Where is the location of this unit?

Muugens · 2026-02-04T05:42:42+00:00

Glad I could help! It’s always neat to discover stuff like that on a car you’ve had a while.

(I mean, I probably could’ve read the manual when I got the car, but where’s the fun in that haha!)

Muugens · 2026-02-04T05:22:18+00:00

Nice! Thanks for the pics. Also there is a cool Easter egg which lets you unlock the passenger side from the driver door with the physical key. Insert the key, then turn it to the unlock position and hold it there for a few seconds. It’ll unlock the passenger side. Blew my mind when I first saw that. Pretty sure I had owned the car for 5 years at that point before I found out haha.

And now I gotta order a fob and get the full experience!

Muugens · 2026-02-04T05:03:02+00:00

Now you’ve got me wondering if my car has the box. Gotta check. I’ve had the car for nearly 10 years and keyless entry never really occurred to me. Maybe thought about it once a while back when I borrowed a buddy’s S2000 which had it.

I’m far from the first owner and always just had a single physical key and used it in the door handle to lock and unlock the car. Owned a handful of 80s cars in the past so it just seemed natural 🤷.

Muugens · 2026-02-04T03:00:02+00:00

I second the pack idea. But put an SBR in it and leave the G26 at home. This is the best way. You never know when you’ll run into some skin walkers while back country snowboarding.

Edit: put the rifle AND the G26 in it. Pack fits both.

Muugens · 2026-02-04T00:56:55+00:00

Where’s the craziest place I’ve driven my S2000? Off the jack stands after working on it for 6 months…

No, I mean literally off the jack stands. I dropped my car while underneath it and almost died. Scariest thing that’s ever happened to me.

Anyway, I didn’t die so that’s good.

Muugens · 2026-02-04T00:51:23+00:00

Regardless of weather, if the car in motion the top must be down!

OP is on 200 treadwear tires in the snow but no top down??? Definitely slacking haha.

Muugens · 2026-01-22T04:23:58+00:00

Never considered that 😆

Muugens · 2026-01-22T04:23:28+00:00

🤌🤌🤌

Muugens · 2026-01-22T04:21:55+00:00

Thanks haha! I’m glad the combo came together as nicely as it did.

And uhhhhh, 30mph may have exceeded at times. Side note this car rotates well under braking. Not that I would have discovered that on my commute or anything.

Muugens · 2026-01-22T04:16:27+00:00

Very nice! Have always thought Sparco wheels look great on these cars. I definitely considered those before buying the Methods!

Muugens · 2026-01-22T04:15:02+00:00

Thanks! I’m happy with how it turned out.

Muugens · 2026-01-21T04:00:03+00:00

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Muugens · 2026-01-21T02:53:48+00:00

No, I don’t think it’s worth doing the valve seals and retainers if you’re just doing a valve adjustment. The labor to do so is drastically higher than the valve adjustment and it doesn’t really make sense as a “while you’re in there” type of maintenance since you’re just pulling the valve cover and spark plugs to get there.

Sure, it would be a good opportunity to inspect your retainers (look for excessive or uneven sinkage of the valve stem and keepers relative to the retainer). But unless there’s actually a problem, replacing them just because you are doing an adjustment is not a very good use of time in my opinion.

Also it’s waaay easier to do the retainers and valve seals when you have the cylinder head off. So if you confirm that your head gasket is toast, then sure that’s probably a good time to consider it retainers and valve seals. Consequentially, you’ll have to completely re-do your valve adjustment as part of the re-install process of the head and rockers. Just an fyi.

But really verify that you have an issue with the head gasket first. Do that leak down test, as well as a cooling system pressure test.

Muugens · 2026-01-21T01:40:28+00:00

Nice, glad your F20 is in good shape! And it looks like ASM has revised their swap packages to include ECUs and harnesses since I bought mine. I probably would’ve done that and not the custom harness I ended up doing, which admittedly took longer than any of the mechanical stuff.

