S2000 Engine Purchased

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

It's an earlier one, the breather valve on the earlier ones sticks up vertically from the cam cover, before turning 90 degrees, where it then has a short hose connected, to link to the inlet manifolds.

On later engines, it just comes straight out of the side of the cam cover.

[Thrustyjust]

AP1 and AP2's( aka AP1 facelift)  I thought have throttle cables but the later AP2's have FBW too after 2006. As Dave said it has the earlier rocker cover. Not an issue . Earlier engines have a slightly more aggresive VTEC and a lighter flywheel according to some. But either engine are good. When you strip to a bare engine, check the valve clearances now as I found its a sod doing it with the inlet manifold on. Looks daunting to strip, but buy some bags from staples and label the bolts, as they do use different length bolts holding some bits on the engine.

[Peter (Monty)]

Welcome to the S2000 gang, Rich  I have the same age of engine as you, with the old style of PCV connector out of the cam cover.

If you have any questions, just ask, everyone here is incredibly keen to help.

And start a build thread - it's great for tracking your progress and sometimes people notice mistakes or future complications ahead of time! And take photos of everything. They always come in handy later on.

[Andy (Sycho)]

As said an earlier engine, it's the same as mine which came out of a 2000 car.

It will also have a different hydraulic clutch  which is better for our application.

[CraigHew]

According to a couple of older posts on S2ki (and you really should join the forum: it's free and a great info source for our engines) the date of the engine is contained within the engine stamp number, position 3

So in your case F20C2 10303XX   positions 3 indicates that is 2003.

The vin number on your log book can be put into a vin decoder website ( https://www.vindecoderz.com/EN/Honda/S2000  )  where you will need the full 17 character vin but as you alude to that will show you the provenance of the car and won't help if the eigine has been swapped out.

However, the S2ki forums reakon the vin is also stamped onto the gearbox  ( The transmissions is on the bell housing on the mating surface to the engine. I think it is on the passenger side but higher then you can see when under the car. ) 

So,

If the vin on the log book matches the vin on the gearbox, then the gearbox is original.  If the vin is different then perhaps it came with the swapped engine, in which case the vin decoder website should help identify its year of manufacture.

Anyway, apart from all that: great choice of engine and really pleased to see another S2000 build on the cards.  Please start a build thread with lots of pictures....

[Rich201060]

Thanks for all the help and advice, I will start a build thread my intention was to get an engine and gearbox as I realise there getting rare and expensive.May be a few months before I can get going on the Engine mind you I whipped the top cover of today and all the plugs out pipe work etc. Can anyone recommend a engine stand been looking at a cheap one on Ebay £35 

Rich

[Peter (Monty)]

I got mine from Machine Mart, I think it's the 340kg one.

[Dave Eastwood (Gadgetman) - Club Chairman]

I bought one of the heavy duty Machine Mart ones years ago, and it's still going strong now, it's the one with the big u shaped base - I figured it would be more stable for doing up my (then) C20XE's hugely tightly torqued on crank pulley nut!!

The MM has served me lots of times, and been on it's travels round local members a fair few times, too.

I also bought, while first building the Honda car, a cheap eBay special, just to use to store the Vauxhall engine well it was up for sale. It's a piece of crap for anything other than holding the engine off the floor. The three castor design isn't the most stable when working on an engine. But the worst thing about it is the pivot that lets you turn the engine upside down, or on its side - one of the best features, normally of using an engine stand. Even with copious amounts of grease, it was just too badly made and finished to be able to rotate properly with the weight of an engine on it. It would just jam completely, with the engine at some useless half turned angle.