cotte062

Hi All,

Recent '02 s2k owner, 80k miles and burned through 2qt oil in about 3 weeks. Been taking the engine apart and found a spun rod bearing (along with a lot of burnt oil).
I've been perusing the forum and everything I've heard is that rebuilding a f20c engine is a pain in the ass.

I'm looking for a shop(s) that can:

• check the cylinder tolerances, re-hone if needed (FRM obviously sucks for this so I need to find a competent shop)
• check the crankshaft and find out if it's out of tolerance. If it is, thoughts on slightly larger bearings
• replace the crank journal bearings
• clean the head

I live in the Minneapolis area so anywhere in the midwest that knows this engine would be appreciated. I'm guessing the best shops would be around Road America or Chicago?



the worst cylinder

lots of oil

spun rod bearing

lots of oil

fly_S2K

Curious, was it the excessive oil consumption or rod knock, or both that drove you to disassemble the motor for investigation? From your description, it sounded like you disassembled the engine then happened to uncover the spun rod bearing, which is highly unusual so that's why I wanted to confirm. The angle of the picture you took of the bearing isn't 100% telling, so I couldn't evaluate that.

1) Some cylinder wall scoring is evident in the sleeve, so depending on the depth of the scratches you may be able to get away with just a hone (if the scratches do not catch with a finger nail). If the scoring/scratches are deep enough to catch with a finger nail, you will have to get it bored out and run oversized pistons. As you stated, you'll have find a machine shop that specializes or has experience in dealing with the F20C FRM sleeve coating/material.

2) If it indeed has spun a bearing, I would recommend you not to re-use that crank. Yes, it can be saved if done correctly (ground down, re-weld, spec'd, & nitride treat, etc) by a machine shop that knows how to handle honda cranks, but the number of shops that can do that right and the economics would not be in your favor. Especially when good used cranks run from 500-700. You should inspect all the journals on the cylinder block to see if there is any damage from oil contamination/ bearing debris and get a good used crank somewhere to put it back together. Spec out all the journals, then run the right bearing clearances.

Prior to disassembly, did you do a leak down or compression test to pin point possible oil consumption causes?

Unfortunately, I'm no where near you so I can't help with any machine shop recommendations, but many here have opted to just buy a good working used short block instead of rebuilding. I would recommend you run the numbers and see what your opportunity costs are to choose your approach.