Welcome to “Part 3!” If you’ve been at all keeping up, you’ll notice things are moving very quickly with Ever’s S2000. If you are just joining us here on Part 3, then you’ll want to do yourself a favor and click the links below to check out “part 1” and “Part 2”.
In this post we are turning things up a notch… New wheels/tires (you didn’t think Ever was going to keep those garbage wheels on there), Installing the Buddy Club rear RCA ball joints, TODA baffled oil pan, doing a string alignment, and changing oil/trans fluid.
A baffled oil pan is a must anytime you are using 200tw or below tires. The lateral grip and G forces that are achieved with 200tw or below tires is enough to start pulling the oil away from the sump pickup and can starve your engine of oil. A baffled oil pan adds peace of mind so you don’t have to worry about causing any premature engine wear or worse.
Quick word of caution though, not all baffled oil pans are created equal and like most things in life, you get what you pay for. Make sure you research what oil pan works best for your platform. Some oil pans are not machined perfectly and will be prone to leaks where it meets the engine block, some oil pan baffles do not protect against oil starvation as well as other designs, Bolt in VS. Weld In, and lastly the material they are made of.
I won’t waste your time going into details about oil pans, you can research all that on your own. What I am going to do is tell you that Ever purchased a TODA baffled oil pan. You might be wondering, where in the hell did Ever find a TODA oil pan, in stock, in today’s crazy times.
RHDjapan.com. Ever and I have been buying JDM goods through them for more than 10 years now. They have even the rarest of parts in stock (because they are based in Japan), and they ship DHL air freight, so it only takes 4-6 days to get to your house. RHDjapan, is one of the best kept secrets for getting Rare JDM Goods and usually its substantially cheaper than what places like JHPusa, Art of attack, Go tuning unlimited, King motorsports, Evasive motorsports, or any other one of those places. Even after shipping is included!
Anyways, pictured below is the TODA oil pan and a TODA TCT (timing chain tensioner). We are not doing the TCT install today, that will hopefully be coming up in “Part 4”.
TODA uses an OEM oil pan and then welds in nuts that the baffle screws into. “bolt in” baffles aren’t always the best option because the bolts have tendency to come loose after long periods of time. For Ever, the pros of TODA’s baffle design out weighed the cons of being bolt in. Plus, the TODA pan comes with a bung for oil temp sensor.
We are just going to put some RED loctite on the bolts and send it. There really shouldn’t be a big risk that the bolts will back out, but it is just something to keep in mind when deciding on what oil pan to get.
Thanks to our good buddy Marlon… Ever picked up some MINT Titan 7 TS-5’s with 275/35 Federal RS-RR’s. The wheels specs are 18×9.5 +22. This is an aggressive spec for a S2000, but because the car already has J’s style front fenders and wider fender flares in the rear, he should be able to make them fit without any issues.
Lastly, The Buddy Club rear RCA’s.
Installing the rear ball joints is a relatively simple process. You can either take the whole rear spindle off and press the old ball joint out and new one in. Or you can do what we did. The night before we were going to install the ball joints, I thought to myself… Maybe we should just get a ball joint service tool kit. I have rented these in the past and it makes life easy. These tools are incredibly strong and can be used in all sorts of different scenarios whether you are using them properly or improperly. Either way, they are a great tool to have in your collection.
That night, I hopped on Amazon at 10:30pm and had this one delivered 8 hours later at 6:45am! Gotta love that. Unfortunately, I ordered the one for 4wd’s (because I figured it would be stronger) but because it was meant for larger ball joints we had to improvise slightly.
Below you can see how we did it. It may be a little on the sketchy side, but the ball joints easily came out.
Once the ball joint is out, take some WD-40 and scotch brite to clean the area that the new ball joint will be going in. This will help ensure there is no marring from any dirt, rust, or debris and will allow the new ball joint to seat properly.
