I was driving normally today and then the engine just stopped (WOT, ~4000rpm), to the tune of some horrible metallic grinding noises. When I opened the hood, some slight smoke came out of the air filter and dipstick area. Now it doesn't turn over (at least in the correct direction)....like something is blocking it. And that something appears to be inside the engine (not the AC, not the alternator) Besides that, no leaks, nothing obvious.

It's in the shop right now, and nobody can be sure, until they open it up. But I believe S2000 has suffered catastrophic engine failure. This doesn't happen too often, from what I understood. Anybody have any insight? How much a replacement engine costs? In Poland, at that

2002 S2000, by the way.

****.

 

I am in the proccess of an engine replacement myself. Someone drained my oil as a prank. I paid $3900 shipped for an engine with 44k miles on it in the states from www.gotengines.com. Not sure how much international shipping is. You can get a JDM F20c from www.hmotorsonline.com with a harness and tranny for $3800 plus shipping. Just give em a call and I'm sure they can help. They are both very easy businesses to deal with.

 

thats not a funny prank.

 

Did you run out of oil?

 

No, there's still oil in there. I called the shop, they said that it seems a piston is "stuck". And a spark plug is busted. Which probably means the spark plug caused the piston to get "stuck". Now the question is if the spark plug was the cause, or a result of the problem. I guess they'll take off the head and find out.

Either way, my limited knowledge of engines tells me that I need a new engine....

gripek thanks for the links. I'll have to find somethign in Europe, or get it shipped form the states. Either way, I'm guessing it will be a few K more than your price :/

 

you bent a rod and the crank wont turn... pistons dont "stick" lol

that metallic noise you heard was your motor detonating, causing a spun rod bearing/bent rod

youre effed... better start ordering some rods and get that engine stand ready...

good luck brah

 

You mean you think the motor blew because of bad gas? Shouldn't the knock sensor take care of detonation?

It did run kind of weird sometimes. When I would floor it, the power would sometimes suddenly dip and rise on its way to redline. Then it would stop doing this for the rest of the day. Next day, it would do the same thing on the first or second trip to redline, and then it would be ok again until the end of the day....

 

The knock sensor does take care of detonation to a certain amount.

I don't think your motor blew because of detonation. There was a sparkplug recall on AP1s. I'm not sure what year. Apparently, spark plugs were coming loose and falling into the cylinder somehow. This would cause blown motors.

Maybe your power dip/rise was caused by a misfire...due to a faulty plug.

Who knows? It doesn't really matter now. You don't need a whole swap. You just need a longblock.

Get a hold of an engine importer and have them ship you a long block. You allready have all your accesories/manifolds/sensors/trans/ecu/etc. You just need a good block and head assembly.

 

The shop told me that a spark plug was also "broken off". I just got new spark plugs in the mail, too. I was waiting for them to get shipped form the US....

That would suck if that was the reason...but at least it would be a satisfying explanation.

 

Sounds like the plug was the culprit. Sorry for your misfortune.

How many miles did your S2k have?

 

I saw the spark plug from cylinder #3 today, and the tip of it was completely mashed up. It looked ugly. Then we proceeded to put to dipstick into the same cylinder spark plug hole, just to feel it I guess.

The dipstick sank all the way down, until it stopped at the oil pan.

I guess I will take apart the engine and see exactly what happened. I will keep posting my findings, if just so other people can reference them in the future...

 

Ordered the engine from the UK about a month and a half ago, and it finally got here. I guess I had different understanding of "next day shipping", but I'll chalk that up to differences between UK and US English

So mechanic started switching the engines. Hopefully we'll take the old one apart soon and see wth exactly happened. The answer will have massive implications, as it will determine whether I'll be willing to ever buy a decent car again or not.











Looks like half a piston got coughed up through the intake manifold....

 

jeez.. at least you got the new motor. hope everything works well for ya

 

Exhaust springs, with the broken valve clearly sitting lower












Click on thumbnail












Good cylinder closeup






Failed valve retainer


Other exhaust valve from destroyed cylinder


That's as far as I got taking it apart.

I'm not seeing any evidence of what went wrong. No oil burning, no detonation, no overrev, no overheating...nothing. Just a good old fashined valve break under normal operating conditions. Except this motor is not supposed to be old fashined...

That's my untrained eye though. Maybe someone else will see something in these pics that I don't? I do have more, and of higher resolution. I can also take more, if anybody has any suggestions.

Does anybody maybe know how to tell if the valves are original Honda parts?

 

i can hardly bear to look at it - horrible. good luck mate..

 

a weak valve spring or maybe sticky valve............this explains it perfectly why " the power would sometimes suddenly dip and rise on its way to redline ".

 

Somebody on another forum mentioned "sticky valve". Except they even further into detail, claiming that they've actually seen S2000 motors blown because of sticky exhaust valves resulting from too much valve-to-guide clearance.

So this actually happens to S2000 motors? Yesterday was the first time I ever heard of ANY motor blowing as a result of this...

 

Wow, that's horrible. Sorry for the misfortune man.

 

Wow, wierd that i happened to look in this section today.

I just had my engine replaced due to a dropped valve, i had also found some cracked retainers(keepers fell out?). My s2000 is an 03' with 23k on it.

Thank god i had bought an aftermarket warrentee. The bill came to just over $6k for a used 20k mile engine installed at a honda dealership.

 

Last month my s2k spun a rod bearing just cruising down the interstate @ like 4400rpms. Fortunately my damage was no where as severe, didn't touch the head just have to replace the rod, bearings, and turn the crank. Going to go ahead and put a new timing chain, water pump, head gasket, etc on it while i have it torn down. Apparently this happens a lot more often then people realize. Mine is a '00 w/ 75k miles on it.

 

Those are some detailed pictures

 

cool pictures, sorry for the misfortune... loooks like a the retainer probobly failed due to a mechanical overrev from mis-shift... it happens.. although i cant see a crack in that retainer you pictured

if it was you who did it, id suggest upgrading to AP2 retainers

 

There's no indication whatsoever of overrev. The valve simply split in 2 under tension.

Why would it do that....

 

sorry to see those pictures. good luck on the new engine. the last time i saw something like that was when a customer misshifted his s2000. went from sixth to second and popped the clutch.

 

have u figured out wtf happened??