I've had my S2000 for around a month now, i've steadily been sorting little bits out. Tidied it up to the point where it can't get any shiner, have changed the oil+filter again for piece and mind..but something caught my beady eye the other day which was odd...

The Previous owner had made an absolute ballsup of trying to clean the OEM paint on the rocker cover, so i'm refurbing the whole thing. Once i'd removed the rocker/spark plug cover, i flipped the spark plug cover over just to generally check for any cracks etc, and there it was, a stamp reading 23.04.2004!

Alarms bells ringing, immediately checked the engine code on the chassis to the engine code on the block, low and behold, 2 different numbers. So i'm 99.9% sure my car has a 2004 engine instead of the original.

Now, i know the previous owner well (he only covered 2k miles in the car) and he bought the car off a friend too, so the swap was definatley not carried out in the UK, it must of been done whilst the car was still in Japan. The car came over in 2008 and has only done around 20k miles since being in the UK.

I know cars can stand at the docks for anything up to 18months waiting to get imported, so chances are if this is definatley a 2004 engine it will have done very little miles.

So onto the questions!


Does anyone know how long Honda offered a warranty for over in Japan?

Is it possible to put the new engine code through the system at Honda UK and find out when the lump was made and IF it has ever been in a car, this would enable me to determine whether it had a brand new engine fitted or one out of an accident damaged 04 car.

Also - does this mean that the ECU should of been changed for a 2004 spec unit? If so how can i tell if this has been done?

Any help appreciated!

Thanks

nick.

 

Are you saying it is an F22C engine not an F20C? F22C was the 2004 engine in Japan and North America, not in the UK

 

So where's the number you're looking at? On the spark plug cover, on the rocker cover, or the one on the block down by the inlet manifold. Obviously it's pretty easy to swap the rocker cover for one off a newer car, and if the previous owner had made an effort to clean it, maybe that's what he'd done.

 

It's an F20 mate.

Original engine. F20C1001099 engine in car now. F20C1301180

However the engine must of been changed in Japan IMO.

The 2 previous UK owners both had no idea and we all know these are mighty expensive to replace so surely a receipt would of been kept to prove a lower milage/newer engine was now in place.


Surely armed with the engine code, some helpful soul at Honda UK will be able to get in touch with their Japanese counterparts and run it through the system to see if this was actually a spare engine made or actually made it into a production car. At least that way i will know whether it was brand new when it went in or out of another S2000.

Just unsure on the ECU, will have to check which ECU is on the car, is there a code stamped on these too? I'm not even sure where abouts in the S2000 they are located!

It Still has the AP1 clocks so nothing else has been changed over. Looks to be just the engine unit itself.

The car itself has just ticked onto 72k and the engine is quiet as a mouse. No Cam chain tensioner rattle like i've heard on previous cars. I've done the valve clearances and the engine was just as quiet before these were done.

 

No, alarm bells started ringing when i noticed the spark plug cover was stamped 2004.

So checked the engine number on the block and it doesn't match the engine number which the car came out of the factory with.

 

A 2004 F20C will run on an older ECU, I have a 2005 F20C in my 2002 with an 02 ECU It's the same engine, F20C

In Japan the engine changed to F22C in 2004. That denotes the change to AP2. UK cars did not have this change, therefore there is no AP2 in the UK.

 

Did they change the codes according to year? So If C10... is 99, then C13... would make it a 2002.

I thought mine said F20C2 something. I think I'll go and have a look.

 

My MY02 has an F20C2...

 

Japan got the F22 later than 2004 as per the US

 

Yeh, my 2002 is F20C2 as well.