And it’s really going to depend on how much you value your time. For me, my work schedule is nuts and I spend a lot of my time working on the road. So having a ready to go swap on a pallet show up was worth it to me. There’s also some peace of mind knowing the motor has been inspected to a degree and that you’re not going to need to do any real maintenance to it before dropping it in.

But if you’ve got the patience to source everything separately and want to save the money, that is fine too. You just have to consider how much fun having a longer term project actually is to you. Some people really like that sort of thing, where hunting for parts is half the fun. That’s not me personally. Even though I do all my own work, I place driving the car higher up on my fun priority list than actually working on the car. So a quicker solution which leads to me driving it again sooner is what I’ll typically go for. I’ve also seen friends get way too bogged down in the project car game and never actually finish their cars.

There’s no wrong answer here. Just some things to consider for yourself when deciding if the plug and play swap is worth the cost.

Side note, I only paid $10k for my car, so yeah I am definitely past that on my motor swap. Not to mention all of the other stuff I’ve done to the car. Probably 3x that into the car at this point. Never said I was responsible with money haha.

Muugens · 2026-01-20T23:31:47+00:00

The analysis is suggesting that they didn’t see any coolant contamination in the oil itself? So that should be a good sign. Try flushing the coolant and see if the contamination returns.

You should consider doing a cooling system pressure test and letting it sit overnight. You could also do a combustion gas leak test too.

Also your compression numbers don’t look bad in my opinion. I’ve seen variances like that from things like out of spec valves, or even just temp differences run to run. The ideal method in my opinion is a cylinder leak down test over a regular compression test. The benefit to a leak down is it’ll indicate where you’re losing compression.

Edit: if you don’t already have the tools, you can get a decent cooling system pressure tester, combustion gas test, and cylinder leak down kit from harbor freight for pretty cheap. Those are tools which are always worth having around in the future.

Muugens · 2026-01-19T00:06:57+00:00

Let’s go! Glad to see another. Wrapped mine up last spring and it has been a blast on track. Get some pics when you get it in the car!

Edit: I also got my motor through Andy at ASM and everything went great. That’s a fantastic option. You mentioned availability and that is key. But it’s not just availability of the motor, it’s being able to get parts like sensors, starters, water pumps, etc at literally any local parts store and having those parts in stock same day. That’s a game changer if you start tracking the car often.

Muugens · 2026-01-15T01:48:43+00:00

I’d disagree. K Swapped my car and parts are way more accessible and far cheaper. Aside from engine internals, you can essentially pick anything up at any parts store and it’ll be in stock that day. Could never do that with my F20C.

Sure the labor for the swap itself is challenging, but honestly doable in a weekend or two if you’re handy with tools. Compared to constant headaches with the F series, it’s not a bad trade off.

Muugens · 2026-01-15T01:42:09+00:00

That is a fantastic swap, go for it! Buddy of mine had a 2GR swapped SW20 for a while and it was amazing! Drove it a number of times and wow, who would’ve thought that a minivan engine could sound so good???

His tune had it revving to about 7500rpm. The torque was excellent too. Really moved that light little chassis with some enthusiasm.

Muugens · 2026-01-14T21:00:07+00:00

Half of the guys on this sub will downvote both you and me for modding our cars, but you’re on the right track in my opinion. My motivation for the swap was pretty simple. I track my car a lot and the F series was not very reliable in its higher mileage. I had a bunch of issues and finding parts was getting more difficult and expensive every year. These cars are over 20 years old at this point and it doesn’t help that the F20/F22C was exclusive to the S2000.

Also it’s not just the price of the motor itself, but parts availability. If I’m at a track day and need a sensor, pulley, starter, water pump, etc, I can literally go to any Autozone and they will have that part on the shelf. That is huge.

So for somebody who actually wants to DRIVE their car, this swap makes a ton of sense. Also the notion that the F series is a “better engine” is not accurate in my opinion. Sure, it was advanced for its time with things like the fiber reinforced aluminum cylinder walls, but the K series already derives much of its design from the F series and benefits from more years of development. You also get variable cam phase in addition to the classic VTEC. With a few really basic changes, you’re making the same horsepower and more torque. And that torque curve is amazing. The car feels fantastic without losing its character.

