Here is the original thread that I started on the subject.

https://www.s2ki.com/forums/showthread.php?...?threadid=42546

I decided to start a new subject as there was a major event that happened with the gasket. I got my car back for one night, and the next day I was driving it around and I noticed that the car was rough to start. Well I went to the gym and when I left the car wouldn't fire at all. I had the car towed to Performance Motorcars, and they were in prepping a Porsche 916 for a track event...

Well, he takes off the radiator cap and tells me to try and start the car, immediatly water starts shooting jumping out of the radiator. He then tells me to take out the spark plugs and check them, and there was radiator fluid on them... This means the head gasket is not sealing properly after being sealed for about a week (including all of the dyno tuning.)

So now I have an engine that has had it's head taken off twice trying to get it to seal and it hasn't sealed so far. I will not be putting the head gasket on again. It was an extremely expensive experiment, and being the first in the country (apparently?) to do it, I got f'ed. The first time it was sealed with loctite, it lasted for a couple seconds. The second time it was sealed with a copper head gasket sealant, and lasted for a week. The head was torqued correctly and the install was done very professionally.

I mentioned in my previous post that the work that went in to changing the head gasket is near the amount of work required for changing the pistons. With that in mind, I will be rebuilding the entire engine for the turbo. I suppose that I will have one of the fastest s2000's in the world at that point. I was close to trying to claim fastest s2000 in the country after all of the dyno tuning, but it didn't last long enough

I will keep you guys updated on how things progress, currently the plan is to get custom ARP head studs, custom pistons from JE (they claim they have S2000 pistons at 9:1 *in stock!?*), custom titanium rods, ported and polished head, o-ringing the head, and a custom cam grind from web cam. The engine should flow way better than ever before...

We are hoping to have everything up and running within a month and a half, stay tuned for updates.

I am going on the frontier of S2000 engine development once again.. I have battered wife syndrome.

Chris

 

Dude, that totally sucks. I was even considering going the head gasket route...not any more.

 

did ChrisD have problems with the head gasket too?

 

ChrisD and I talk on the phone every couple days, and I get the impression that he isn't going to be installing it after hearing what I have been through...

Chris

 

hope everything goes well with building up the internals. i can't even imagine the power you are going to have. good luck.

 

I've been kind of busy with other things in my life to be really tinkering with my car (also haven't been posting much, sorry ).. And yes, from what I've heard from cjb (who's been kind enough to keep me informed along the way), things haven't been working out with it sealing properly, and labor got kind of involved, so for the time being, the gasket and bolts are making a nice addition on my desk.

Pistons and rods are definitely a future plan for me, and I had somewhat expected to be the first but it looks like the other Chris is gonna beat me to it. Ah well.

 

That sucks that it broke before you could really see what kind of numbers were possible.

Once you start to exceed the limits of the stock internals it gets really expensive really fast. New pistons or new con rods can lower compression, but as the boost goes up you're also going to need to reinforce stuff like the crank and main bearing caps. With 9:1 compression you may be able to run enough boost that those things become an issue. Especially given the unusually high redline in this car. Usually you would want the head gasket to be the weak point in the system, but since it has been so much trouble I'm not sure what would be best, but throwing a rod or having to replace your crank is never a good thing.

Good luck, it's interesting seeing how much power people are managing to get out of this engine given the *very* limited aftermarket at this point.

Also I remember another discussion about ways of lowering the compression ratio a while ago, but I could find it. Anyone remember the subject? "compression ratio" turned up a bunch and none of them looked familiar.

 

[QUOTE]Originally posted by cjb80
[B]
I will keep you guys updated on how things progress, currently the plan is to get custom ARP head studs, custom pistons from JE (they claim they have S2000 pistons at 9:1 *in stock!?*), custom titanium rods, ported and polished head, o-ringing the head, and a custom cam grind from web cam.

 

We are using a product called the Unichip instead of a programmable ECU, the product is actually very awesome.. it's like a VAFC on crack, and it has turbo modules, and VTEC modules that can be added on.. they are custom making the ignition control unit for the S2000 and my car will be one of the first to have it.

Check it out, www.performancemotorcars.com

Cams, valve springs, and valves will come from Web Cam http://www.webcaminc.com/

We are talking to them right now about the project, we're going to ship my cams off to them soon.. Apparently there are 4 different kinds of VTEC cams, so they are going to take a look at the stock cams and see what they can do about regrinding them.

Chris

 

Sounds good, I dont think re-grinds are as bad as some people claim, of course depending on who does 'em

Mine have been fine, quality wise.

Gotta love that racing mower!!