Looking to buy my 1st S2000 and seen one on ebay 2007 90k miles but the buyer says it has a 'lower crank rumble' whatever that means. Its cheap but being a newbie to S2k's i am a little nervous of getting something like this and finding out that the engine is shot.

What's the worst-case and best-case scenarios here?

Sorry for the vagueness of the post in advance...

 

Would at a guess say the engine is shot !!

 

Advice: buy it with expectation it will need a new engine. Budget for that and bid accordingly. Then if by some chance issue isn't really that bad, you come out way ahead.

Do not try and have this engine rebuilt. Its a fools game. You'll spend a lot and engine won't last. Only very specialized shops can rebuild this engine, and that costs a serious amount of cash.

Instead look for a decent used engine. If you have skills you can do the swap yourself. Engine swaps in modern-ish cars don't get any easier than it is on this car.

It doesn't sound however like you have the experience to diagnose if the issue is really serious or not. I'd hate to see you swap out a perfectly good engine that just has a serpentine belt pully issue or something. If you buy this car, get someone to help you determine what the actual issue is before you just swap the motor.

 

The asking price should be a give-away as to the condition of the engine. If it meets your 5K-8K criteria (from another thread) the engine is trash. 2007 cars in otherwise excellent condition are in the $20K+ range these days in North America -- no clue about the UK but they seem cheaper. Only 2006 - 2008 engines are suitable replacements unless you want to replace the engine management system and then I think you lose stability/traction control and other features of the last generation cars with Drive-by-Wire.

There are no more new engines or short blocks other than a few stored in secret locations. Replacement engine are out of wrecked cars.

-- Chuck

 

I agree with CA when he said do not try to rebuild this engine. No one can do it like the super skilled and passionate Takumi at Honda did it from day one. The only ones I'd trust with that undertaking is J's Racing, Spoon, Amuse or Arvou and they're all in Japan so that's impractical for you. A replacement engine can be obtained second hand but the F20/22C engines are very expensive and with good reason so you won't really be getting a bargain S2K at the end of the day when you take into account the cost of the car itself plus a replacement engine...

 

Actually th car in question is only £4k so leaves plenty of room to maneuver but to be honest, do I really want the grief of sorting it? Not really.

 

If you're lucky you might get a well sorted one for 6k more quid

 

£4k providing no rust leaves you with £6k to buy a second hand engine and still be quids in but yeh all depends on rest of car of course!