I've heard of instances of AP1 engines getting blown. Is the AP2 better in this regard? With Honda having a few years of experience under their belt with AP1 before the AP2 came out, and its lower redline/less high-strung nature, I'd like to think AP2 engines have much less incidence of engine failure.

I ruled out the Boxster because of the high incidence of blown engines and would get an S2000 with the intent of keeping it ten years or longer. Check out this poll on the link below- "Other than engine failures, how reliable do you feel your Boxster has been?"

http://boxsters.addr.com/polls.shtml

Talk about being in denial, LOL. The fact that the "other than engine failures" qualifier has to be thrown in, man that tells you something...

 

There were some early engines that suffered from #4 cylinder bore scuffs, although I have not heard of that happening lately. Most "blown" S2000 engines have nothing to do with the engine and everything to do with the operator. Running the car low on oil or causing a mechanical overrev because of a missed downshift is not the cars fault. In fact, the AP1 engine probably has a higher absolute rev limit than the AP2 before bad things happen. It does have lighter valve retainers however, that can crack during an overrev, often with few symptoms until the valve drops at a later time.

Full Disclosure: I am not a mechanic.

 

Lots of info here but I do not quite understand. When you say "early engines" do you mean early AP1s or early AP2s? Is the AP2 showing less incidence of failure?

You say most of the problems are due to operator error... I don't know if I am quite in agreement. There have been a lot of S2k engine failures and where there's smoke, there's fire...

Just read Airsport's 13 page thread. LOL maybe I should be looking at the Boxster again! Sounds like Porsche takes care of warranty claims, at least...

 

there's more broken ap1 engine because there's more people "trying" stuff on the ap1, it's cheaper and more and more people can afford it now. the sheer volume alone can justisfy the number.

the F series in the s is nothing new, honda built how many million of vtec motor btw? Most of the motor failure is from water induction, overrev/misshifted and sc/turbo related.

you just can't compare the honda to the boxster, it's faster, looks better, handle better, weight less and 23 times more reliable than the low end boxster.

one of the major expensive failure is diff related, the pieces was sourced from some other company

 

When comparing statistic like this you have to take into account motor age. Most of the F20s are 4-8years old and have more accumulated miles, in general. Not quite a fair comparison without some adjustment.

Also the F22 is simply a "stroked" F20; the piston speed at the redline is similar. So if the F20 has a problem, chances are the F22 does as well. But it's a honda, so no worries.

 

My car did NOT blow up today. Just like the 2,174 previous days of S2K ownership with nothing blowing up.

Just imagine what everyone's PPD count would be if they posted up every time their motor didn't blow up. This forum really would have the greatest number of posts of any forum on the internets.

It's called skew.

 

lmao now that is the funniest thing I've seen all day.

 

I'd trust the F22 more long-term personally. Honda strengthened the car and engine in a lot of different little ways with the '03 to '04 changes.

YMMV

 

Age has nothing to do with an engine blowing up, so I don't buy the "AP1s are older so they are more prone to blowing" argument. If anything, AP1s with high miles are a testament to the quality of the engine.

Early AP1s had some unofficial oil starvation issues, but other than that and some dark clouds regarding AP1 valves cracking under stress, there's nothing that points to the engine being less reliable imo.

However, the heavier flywheel and CDV in AP2s slows shifting, so what would be an overrev shift in an AP1 may not cause actual damage in an AP2 provided the operator notices the misshift in time to declutch the car and get it out of the too-low gear. By the time an AP1 hooks up on a misshift down, its too late. If anything, I think that helps prevent engine death by misshifts, but I also think the AP2s are more durable at over-redline rpms too.

There are about 50,000 S2000s in North America alone, so what exactly counts as "a lot" of engine failures? Like someone said earlier, people don't post thattheir car bahaved normally on a daily basis, so it may seem like there are a lot of failures, but there really aren't.

 

There are no iron clad guarantees.