tohlenforst

Well that's good to hear!
Did you use a Harbor Freight leak-down tester or did you opt to go with something a little nicer? I'm pretty sure I've got a leak(s) based on the oil on the exterior of the engine. More than anything, before I continue doing work on the car (needs a lot of body work and misc engine work) I just want to make sure the engine is healthy since that's priority #1.

lookstoomuch

BTW see you are using a K&N filter many people consider using an OEM filter on these to be a must. Dont want to start another engine oil or filter debate though.

No, that leak is not a source of any low compression.

tohlenforst

Thank you. I've used a few different oil filters: OEM, Bosch, and K&N. They all seem to work fine, I haven't found any of them to be particularly better than the other for my uses. I change my oil and filter pretty frequently and check my oil levels frequently. I just use the car as a daily driver (no track use) so as long as it doesn't cause any damage I don't mind. I only recently moved near a Honda dealership so I may switch back to OEM if the price is reasonable. For oil I've just been using Castrol GTX 10W-30, it's been great. I sometimes use the High Mileage variant if I can find it, but they both seem to do the job. I have yet to try Mobil-1 but I hear great things (outside of burning a lot of oil). Oil burning hasn't really been that much of an issue, I don't use VTEC that often and mostly just drive regularly unless I'm impatient with people being stupid on the road . For the air filter, it's the K&N filter that a lot of people on here recommend. I installed it about a year ago and it's still really clean (looks almost brand new) but I'll probably clean it again soon to be safe. Now that the car is getting to some pretty high mileage (187k and counting), I'll probably double check all the fluids since I have no idea when the last time the Transmission or Differential fluid were replaced (Clutch and Brake fluid are fine).

Car Analogy

FYI, a leakdown tester won't find external oil leaks. It only finds internal 'air' leaks. It only tells you where your loss of compression is coming from.

From all indications you don't really have any loss of compression (we'll know for sure once you test with a good gauge). So a leakdown test isn't going to have any worthwhile results to offer.

HarryD

+1 with the other guys -- I've used the HF tester and get similarly [low-but-consistent] results.

I always make the argument that consistency is all that matters, as opposed to the raw high numbers that people are chasing, but people just don't care.

Be careful with that o-ring replacement -- follow Billman250's instructions to the dot (you do NOT want to remove the bolt too much or you'll be screwed):
https://www.s2ki.com/forums/s2000-un.../#post23054279

tohlenforst

I see, I completely misunderstood it's purpose, thank you for the clarification. Sounds like everything should be fine with the engine so I'm going to skip the leakdown test

tohlenforst

That's the same thread that I saw suggesting the replacement, I'll be sure to be careful. This is my daily driver so I can only have a few days of downtime at most so I will plan accordingly just in case.

tohlenforst

Where I live is between 500-1000ft. above sea level. I don't have specifics unfortunately so I can only go off a rough estimate. I think it is just the Harbor Freight branded Compression Test that is at fault, everything appears to be good as far as the engine goes.