I had looked at one in the past, the piston slap didn't concern me too much as I have a spare engine just in case. The dealbreaker was the fact that it had 2 documented accidents, nothing major but bad enough to keep me looking. Consider your options in the buying process! Good luck.

 

Why buy an s2000 you're gonna have to have down for God knows how long rebuilding when you can just take the same $5k you'd spend on a rebuild and simply have a nice, running, better kept s2k for $11kish?

 

^^^ Point me that way, an AP1 in well kept condition is around $20K up here in Canada.

The '02 I had looked at was around $10K then you can add about $3K for a JDM F20C, then the swap costs.

Typically a rebuild is not worth it unless you are going FI.

 

Some vehicles run for 100's of thousands of miles with piston slap. It can be somewhat normal at cold idle, but should go away totally when fully warm. If it doesn't go away when fully warm then there could be other issues at play there. I'd probably shy away from it simply because you said it is still audible faintly when the engine is warmed up.

 

What does piston slap sound like

 

Listen to the engine of a GM car to hear piston slap.

-- Chuck