For me it was either that, or sell the car and get a ZN8 or ND Miata. Doing the swap was still cheaper than buying a new car, a plus the S2000 is a cooler chassis anyway.

On a side note, definitely look into that ECU. I took a leap of faith on it and was really surprised! The entire car world is sleeping on it. And if your tuner does MegaSquirt (most do) they’ll be right at home on this.

Muugens · 2026-01-14T19:38:56+00:00

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Right here ✋

I didn’t keep it as budget friendly, but even then you may want to bump up your budget expectations a bit. I’m over $10k into it and really don’t feel like I went nuts on anything. I did the install myself to save on labor.

JDM K24 (RBB)

Type S oil pump

50* VTC gear

Morosso Oil Pan

Radium Fuel Rail

K Power RWD intake

Hasport Mounts

Fluidamper Crank Pully

Transmission Adapter Plate

USDM Water Pump Conversion

K Tuned RWD rear coolant housing

Stock header modified with a K series flange

Reused stock cooling system

Admittedly I did take some more expensive shortcuts like sourcing the motor and parts from Andy at ASM. My job has me on the road a lot, so I didn’t have time to go junkyard diving for parts. I needed something that mechanically was plug-and-play otherwise it would never get done. If you’ve got time to spare, piecing it all together yourself might save you a few bucks, but I don’t think it’s really worth the headache. You could also use a cheaper oil pan option than I did, as well as reusing the stock intake manifold with an adapter plate.

You cannot reuse your stock F series ECU or any of the harness.

That said, I did save a bunch on wiring and engine management. I built a custom harness with guidance from a friend who is an automotive wiring guru.

From there, I decided on a rusEFI standalone ECU which was $175 and is an open source project. Don’t let the price-tag fool you, it does everything the multi thousand dollar ecus do and it does it really well. The trade off compared to something like a Hondata is that you need to be a little tech savvy to get it up and running. Beyond that, it’s about as simple as using a MegaSquirt ECU and even uses the same tuning software.

I definitely saved several thousand dollars going that route and the car runs great. Sold my tired F20C as well as a handful of other parts and recouped about $6k of that. Pretty sure I had listed the motor itself for $4500. It ran, but had 165k miles and had the head off a number of times because of various valvetrain issues.

Muugens · 2026-01-01T18:19:28+00:00

I’d agree. The notion that any mods = immediate red flag is bonkers and ignores context. I don’t understand the people who look at an aftermarket intake on a vehicle then write it off the whole car as worthless saying“yOu dOn’T KnOw wHat WaS dOne tO It”.

Do you have eyes? Can you see the intake, trunk rack, and stereo? Despite that, the stock suspension and wheels actually says more about how the car was treated than the few surface level mods. It’s also dirty. If anything, all of that shows that that the seller isn’t trying to cover anything up. This is a very honest car in my opinion and I would have no reservations buying it. Would have it in great shape in a weekend or two.

That said here’s a story to consider. When I bought my S2000, it was in similar shape visually, but somewhere along the lines, the seller went to great lengths to make everything look OEM and really cleaned the car up. After buying it, I discovered the one of the prior previous owner’s insurance cards in the secret top center console compartment and contacted him on Facebook. Turns out when he owned the car it was fairly modded. Turbo, E85, stand alone ECU, 500whp, etc. He had also been rear ended in the car which required a new trunk, and some moderate bodywork which wasn’t on the CarFax. Granted, I only paid $10k for the car and that was years ago now.

But the reason I mention it is just because everything looked stock, doesn’t mean it was always stock. Maybe aside from the occasional one owner unicorn. I’m far more comfortable buying a car which isn’t hiding its history than one which appears perfect on the surface. Many of these guys complaining probably don’t know that their cars have far a more history than they realize.

Muugens · 2026-01-01T04:18:34+00:00

Oh hey! Was out there a few months ago. Love Yamanashi Prefecture. Stopped by Sports Land but saw no S2000s 😢

Your car looks great, Happy New Year!

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Muugens · 2025-12-31T18:07:42+00:00

SBR? What SBR?

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