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Newbie Introduction and Honda S2000 query


StuWhite

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Unfortunately I don't think wf have a demonstrator s2000

anymore, but there will be plenty at Stoneleigh.

Hopefully I'll be there Sunday with the car (if I get the reg)

Hope to see you there.

Andy

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Unfortunately I don't think wf have a demonstrator s2000

anymore, but there will be plenty at Stoneleigh.

Hopefully I'll be there Sunday with the car (if I get the reg)

Hope to see you there.

Andy

Great - look forward to it. Best of luck with the registration

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Its only really the throttle body being fly by wire that causes a problem using the later engines and you can buy aftermarket cable ones to sort that out.

Would stay away from high mileage motors and try and get the best engine and box that you can afford.

If money was not an issue I'd love to go for the spoon crate motor from negun but it's about £7000

I'll also be there at stoneleigh so if you want a passenger ride give me a shout

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Its only really the throttle body being fly by wire that causes a problem using the later engines and you can buy aftermarket cable ones to sort that out.

Would stay away from high mileage motors and try and get the best engine and box that you can afford.

If money was not an issue I'd love to go for the spoon crate motor from negun but it's about £7000

I'll also be there at stoneleigh so if you want a passenger ride give me a shout

Yes I saw the Negun website the other day - would be great but well out of my price range too!!

A passenger ride at Stoneleigh would be absolutely great - thank you! Will look out for you.

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Depending on your time scale....

 

As Stu said Westfield will be launching in conjunction with Omex, a multi-throttle body kit for the Mega S2000 later in the year. (The kit will hopefully be in development shortly).

 

When launched, this will leave a few Mega S2000 owners selling on precisely the bits you'd need to convert a late drive-by-wire S2000 engine into a cable operated standard set up. So you could get a good late engine, and have a choice, either go for the steppe rate throttle body kit too, or pick up the bits needed to convert the DBW car at a good price from another Westfield owner. Either way is win/win!

 

Forget the clutch valve, it's a non issue, it can either be removed - usually fairly simply, or you even just swap the clutch slave cylinder from an earlier car - they're not dear on eBay. The later gearbox that it comes on (post 2004) is a slightly better box than the earlier one, with internal improvements.

 

Later engines don't burn anywhere near as much oil as the early one are reputed to do. Though the S2000 engine does have an unusual high volume/high pressure oil system to cope with the demands of the VTEC switching system, so it's important that the oil system is in good nick and been well maintained.

 

The Honda engine seems to be exceptionally well made, and long lasting, so as long as looked after, milage shouldn't be a problem. Don't go wasting money on anything advertised as rebuilt/reconditioned though, just get something later if you can afford it. There are elements of the engine that are allegedly* not so easy to recondition in the traditional way and achieve anywhere near as good a result as Honda did. So there are only a small number of specialists in this country that could probably do it. With so many decent engines around, it pays to just get one of those, currently. (This situation will change in the years to come no doubt!)

 

*So many self professed F20C experts tell me this, and so many internet experts repeat it! I suspect there must be at least some truth in it...

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As far as the build goes. I would honestly say that the standard S2000 kit is one of the most straightforward to build. Mainly, because with the exception of the Mazda powered SDV, it's the only Westfield with an engine gearbox designed to be used in a front engined rear wheel drive configuration, and as a matched pair. Unlike the SDV, it doesn't require anything like the number of donor parts to be modified by the builder.

 

As others have said, a deposit only is required to start the order process, and a credit card can take care of that issue.

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Hi stu welcome to wscc , you will be welcome at Hants & wilts meet, which is last Sunday of the month at either black dog Waltham chase or luzzie Romsey all be it we change to first Tuesday when lighter nights come in keep an eye on local forum, look forward to seeing you at a meet or Stoneliegh

Ross

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:ww: Stu.  Not an s2000 man myself but in the 'Family' as it were.   You don't have to buy all the parts from Westfield, lots of items are available elsewhere should there be supply problems.

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Depending on your time scale....

