razzele

No turbo VTEC for me today I am laid up sick in the house so I thought I would make the most of it and start a little 'build' thread. Really more of a bolt/nail on thread !

Firstly a little background, my first word was car! My dad taught me to drive when I was 8 and ever since I was dying to get behind the wheel. Shortly after flukely getting my first well paid job at 23 years old I bought my S2000 and intend on keeping her forever That was in 2002.

The S2000 was like a mystic legend to me from its release. A rear wheel drive roadster with a 9000 RPM rev limit, amazing 'X-bone' frame and oh my god is that a start button? I had to have one. A baby Ferrari, in Yellow the arguably original Ferrari colour shared with bananas, egg yolks and council vans as I was frequently reminded!

I lurked on this forum for many years, only appearing on the radar at a Northumberland meet (please please bring them back) and on the spotted threads. Quietly shredding set after set of S02s behind the scenes.

The car stayed standard. I even retained the factory tape player till around 2006 when I changed it to a later model single CD player head-unit. Around the same time (54k miles) I had my first bad service at a Honda dealership in Newcastle. The car went in for service and MOT, the £400 bill was subsequently refunded by Honda UK after my car had been independently deemed dangerous with incomplete service items!



From then onwards my interest in car repair/service/modification was renewed due to necessity. I had changed oil and blown packs of fuses wiring up subs and other tat in the past but thankfully have a very good friend who is capable mechanic (Jim). With Jims help and guidance we kept the car on the road long enough to turn it into its current abomination which probably makes Soichiro Honda turn in his grave!

Thanks to the forum I attended a track day at Croft in April 2009. I met JD, MarkB and Kiteland there to mention a few, for a good days tyre shredding. The best fun Id had in my clothes except for dry humping in school days of course .

Pics time





There I am roof down, shades and helmet on chasing fancier cars round a racetrack! I was in my element. Little did I realise the long term affect that track days have on petrol heads. What a viscous bug that is !!

'big jim' in the pax seat in this one. Hence the added roll pictured.



Following JDs car really gave me an idea of how composed a lowered S could be at speed !

And how uncomposed mine was starting to feel-



[QUOTE] Responsible owners fit their tonneau covers

razzele

So the ongoing quest for more power ensues-

Lots of avid forum lurking led me to believe I would be wasting my time with NA mods. A super or turbo charger was the option for me. Thats when Aaron Yates (CTL Performance) the criminal mastermind of the 2009 S2000 parts scandal appeared offering me a £3k turbo kit. Stupidly I didnt even think twice about the legitimacy of this Trader and paid upfront in September '09 for a Greddy Turbo kit and exhaust. The Exhaust never arrived and the Turbo kit arrived in February missing the fuel pump and an air diverter panel !







[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eilbptv-8bc [/media]

The basic Greddy kit was very very easy to install, really well put together and totally comprehensive. It (normally) includes everything from oil filters and cable ties to ECUs, injectors and intercoolers. However this kit is designed to be CARB legal (CARB-California Air Resources Board) so basically its a bit gay!

Initial Dyno (feb10) rolled out a considerable gain of 80 torques but only 40 horse powers.



Though the 'tuner' was struggling to work with the E-Manage piggy back ECU, due to unfamiliarity with the software and the time constraints of dyno slots.He had no finite control over the boost pressure and the fuel tables were too complicated to work with.



It didn't help still having the standard fuel pump, it was uncorrectable lean in the low end.



Horrible graph that one.


He didnt even get on to the timing before he gave up! I left with a car that was roughly tuned. The engine was now very uncharacteristic of an S2000. Huge swell of torque at low Rpm, a weird stifled lurch at Vtec and a strangulated top end.

This prompted Phase Two of the turbo transformation. This was based around the fact that Mase was making a visit to the UK and Id heard he was a saviour for fellow loony people.

I started another parts buying frenzy in advance of his arrival.


AEM Standalone Engine management system, AEM gauges, and a chavy BOV.



Cusco Catch oil can and Brake master cylinder brace



Fitted-





and a J's Racing baffled sump just because!!



From there I drove it to London for a miss banzai Tunnel run and the Mase tune (March10).

This graph is showing wheel horsepower from surrey rolling road. That up 55WHP from the last tune!




She left London feeling so good. It felt like an S2000 engine again it was immensely revy and smooth with loads and loads of power. The speeds this car achieved were now feeling really quite extraordinary and best of all it was all kept in check by my handling mods.




Thankfully in my buying frenzies I had also bought a spare engine. Unfortunately it appeared to have previously swam the channel-











It turned out that was fairly handy purchase as it wasn't long till the engine threw a hissy fit. Preliminary inspection showed up this



Though it was still knocking like hell when warm and throwing out loads of mobil 1 (an oil I ll never use again if i have the choice!)

Engine out and stripped down showed up this-



Bad wear on bores 1 and 4. I can only assume this was due to excess heat degrading the oils ability to lubricate. Although I am far far from an expert in this matter.

