Billman250

Getting a replacement engine would be a monumental task, as the 2.0L is no longer available.

Dealers are not capable of building engines from scratch, especially an S2000 engine with adjustable coded bearings.

Your best bet is to inspect the four connecting rod bearings. If they check out good, chances are near 100% that the main bearings and the rest of the engine are totally fine.

The knock you heard while pulling away came directly from the connecting rod bearings. If they are distorted at all, the engine will fail. If it is caught early, the crank and the rest of the engine will be perfect.

Find a competent source to do the inspection, the dealer is not capable.

If your engine fails, they can't even help you.

Car Analogy

It will once our cars reach that age and status where 'numbers matching' becomes a phrase associated with describing them...

Chuck S

Yep. All 10 matching body VIN tags and a non original engine is not gonna be as valuable as one with the original engine. "Value" being subjective and what someone will pay for the car. Don't have to wait until the car is a true collectible, there are too many available now to get one with a sketchy engine from an unknown car. But exactly what the difference is is a pure guess. Building a race car? May not be important.
-- Chuck

Hfreak

Very interested in what you would see as a fair price for an S2000 with a replacement engine?

I would agree that it usually hurts the value on a low mileage car but on a car that has a few miles like 80000 but still has all 10 VIN tags and has been repainted and is a MY2006 with an unbranded title. I just sold one so throw your dart at the board.

Edit: The replacement engine had 30000miles.

Chuck S

Have no guess. The buyer sets the price. And I'd not buy one of these cars without the original engine.

This engine is probably fine, though.

-- Chuck

VFR2S2K

I think Billman that the knock was the drain plug falling out and the car running over it or it bouncing and hitting the undercarriage. The evening it happened I walked back to the intersection where the noise occurred. Leading up to it for quite a ways were a trail of drops. After the intersection there was a continuous trail of a spray like pattern. Oil was still draining after I stopped a few hundred yards down the road. Interestingly when I look at the pictures and video of the draining oil it looks like the old oil, a nice dark amber color. I put Pennzoil Platinum in and even now after a few hundred kilometers it looks like a very clear pale pale yellow. I suspect they never even got to draining the oil, just cracked the drain plug. Maybe they were multitasking as all fluids were being changed. It seems to sound fine now and runs strong, no weird sounds on start up or when hammering it. Fingers crossed.

windhund116

Man, this is scary!

I remember early BMW 2002 used to have the spring mounted oil pressure relief valve jam shut --- when the aluminum cylinder the valve rode in wore out. If it shut closed, cold morning oil pressure would not be re-routed to the oil pan --- but go through the oil filter. The high pressure would spin the filter off and you'd dump the entire load of oil in about 30 seconds. The pressure relief valve was built into the oil pump. So, you'd need to buy a need pump every time. They finally sleeved the valve with a steel cylinder --- I believe, in 1972.

A bit of old-school history.

Car Analogy

Ok, so now the dealer didn't just forget to tighten the drain plug after changing the oil, BUT NEVER EVEN CHANGED IT!!!

You paid inflated dealer rates for an oil change, but it now appears the only service they actually provided was to loosen your drain plug?

jyeung528

this is dealership service...no dealer horror stories will surprise me.

S2K-OED

+1 it's because of these occasional shop **** ups with the sump plug that I always change my own oil.