Young, no word on what caused it although Rossi's post seems like the most plausible explanation I've heard. Honda is definitely replacing the bottom end, just like Aaron's repair. Might be too late to check the valve guides, as the engine is going in the car right now. Should be done by Thursday. I'll keep everyone posted, and thanks for the info/support.

-Jason Saini . Chicago, IL

 

What happened to it???

 

After looking at your head and pistons, I looked at the pix of my engine and noticed a marked difference in the amount of deposits and pitting of the pistons on your car.

If you only have 2200 miles on the car, it looks like it was horrible quality fuel used; bad mixture; timid driving; and various other things that cause poorly burning fuel.

Here are pix of my engine with 10,000 miles. Notice the white areas showing a very good burn pattern, both on the pistons and in the chamber top. (Broken valve stem reason for disassembly --- very long story...)

Notice on your car, no burn pattern on the pistons, blackened area on the cylinder head.
http://albums.photopoint.com/j/AlbumIndex?...5356&a=10545297

 

I was wondering about that... It seemed excessive, but I was definitely surprised by the amount of deposits. We used only Amoco 93, but here in Illinois the gas is 'oxygenated' which is supposed to create more deposits. I wonder if some of the blackness is still residue from the 'grease' that Honda puts in there from the factory, and would be gone completely by 10k miles. I really wish my head looked like yours... that is definitely good combustion going on in yours. I also wonder if the cold temperatures had something to do with it... not getting proper combustion temps? Definitely not happy with this. I'd like to figure this one out. Any theories out there?

-Jason Saini . Chicago, IL


[This message has been edited by Jason Saini (edited December 20, 2000).]

 

I noticed the severe deposits as well, but I attributed them to the additives in the winter fuel for Chicago. Most big cities like that require specific fuel additives to counteract the buildup of pollutants in the air during the winter months when the air remains close to the ground. From what I've seen in the past, more anti-pollutant additives in the fuel equals more deposits in the engine.

I just noticed your new post about Amoco 93 octane. It's one of the best brands and I use it about half the time in my car, but for keeping a clean engine there's nothing that works as well as Chevron's Techron. About 10 years ago Porsche did an exhaustive study on this (no pun intended ), and found the Techron additive to be the best in the business. Personally, I would buy a couple of bottles to use when you get your car back, and also maybe switch to Chevron gas for a while. Good luck with the repair.
Mike

 

I use only Mobil 93 Octane. Here in CT we have the MBTE additive as well.

The reason for the Mobil is that all grades passed the BMW deposit tests. I beleive Exxon passed all as well. I think the report was in Consumers Report a few years ago.

 

I think I have the most logical explanation to #4 engine failure ( given the fact that MOST s2000 owners would definitely use the highest quality gas and engine oil ). Being that cylinder #4 is the forward-most cylinder, I think lack of baffling in the oil pan is the culprit; acceleration causing the bulk of oil to negate proper lubricity by way of manual oil pickup I should say. I will admit, after reading about all these problems is compromising my enthusiasm on purchasing an S2000. Honda, please help us!

 

I am pretty sure that #4 is the aft most cylinder...can someone else confirm or negate this?

 

Facing the car, cylinder #1 is closest to the radiator; #4 is closest to the firewall.

 

Derived from a pic from the top ( frontal view of a yellow S2000 with the hood opened ) it appears the front-most cylinder is the one that is scored or 'blackened'. Solely from this picture, I concluded, (being a non-S2000 owner, at the moment, I couldn't verify this for myself) that this was the #4 cylinder, and therefore, brained up my little statement above.