After owning Mustangs(raced them too) for too many years I have converted over. Three years ago I drove a friends S2000 and fell in love with it. After moving to southern California it was a natural purchase for drop top fun.

I need some advice on modifications. Upon modifying the power level on a Mustang everything broke in order, tranny, diff etc to the point where there was not much Ford left on the car.

I bought some rims as soon as I go the S2K and and have been reading this site and others on what to do next.

I am a N/A, handing car person. I do like some power to make it more fun though. Opinions seem to be mixed on how to add power. I will mainly back road cruise, occasional road course action and drag at least once or twice just for kicks.

Opinions on power mods would be appreciated(supercharger vs. head work/cams/possible stroker and the usual bolt ons and dyno tune). The handling/style portion I believe is covered but opinions are welcome as well.

 

Welcome to the site

Going SC will be the only way to increase RWHP significantly for a "reasonable" amount of $$$ and maintain a level of reliability.

It would depend on how much power you would like to add.

 

Welcome aboard.

There are many mods you can do that cost mega bucks and do very little to increase the output. One of the best is changing to lower gears in the differential. Aftermarket header, intake, exhaust, etc. add up the $ fast and do very little. Take an evening (or several) and peruse the board using the search function. There is a wealth of information here.

If you want to really get additional power the FI route will put a smile on your face before things start breaking. The superchargers will put you up over 300 HP, some as much as 330. Beyond that you need to increase the boost & add more fuel, or get the magic touch of Joe Alaniz on your head.

I saw another post of yours looking for an installer. Most of the guys in So. Cal deal with Duc (AHHVTEC) at Spugen. There are a couple of other shops (Tony Fuchs Racing [my favorite] & Autowave) that are qualified by the fact they have experience working on the S. Most shops/dealers don't have a clue and the horror stories are everywhere.

I suggest you contact AHHVTEC about attending the BBQ in 3 weeks where there will be many (upwards of 100) S2000s present. Many of those will be modified and you can talk to the owners.

Now, the most important advice I can give you is attend a HPDE event and learn to drive the car before modifying it. It has some quirks and many, many individuals have crashed or totaled their S2000s because they didn't know how to drive it. Speedventures and Speedquest are two that comes to mind.

Happy motoring and keep the top down.

 

Thanks for the help. A couple of questions about FI:

1) Do I need to upgrade the clutch?
2) Does the diff need to be upgraded?
3) Are you saying not to get a header or aftermarket exhaust as its not worth the gains?

As for your comment about learning to drive your car I could not agree more. I got my pro road race liscence in Canada in 1999. I only solo raced as I would never risk a $100,000 Cobra on the track where you don't have insurance. Going to a school with the S2K is defintely in the cards to learn its limits and enjoy it more. Everyone should do it. It is a blast!

I will check my travel schedule and see if I can make the event you discussed.

Thanks.

 

To answer your questions in short term
1)yes for the type of racing you plan on doing ( a lil drag)
2)yes " "
3)Depends on how you look at it, IMO exhaust is worth it because you lose so much weight from dropping the stock one but the header costs a pretty penny for what you are getting. Its up to you to judge that.

 

FF,
Are wanting to stay NA or go FI? FI will definately give you the most power. If staying NA, I would recommend getting gears as one of the first mod. The 4.77 really help out the s2000 lack of low end power. An intake, header and exhaust will not do much in terms of dyno'd hp gains. The most you can reasonably expect from a CAI, exhaust is less heat bog and an small improvement in throttle response.

 

As a fellow Canadian and since you spent the time to get a a road race license, I feel compelled to put in my 2 cents.

The guys above are correct about the centrifugal superchargers being the most bang for buck bolt on. But if you want to go all the way, search for Sideway's setup with the Alaniz head job and ECU mods.

As for NA, I'm going to go against the grain here.

Gears will feel faster because of the obvious torque multiplication at the wheel. If your a little more serious about tracking the car, the gears giveth and taketh away. Results gears will be very track dependent, so may or may not help.

It is true that most bolt on mods will give minimal peak gains, but again for road courses, the I/H/E mods can give you good midrange torque. This will help with the acceleration on corner exits. Refer to this excellent thread for numbers.
http://forums.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.p...threadid=188492

Also think about weight reduction, there isn't easy or cheap NA gains like restricted big displacement engines. The exhaust is the easiest way to lose 20 to 40 lbs.

Look into a VAFC ECU (affordable) or full AEM ECU replacement (expensive, but fully programmable) add on to tune the rich stock air/fuel ratio. Move the VTEC transition down about 500 rpm to fill in the power hump and smooth it out. You don't want the wheels to break loose in mid corner because of the "VTEC kick".

If you want to do a full NA engine rebuild look into Alaniz. He has done real documented R&D work with the F20C head and is a real race engine builder. He has some very interesting packages planned for this year.
http://www.alaniztechnologies.com/f20c1parts.html

Have fun with the search function. There is a lot of info here already, some of it even useful You'll soon be able to tell who is who, i.e. engine, tires, DIY, race whore experts. Have yet to find the suspension expert though.

 

nice post Fong.

 

Well, after reading lots of opinions some decisions are easy and some not. With California smog an issue and looking for a CARB approved part with the ability to pass smog throws a wrench into some things.

Some basic bolts ons and tuning(daily driving, road racing) and a small shot of nitrous for the ocasional days at the drags or just for kicks in third gear on the freeway would be a decent balance.

Of course, great brakes, lightening the car, and setting up the handing is a given.

Thanks for all your help.

 

want the ultimate n/a setup?

-alaniz head job
-toda(or hayward preformance) ITB's
-aem ems
-toda header
-amuse r1000 headerback exhaust