Hi, I'm Scott and I'm the original owner of my 02 EP3. A couple weekends ago I dropped it off at my friends shop so he could check/fix the rear brakes. The drivers side rear caliper had been hanging up so I figured it may need to be changed and I really didn't want to do it. Truth be told, I hadn't driven the car in months because I knew it needed to be done and I didn't want to do it. So I took it to his shop and after everything was taken apart we determined that the caliper was seized. I bought a new caliper along with new rotors and pads on each side and my friend put it all back together. I went to his shop a few days later to pay him and pick up the car and after kicking the tires for a few minutes, decided now would be an ideal time to pull the engine, see what kind of condition it's in, and freshen it up.

While I can't say that I'd personally be interested in reading a thread about a 13 year old quarter-million mile K20A3 rebuild, because I have put every mile on this car since new, performed all maintenance and modifications, and tuned this car on AEM S1 EMS myself, I thought there might be an interesting longevity + performance aspect to my situation. I've been anxious to see some of this stuff myself so if you're interested, allow me to paint the picture.

April 02, I bought the EP3 so I could take my delSol off the road and turn it into more of a dedicated track car (I'm the o.o. of my 95 delSol as well, still own it). With the delSol playing the role of race car, the plan for the EP was just to keep it stock, comfortable, and reliable. But you know how that always goes. Fast forward to December 05, the car is paid off, I did pretty good with mods and as it sat, it had:
Tein S-Techs
Energy motor mount inserts
AEM V2 intake
Custom B-pipe (stock muffler)
DC titanium strut brace
DC rear tie bar

The gf and I took it on a couple east-coast vacations, I drove it to the PRI trade show a few times, in addition to daily use I had racked up ~89,000 miles on it by 12-2005. The car hadn't posed any problems or issues and it had been completely drama-free up to this point. And this is when I decided that I wanted to learn how to tune. So after speaking to Devin Pearce at the 05 PRI show we decided to put an AEM S1 EMS in the car right after we returned from the trade show. January 2006 - I took the EP to a local DynoJet to have it baselined, after that the stock ECU was relocated to my bedroom closet, and the AEM EMS was installed in the EP (30-1070). Let me tell you something about installing a stand-alone ECU in your car in the middle of winter in Michigan; you'll become an expert at cold starts REAL quick or you're going to be late for work A LOT. I'm grateful that my boss at Kinsler Fuel Injection was very understanding.

At this point in time, AEM didn't offer a "basemap" for an EP3 which made my learning curve a little steeper than it could have been. Which was OK with me since the ultimate objective to this exercise was for me to learn. And for about 6 months - I did. I learned a ton. I'd get home from work, drive, datalog, analyze, make changes, drive, datalog, analyze, make changes, drive, datalog, analyze, make changes - thousands of miles worth. And I played with everything: VTC, injection phasing, ignition phasing, idle/ignition strategies, 2-step, traction control - everything and anything the AEM allowed me to access. Once I was happy with where I had the tune, I called up Devin and we returned to the dyno I baselined it on. First pull was up 15 hp over the baseline and Devin wasn't able to get any more out of it (note: nothing had changed except the ECU). Confident that my tune was solid, off I went into the sunset.

Sometime in 07, around 120,000 miles I thought my clutch was starting to feel sloppy (I'm sure this had nothing to do with all the 2-step launches I had to test ) so after a couple phone calls an opportunity presented itself to test-fit Exedy's new (at the time) stg. 1 clutch kit with 7 lb. flywheel. My friend and I dropped the trans, removed the original clutch, pp, & flywheel (which still looked like new!) and installed the Exedy clutch, pp, & flywheel that was in the car up till a couple weeks ago.

Sometime in 09, around 160,000 miles I thought the valvetrain was getting a little loud so I took the valve cover off for the first time to check/reset lash. As I was rolling the motor over I noticed that the #4 exhaust lobe looked really bad. Like REALLY bad. Grooved & pitted. I panicked. Checked the price of a new OEM exhaust cam and decided that wasn't an economic solution. So I went on Craigslist and found another K20A3 on the west side of the state for $300. Made a call, borrowed my parents Explorer, and off I went to buy this spare motor just for the exhaust cam. Tore the spare motor down (bottom end was junk), swapped exhaust cams, set lash, and everything was right with the world again.

Sometime in 11, around 190,000 miles the stock muffler had rotted out so the custom B-pipe and OEM muffler were tossed out and a Apex-i WS cat-back was installed. It was around this time that I left Kinsler Fuel Injection to start working at Motovicity and like a kid in a candy store, I had to buy a couple things. OEM diff was tossed for a Quaife LSD. OEM header & cat were tossed for a DCRH. S-Techs and OEM shocks were tossed for a set of coilovers (that I'll keep nameless). Centric rotors with Hawk HPS pads all around. I also got 17" Konigs with 205-40 Yoko S-Drives. And that's how it remained until a couple weeks ago with ~240,000 miles on the clock.

I've done every oil change on the car since new, in the early years I used 5W20 synthetics, but in it's latter years I've used 5W30 semi-synths every 3000 to 3500 miles. I have no patronage to oil companies so the engine has seen (probably) every name brand of oil offered from Eneos to Quaker State. I don't use no-brand or private labeled oil/filters (like Walmarts oil) but I'm not particular to any specific brand. The engine breathed through an AEM Dry-Flow filter for all but a couple thousand miles of it's life. I'll clean that with soap & water about once a year or whenever I notice it's visibly dirty. And besides keeping gas in it, I haven't done much else.

So after 151,000+ miles on my first EFI tune, I'm anxious to see what kind of damage I've done.

Dynos from 06:


Here's the car as it sits at my friends shop:




Some junk in the trunk:


First time motor has been out since Honda bolted it in:




Intake ports & valves look pretty clean (for 240,000+ miles):






Top end looked pretty good, no sludge:


Until:


#4 exhaust lobe again...

And now I'm trying to decide on putting this back in - or putting the Quaife sequential in it instead:


I'm still not sure what I'm going to do with the motor. Ultimately it depends on what we find as we take it apart. The only things I know for sure at this point are:
New exhaust cam
valve seals
intake gasket
exhaust gasket
rear main seal
accessory belt
head gasket
11.5:1 JE pistons (crank & rods will depend on the condition of the stock crank)
rod bearings
main bearings
timing chain
TCT

Tonight the head should come off and the crank should come out. I'm really anxious to check out the bores, chambers, and bearings.

 

You may notice some wear/damage to the face of Pistons but since it has been treating you well for so long I would venture to say that your tune is fine.

 

Love that you're keeping the A3 and giving it a new life. Subscribed.

 

I'm pleased with the looks of the main bearings and crank journals. I'm confident the bottom end would've been good for another 240,000+ miles









Chambers aren't too carbon'd up. The spark plugs have a orangish / reddish color that I've never noticed before. I wonder if that's due to the 6 month old gas I drove it on?



All in all, I'm happy. Head is going out to get hot tanked, flat cut, and a valve job. New valve seals, valves, springs, and retainers ordered.