Sorry for the late update everyone, it's just been a really hectic month. I made the treck from Orlando to Virginia for the August 25/26 VIR event with NASA MA. I am trying to knock out all of my favorite childhood tracks one by one! PS: wait until you see which one is next.
I don't own a truck/trailer so I had to drive the S2000 up. I was a little bit worried of the 10hr drive because the car isn't very comfortable at this point. The loud Tomei exhaust coupled with a Sparco containment seat aren't fun for long periods of time. However, as we began the trek, it actually wasn't that terrible. The excitement began to set in and time ended up flying by.
I installed the Tomei silencer, which made the car as quiet as stock, but I think that's the issue for what's to come. For some reason, with the silencer installed the car would not engage VTEC. It would just sit at that RPM and burble. Removing the silencer proved that to be the problem because suddenly VTEC was back.
Once at the track though, all of those struggles were forgotten. Even disregarding the track, VIR is gorgeous. Everything was a lucious green, the weather was beautiful, and the people as friendly as ever. Even if I wasn't driving I wish I could go back and soak it all in again.
The track itself was tricky during my first session. A Mustang owner wrecked so it got cut short after only a handful of laps. It took me 2-3 sessions in order to get my bearings on the line, but after that I was doing pretty well. I spent a lot of the weekend giving ridealongs to others that made the trip with us so I don't have any accurate representation of my pace. I was complaining about power loss to my friends because the car was going in and out of VTEC and the engagement point would change from lap to lap. With all that said, I managed a 2:18:x with passenger and loss of power. I don't think that's too bad for my first time there!
However, late Sunday evening things suddenly went South. I was out on my recon lap when I had no VTEC at all on the back straight. Going about 110MPH and the car would not accelerate. Couple seconds later and BOOM! Oil everywhere, smoke everywhere, metal chunks flying in my rearview mirror and the car turns off. I park on the side of the grass and have to be towed to the pits. My 185k AP1 block finally gave way.
When tearing apart the motor, I believe the issue to be a failed rocker. The VTEC rocker on intake cylinder #3 had sheared. Therefore, I only had VTEC on three cylinders (hence me complaining about my power loss). That coupled with me continuing driving the car led to the failure.
However, a month later and I'm back on the road! This time with a good condition F22! I opted to keep my AP1 transmission as that combo sounds really enticing to me. Keep and eye out for a Sebring post next month to hear my thoughts!
If you guys want a tutorial on how to do a motor swap on this car let me know and I will make one. It actually isn't too bad when you know what to do.