Honda S2000 F20C1 Catastrophic Engine Teardown, User Error, Negligence, OR BOTH?
357,983
Published 2023-03-11
Wondering if I've torn down your engine? You can see all 115 teardowns here: • Blown Up Engine Tear Downs! A collect...
Today's patient is a first generation, or AP1 Honda S2000 Engine. An F20C1. 2.0L DOHC 4 cylinder that revs to the moon and makes nearly 120hp per liter. Considering this came out for the 2000 model year, that is pretty impressive. These engines do have their faults. Like many 4 cylinder Honda engines, they do use some oil when driven hard. Like every engine ever made, maintaining proper oil level is paramount to engine longevity. This particular engine had some less than desirable repairs on the the harness but I think the failure mode is not dissimilar to many failed engines we've seen on the channel. This engine was a late night marketplace find, and a total score for part value.
Why am I doing this? I own and run a full service auto salvage business in the Saint Louis area, and part of our model includes buying blown up or "core" engines as they're known in the industry, and tearing them down to salvage the good parts. We do not rebuild or repair any engines, we merely supply parts to those that do.
I hope you enjoyed this teardown, as always I love all of the comments, feedback, and even the criticism.
Catch you on the next one!
-Eric
All Comments (21)
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I've never seen a S2000 engine this clearly. That is a beautiful engine.
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The S2000 was a hot little number - hot enough for Johnny Tran to win a sweet VW Jetta back in the day
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My favorite thing about these engines is that they made a huge amount of power for their size and revved like crazy, and yet they use regular oil, they’re pretty reliable and they’re incredibly simple. It shows that with proper engineering, you can make a high performance engine without making it super delicate like the BMW S-engines and all of the Italian exotics.
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They're not just nice, high-revving engines, they're also reliable. My F20C1 has ~180k miles on it.
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These F20 series engines are very well engineered, reliable and pretty tough. So to see one blown up like this speaks volumes to how hard this engine was abused. They’re forgiving to an extent, this is what happens when you go over that limit.
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Wouldn’t even be surprised if this is the old engine from my brothers S2K. He money shifted it on the highway and it totally grenaded itself
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I felt the presence and tears of angels while you were tearing down this gift from the engine gods. There is an S2000 in my family so I've experienced what a sweet engine the F20 is. It's amazing. Really a shame that this happened. The oil rings all looked like they were done. The engine probably ran low on oil and the rod bearings bore the brunt. Very sad. I need a drink.
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The original f20c had a factory redline of 9k rpm but in the AP2 generation was a stroked version, the f22c and it had a lower rpm in favor of some extra bottom end power. I would say that engine was 100% money shifted going from 2nd to 3rd. Its super easy to do plus the only way to rev the engine high enough to grenade a rod journal.
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This engine is a beauty of engineering - so well designed and built. It must have seen some serious abuse to grenade like that
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As a GM V8 guy. I appreciate how very well engineered and built Honda engines are. But I don't like to work on them. But I guess if you do the proper maintenance and don't overrev them. There's not much you need to do. I like the way the timing chain went to one gear that fed the 2 cam gears. Very robust looking design. It's a shame modern engines are so focused on fuel efficiency they have thin rings, plastic parts, and don't last as long
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The way Eric always comments on how beautiful the timing chains are sometimes has me worried about what he does with them after work
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Incredible engineering went into this engine iteration. They were miles ahead of their competitors. Not an inch of fat on this engine, superior use of space. I love watching your tear downs you are so explicit in your approach.
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What a beautiful engine. The cylinder head is a thing of beauty, the ports are so nice. There’s no casting flash anywhere either.
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gets home from work (on a Saturday no less) with a fresh Domino's pizza and a tear down video. Perfect
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I would love to see a teardown of a volvo t5, t6, or xc90 v8 motor, especially a s60r motor. Love your videos. Keep up the great work!
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Never expected this engine! Nice find!
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I always love the Honda teardowns, but the F20c1 was a real treat. What an amazing piece of engineering. Thank you for the great video.
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Being a 2007 low miles AP2 owner, I really appreciate watching the teardown of this engine.
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I'm a fairly recent subscriber, but love viewing the disassembly videos. Such a relief to watch someone working who really enjoys what they do combined with the gentle humour in the commentary, the first time I heard "disconnecting rod" nearly choked on my coffee. Also a relief to watch a channel that's not trying to sell us everything from VPN's to financial services. Yes of course you've a business to run and promote but it's done in a no nonsense, not shoved down your throat fashion. Love it 🎉🎉👍
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I really enjoy you aren't just destructively ripping things apart. You follow the proper procedure to loosen cams, heads and cranks ❤