 

As Stu said Westfield will be launching in conjunction with Omex, a multi-throttle body kit for the Mega S2000 later in the year. (The kit will hopefully be in development shortly).

 

When launched, this will leave a few Mega S2000 owners selling on precisely the bits you'd need to convert a late drive-by-wire S2000 engine into a cable operated standard set up. So you could get a good late engine, and have a choice, either go for the steppe rate throttle body kit too, or pick up the bits needed to convert the DBW car at a good price from another Westfield owner. Either way is win/win!

 

Forget the clutch valve, it's a non issue, it can either be removed - usually fairly simply, or you even just swap the clutch slave cylinder from an earlier car - they're not dear on eBay. The later gearbox that it comes on (post 2004) is a slightly better box than the earlier one, with internal improvements.

 

Later engines don't burn anywhere near as much oil as the early one are reputed to do. Though the S2000 engine does have an unusual high volume/high pressure oil system to cope with the demands of the VTEC switching system, so it's important that the oil system is in good nick and been well maintained.

 

The Honda engine seems to be exceptionally well made, and long lasting, so as long as looked after, milage shouldn't be a problem. Don't go wasting money on anything advertised as rebuilt/reconditioned though, just get something later if you can afford it. There are elements of the engine that are allegedly* not so easy to recondition in the traditional way and achieve anywhere near as good a result as Honda did. So there are only a small number of specialists in this country that could probably do it. With so many decent engines around, it pays to just get one of those, currently. (This situation will change in the years to come no doubt!)

 

*So many self professed F20C experts tell me this, and so many internet experts repeat it! I suspect there must be at least some truth in it...

Thanks you Dave, this is really useful - I think the new Omex kit could be the way to go assuming I can afford it - would quite like to get any engine / transmission mods done during the build rather than regret not doing it and revisit soon after the kit is complete.  Any other suggestions for upgrades - flywheel / clutch etc? Im not intending to do many track days or racing, this is going to be predominantly a road car so reliability is going to be as much an important factor as performance for me.

 

I have been reading your build diary with great interest and have picked up lots of tips (the noisy tensioner fix is particularly handy - thanks).

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Hi stu welcome to wscc , you will be welcome at Hants & wilts meet, which is last Sunday of the month at either black dog Waltham chase or luzzie Romsey all be it we change to first Tuesday when lighter nights come in keep an eye on local forum, look forward to seeing you at a meet or Stoneliegh

Ross

You will definitley see me there Ross - thank you

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Don't go to light on the flywheel as the engine is free Revving as it is. It will make setting off a nightmare.

Same with the clutch. Stage 1 upgrade at the most.

The Westfield is under half the weight of a standard s2000 believe it or not.

so will not put the clutch under that's much strain

I'm still getting used to mine and I only went for stage 1 (competition clutch) flywheel and a standard friction plate with an updated pressure plate

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Don't go to light on the flywheel as the engine is free Revving as it is. It will make setting off a nightmare.

Same with the clutch. Stage 1 upgrade at the most.

The Westfield is under half the weight of a standard s2000 believe it or not.

so will not put the clutch under that's much strain

I'm still getting used to mine and I only went for stage 1 (competition clutch) flywheel and a standard friction plate with an updated pressure plate

 

I'll 2nd that. :oops:

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The other thing to get right is diff ratio

It's been debated a lot on here but for a road car I think the 3.62 is one of the best (just my opinion)

For the 300 miles that I've done in the car it has a good usable first gear and cruises at 77mph @ 4000 rpm in 6th

I've heard that the 3.92 is not that different and both have been tried in the demo car

Best advice I can give is work out what you want from the car and get the big things that are hard to change right as you can always change the little things later on.

I think I'm right in thinking that changing the diff on a FW car involves taking the body off

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Hmm, bear in mind I'm only a hundred or so miles in, but my in built "Westfield radar" for what feels right/wrong doesn't quite like the 3.92 diff that's in mine.

 

- I fitted it 'cause it's what I had, and on paper it looked reasonable, but I've already had the gearing calculators out looking at alternatives. I'll live with it for a while, but I can see a 3.62 swap in my future...

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