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Hello there i am new member here in the forum from Puerto Rico.
here is the thing i am looking to buy a s2k and they are hard to come by here were i live. i came across this 2003 AP1 silverstone metalic, the owner says the car its imported from FL and it has 169,000 miles on the odometer. the cars body and interior are in good shape, all stock only a aem short ram intake. the engine runs fine with no strange sounds or oil leaks. but i did notice blue smoke when it hits Vtec. i will like to get some advice from the S2k community of what i should look for. i will appreciate any help.
That would concern me a great deal also. Generally I would think that if a car is running well then the engine is probably in good shape. But, the smoke is a concern. I would ask a lot of questions about prior use including maintenance practices and whether any mods were are the car that have been removed. Also, prior repairs. Also, given the smoke, I would invest some money for a compression test. I would take a look at the plugs while they are out, how do they look? Are the plugs brand new? How long have they been in use? It would not be the first time someone threw new plugs in a car to obscure engine problems.
Unlike the engines of old, with cast iron heads and blocks, I am learning from reading a lot in this forum that these engines are hard to rebuild properly. You would want to find someone with a lot of experience rebuilding this particular motor - or at least I would want that - if you need to rebuild the motor. Given what I know from reading these pages I would be very careful and do my due diligence re engine health when buying a high mileage s2k. There are numerous sad tales here involving folks who have purchased high mileage s2ks and ended up having to rebuild a head or an entire engine, or replace an engine. So, get the compression test and do your homework and it might be great if all that comes up clean. If not, move on to another option.
+1 compression test. Good numbers are consistent numbers. Same or close in all 4. Anything above 200 psi is ok, but closer to 230 or 240 would be ideal. But most important is they are all the same.
The problem you have is a replacement motor will be difficult to find in your area. Someone here in the continental US could just buy a used motor for like $2k or $3k if the car they bought ended up with had a big problem. In your case you can't do that so easily. So you need to make sure the car is ok before you buy.
S2000 purchase advice
