This will be my first solo journey into rebuilding an engine, but I'm pretty well versed in taking them out and I've helped others rebuild them before. The goal of this post is to document the rebuild so I can look back at it, as well as catalogue the pictures effectively and hopefully get come decent advice from the many Honda engine builders on this site.

A note: if I seem to be explaining things rather simply, it's because I'm copying most of this from a mass email I send out to people interested in the rebuild. Please bear with me on that point if I miss some of the elementary explanations.



The S2000 started making the kind of noises you don’t ever want to hear while on my way to work one morning. My engine burned oil (as I'm sure you guys are aware of) to the point that I usually need to check my oil at every fill-up and put a quart in between oil changes. This time I didn’t.

After some towing chicanery and paying $40 for some guy to turn it on and tell me what I already knew, the Honda arrived at my family’s garage and some friendly contractors helped it in the bay. It’s worth noting that Virginia front plates make S2000s look like beavers.



Dropping the oil pan was straightforward, but had at least 18 bolts just for the perimeter. Honda doesn’t mess around on this thing, which I’d soon find out.



After taking the rod caps off, I found out some useful information:

Cylinder 1: Signs of a bit of overheating due to low oil
Cylinder 2: Signs of starvation but no signs of spin
Cylinder 3: Oops.



The bearing was barely thinner than the rest despite being spun and me driving it a couple miles afterwards. The crank journal, though blurry, suffered only small amounts of pitting somehow.



I figure a small regrind, new rod & cap, and we’ll be good to go. For the OCD, Cylinder 4 was fine albeit some signs of overheating.

So, right, time to take the motor out.

This past Sunday I came back to start the job, though I was only able to put about four hours into it. Regardless, progress was made! After much hemming and hawing, I figured lowering both engine and gearbox out from the bottom was much better than going through the horrid ordeal again that was separating the gearbox from the engine. So, I set to work getting everything out of the way that needed to be out of the way. Those avid car guys will note that I’m taking a lot of stuff off that I probably don’t need to, but I like space more than I like time savings and there’s no real rush to this job. In fact this is the entire mood of this rebuild. I’d rather enjoy myself than get it done fast.

Before I lower the drivetrain I’ll need to disconnect anything:

1. Connected to both engine and chassis (air conditioning, coolant lines, engine wiring harness, fuel, air, front suspension, etc)

2. In the way of the engine dropping out the bottom (intake manifold, the mess under the intake manifold, horrible overdesigned water pump, etc)

So, let’s get to it. First things first, take off the airbox up front, the fuel rail, and anything else clinging on to the top of the intake manifold. Here’s a pretty picture of the fuel rail, with large plastic banjo bolt connection I was trying to take off and random pointy stud I destroyed my fingernail on when aforementioned banjo bolt connection broke loose:



After the Honda’s bloodlust was satiated, I turned my attention below the intake manifold. Nice little look into the gaping maw below the intake manifold and behind all the accessories. You can see the alternator on the left. That’s a lot of hoses down there:



Belt off, tensioner off, random tensioner mount and intake brace off, alternator out. Note the huge pulley for the Frankenstein water pump. The thermostat is behind it and the lower radiator hose turns 90 degrees towards it at the green electrical connection. Also note the two metal lines bottom right going to the A/C compressor, which is decidedly in the damned way of everything:



Here’s a look under the intake manifold. What. Oh god:



And now with the water pump off and the A/C compressor moved out of the way:



And another close-up of under the intake manifold. Note the “Dreaded Starter Bolt of Death” everyone struggles with on the clutch jobs. It’s the orange bolt to the right of the green wiring connection. Also note the bolts in a line at the top left. After those come off (and some stuff for the EGR on the back) the intake manifold is coming off. And yes the cylindrical silver guy bottom left is the starter. Whomever designed that to be there was probably fired shortly after:



Here’s how it looked at the end of work Sunday. Oh also at some point I took the hood off:



Yes, the hammer was necessary.

Yesterday I came back for an hour or two in between work and a family dinner to finish stripping the intake side of the engine.

Stupid overdesigned water pump... how in the hell are you supposed to get to the thermostat when it's hiding in the intake manifold cave behind the water pump:



Mess of the upper rad hose tubing:



It backs up to the EGR and randomly goes through the intake manifold before hitting the block.

Anyways, with that out of the way as well as the intake:



we get a whole lot more space:






That's where I'm at currently, after about 6 hours total into it. As I said earlier I prefer having space over getting the job done quickly, and boy do I have space now. Any and all comments and suggestions are welcome.

Next step is disconnecting the suspension from the subframe, and disconnecting the gearbox from everything. She's coming out the bottom with gearbox still attached, for those that didn't bother to read the wall of text. I don't blame you if you didn't.

By the way, I just bought a 93 Civic dx sedan for a beater and I'm in love. Half shaft? 30 minutes. Slave Cylinder? 30 minutes with bleeding. Easier to work on than my old E30! It's rather plucky too.