So I had the 'swimmer' engine reconditioned ready for re-install with the GReddy kit. This engine was a lot lot quieter than the original. I had my local tuner remap it on the safe side, so I could use it hard with out worry. With that in mind he simply couldn't get that the engine to produce the figures that the car had produced previous.

razzele

From there she was up and running 'reliably' again. The winter weather had passed and the track season was approaching fast! I had a new geo setup put on for about the 5th time in 9 months and I was craving new improved track action.

That GT3RS was mine next time. Id improved further on the handling setup with Cusco anti roll bars, white-line adjustable drop links and some nice shiny Rays wheels with another set of new 888s


Croft booked for a rare weekend off in August again.



She was looking deceptively standard to a layman but was really packing below! I was first out on the track. It felt like all the forces were magnified substantially now. I was nt getting stuck anymore waiting for that magic-'whoa VTAK just kicked in yo' type feeling. Just blasting around and round like exocet missile. Popping flames down start - finish straight, I was sliding out of the Jim Clarke Esses at 110mph



8 laps of pure joy. Then that familiar feel of the tyres going off and I could smell a wee wisp of oil, time to pit in.



A bit of head scratching with an open bonnet revealed the turbo oil feed was leaking directly onto the turbo unfortunately it was pooling quite badly right on top of the turbine housing! Game over- recovery booked and expected by 1030am

Closer scrutiny revealed the manifold was starting to crack. So this started Phase 3 of the power chase!


This nerf was a concerted effort to reduce heat and hopefully increase track time and longevity.

A controversial purchase but if anyone genuinely needs a vented bonnet its a turbo abuser.



What is really funny about these bonnets is the vents have rain trays in that completely block any airflow out of the engine bay! They had to go immediately along with the crappy metal mesh on the out side of the vent holes!





I sprayed the old yellow washer jets and then found the holes in the CF bonnet were too small. I spent a good half hour calving the holes to suit! I then twigged the factory have put the bonnet support hole in completely the wrong place!







Oil cooler, I got a thermostatic sandwich plate for that which im well chuffed with.










What a mess I made there.

After tidying I added some of this -



and installed that-



AEM oil temp gauge - Fahrenheit scale arghh!

A replacement one of these came



as that one leaked!



So then I could add that!

With Some of this -



End result was a much cooler water and oil system ready for Power Stage 3 !

So I got on and ordered a new manifold from Pang at Pfab it was just a modest GReddy replacement 'log style' manifold. Then I noticed guys had modified the turbine and compressor wheels on their Greddy turbos with good effect. This really got me thinking. After much thinking and very little doing I made the rash decision of ordering a completely new turbo.

I got a GT30 internally wastegated turbo. One I could use with the little GReddy manifold (I know what your thinking!) Differences being it is much larger turbo. Larger means 'laggier' and hotter but this is a Ball bearing water cooled turbo. So Im hoping for a huge increase in power for marginal increase in lag.

After much ado about basically nothing I got her running again with this new setup. I had to-

Make a new actuator arm and supporting bracket.

Remove the factory 'oil heater/cooler' thingy.

Make new oil lines to and from the turbo.

Make water lines to and from the turbo.

Modify the original intercooler charge pipes to accommodate.



She is still yet to be set up on a rolling road so no figures. It feels very strong though I think I have problems with the current BOV. Gear changes sound like I fitted a giant bird caller not a Ball Bearing turbo!

Any way here is some more crappy iPhonings-



Yes my bumper is cable tied on !

Coming soon -

Custom made 3 inch down pipe and a quiet custom 3 inch Single exhaust (Booked for the 22nd december)

ID1000 injectors, Okada plasma coils and new Spark plugs (sitting in a box in the garage right now)

HiSpec front and rear Big brake kit - still waiting for Roy to say the rear kit is ready for mail order.

Bassoctopus

Good old Springfield eh. ?

razzele

That was the new Scotswood road branch. Shiny premises brand new s2000 courtesy car with accompanying massive bills and soddy workmanship to say the least !

Stevie_P

Good Man. Great thread.
S2000. Tick. Got one
Chimaera. Tick. Had one.
Ducati. Tick. Had one (Although a 748S)
Track days at Croft. Tick. (On the bike though)
and originally from up North.
Have you stolen my identity?

Bassoctopus

I tried to get some coolant from there for the Teg a couple of weeks ago. After a 20 minute wait I was informed that they had none and apparently don't stock it. The desk monkey couldn't answer my question "What do your mechanics use for service/repairs."

RevRanger

Great read

I was there that day at Croft and remember seeing the yellow peril flying around the track!

razzele

Yup and I am currently using your credit cards to keep fuel in my GTR35 !!

razzele

I went to get exhaust bolts for the S this week - special order from Japan apparently!!



There is something extremely wrong in there!