually wear out about twice as fast as the engine that has been running in VTEC the entire time. THIS is the real "common sense" here, but it obvoiusly doesn't make sense to the people who don't actually understand what factors cause excess wear.

 

i go 40 in 6th also

 

I use Shell V-Power and I have yet to get less than 30 MPG, in fact I regularly get between 30-32 MPG. My daily round trip is about 70 miles and during those 70 miles my speed on the dual carriageways & motorways is usually between 70 & 100 mph and on my journey home I get to redline the car in 1st, 2nd, 3rd and sometimes 4th several times a day.

 

I can understand why you are gunshy after havning a failure like this, but we have over 100 years of research to look at when it comes to engine wear factors, and in spite of that, you are simply speculating, based on what you believe to be reilable common sense. Before you start scaring the hell out of other S2000 owners, by telling them stuff that simply isn't true, the very least you could do is to take the time to read up on the factors that actually cause premature wear. If you don't, you'll never know the facts, and you'll always think that your common sense is right and that the people who HAVE studied the matter are full of shit. They're not, but you don't have the background to understand why I say that, and I can't spoon feed it all to you in lengthy posts. The topic is really far too complex for that, and your misconceptions and desire for some kind of proof pretty well proves that you don't understand the matter well enough to be advising and scaring others.

Fact is, if anyone tries to say for certain that you did something to cause your failure, I'll question them, because we just don't have enough information to draw that kind of conclusion. Most of the time, when an engine fails prematurely, it is torn down to determine the cause. Did you do this? No, you just thought about it a little and decided that it must have been your driving style and/or habits that caused the failure. Maybe that is indeed the case, but it was NOT due simply to using the cars full rev range regularly. To many others have done the same thing without having engine failures, so there has to be some other factor or factors involved here. It's a crying shame that you didn't tear the engine down and determine the true cause of your failure, becaue if you had, you wouldn't be thinking that it was due to things that are highly unlikely and worrying other S2000 owners needlessly.

Did Honda not take this engine back to Japan for analysis? What did THEY say caused the failure. I know damn well that they never said it was due to your frequent use of the cars full powerband, because frankly, that's just dumb.

Likely there were other problems, and it is certainly possible (maybe even likely) that the hard driving hastened the failure, but if the engine had been right in the first place, the premature failure would not have occurred (unless it was indeed related to some kind of abuse).

Anyway, until you have something more than common sense speculation and theories based on a total lack of study of wear factors, you need to stop scaring other S2000 owners. That's just wrong.

Smart people don't depend only on their own experience. They also learn from the experiences and research done by others. In this case, that's a must, so give it a try. It is always a lot easier to learn from the mistakes of others.

But that's not far removed from the way I drive my car. 60k miles. Perfect compression. Pulling the head and oil pan for inspection reveals NO abnormal or excess wear. But YOU just look at the wasted engine and conclude from your common sense that you need to warn others not to do things that many of us do all the time. You scare others for no reason, other than the fact that you've had a failuire that was not analyzed properly and which you do not fully understand. Again, that's just wrong.

Modifry got over 150k before needing any major engine work, after adding nitrous and then FI, and driving the bejesus out of his car, so your 50k number here is as far of the mark as spending 80% of the time in VTEC. It represents a total disconnect with the reality of the situation. Sure, you're gunshy, but talking nonsense that you can't support, about things you don't understand, and scaring other owners, is just wrong. Get your facts straight and abandon the speculation before advising others. Is that too much to ask?

LOL, seriously, if you are gunshy, and don't want to run the car hard, that's your business, and it really won't do the car any harm. I'd be willing to bet that your engine will last *a FEW thousand miles* longer than mine, but who the hell really cares about a 1 or 2 percent decrease in engine life. If you're that worried, then you should NEVER start the car, and never let it idle, becuae that's where you are geting the majority of your (normal) wear. Abuse and lack of proper maintainence are of course alternate ways to screw up an F2xC, but I'm assuming that you took good care of the car.

And my friend, for what it is worth, I'll fight for your right to drive your car in any way you like. I'm sorry if I read too much into some of your earlier posts, and I really do understand why you're gunshy, and why you think the way you drove the car was a factor in your premature engine failure, and in fact I even accept that hard driving could have very well accelerated an impending failure, but it was NOT the cause, in and of itself. There had to be other factors involved.

In truth, you have no experinece on which to base your speculation, because you didn't tear the engine down to determine the true cause of the failure. All you have is speculation, and it is speculation in a vacuum, totaly devoid of a reasonable understanding of what actually causes engines to wear and fail.

If you hadn't been posting BS that was wrong and apt to scare others who are no more or less knowledgable than yourself, I would not have said a word to you about it, but you are scaring other S2000 owners needlessly, based on a theory, an incomplete experience (no teardown), and unsupportable speculaiton, and that's not going to benefit anyone.

 

Now I'll speculate a little (but notice that I am identifying it as such ).

I suspect that the horrible mileage (15 MPG ) is a STRONG indicator that the car had some seirous problems, totally unrelated to the way it was driven.

 

i refrain from shell because i get less mpg

 

[QUOTE=RED MX5,Apr 20 2008, 12:40 PM]