Now just flip the tool 180* around and press the new ball joint in. Just make sure the new ball joint is going in perfectly straight. If it’s not going in straight then you will risk damaging either the spindle, ball joint, or both. You’ll know if it’s going in straight or not because it really doesn’t take much force to get the new one in. The Buddy Club ones also come with a circlip that will help lock the ball joint in.
Keep in mind that adding the RCA ball joint from any company will essentially lower the rear more and you will most likely need to raise the height back up a few turns of the coilover. It’s a good idea to take measurements at ride height before and after so you can see how much you need to adjust.
Next, we moved on to the oil pan. This is a simple thing to do on any S2000. To gain access and allow the oil pan to easily come out, you will only need to remove the OEM front lower subframe brace, the engine stop, and the two bolts on the A/C condenser (you do not need to completely remove the A/C compressor and the serpentine belt can stay attached). Below you can see that the sub frame brace is already removed, and the Engine stopper is the rubber (engine mount looking) bracket at the front of the oil pan. Make sure you drain the oil out of the pan before you remove the pan. If you don’t, there will be a huge mess.
You don’t even need to remove the engine stopper all the way. Simply remove the three bolts holding it to the subframe and then it will slide enough to gain you the clearance needed to drop the pan.
Remove all 21 of the 10mm oil pan bolts and take note of which ones go where. Some are different lengths. Remove the X2 14mm bolts that go through the trans to the oil pan.
Once they are all removed (make double sure you got them all) the Hondabond will still be sealing the pan to the block. It will require some prying to break the seal. Make sure to only pry in the appropriate locations (there are three) do not use a screwdriver to wedge in-between the pan and block, this can cause damage to the machined surfaces and could potentially cause the pan to not fully seal and leak.
Pictured below are the only three spots you can pry from.
There are two dowel pins that are used to ensure the pan is precisely lined up. Make sure you transfer them over to your new pan before installation. Sometimes they stay in the engine block. If that’s the case, that’s fine, leave them in the engine block. Either way, just make sure you utilize the two dowel pins when reinstalling the pan.
Once the pan is off you will need to clean off all the old Hondabond. PRO TIP, use a plastic razor blade to scrape all the old gasket off. This will ensure you don’t scratch or mare the machined mating area on the block. Be very thorough here. “An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” If you don’t completely remove all old gasket, it is possible that it might leak when reinstalled. Once all old gasket is removed, make sure to clean the mating surface with brake cleaner to promote proper adhesion of Hondabond.
Before installing the new pan, thoroughly clean it out with brake cleaner to ensure there is not dirt, dust, debris of any kind in there. Now take Hondabond and apply thinly around the whole oil pan (use your old pan for reference of where to apply) Once you have applied the Hondabond, quickly install the pan so that the Hondabond doesn’t fully cure before the pan is installed. You’ll have approximately 5-10 minutes, so make sure you are ready to install the pan before you start to apply the Hondabond.
Below is straight from the factory service manual:
Make sure you DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN the oil pan bolts, they can easily snap off. They only need 8.7 lb/ft of torque. Reinstall the X2 14mm bolts through the trans, reinstall the engine stop bracket, put the bolts back in the A/C compressor, reinstall the front subframe brace, and lastly PUT OIL BACK IN THE ENGINE!
While the car was up in the air, we threw the wheels on and checked to see where the ride height was after installing the Buddy Club RCA (roll center adjusters) in the rear.
OOOOFFF, that looks damn good! But obviously he couldn’t drive with it that low.
We jacked it back up to make appropriate changes to ride height all around the car. We not only adjusted the rear, but the front as well. There was no way those front fenders would have survived with it that low.
With the car back up in the air, Ever began to adjust the ride height and I made sure to fill the car back up with oil. I also wanted to do a trans flush because who knows the last time the fluid was changed.
I had honestly wanted to use the Royal Purple “synchromax” but after looking for it at 5 different places in town (Advanced, O’Reilly, AutoZone, Wal mart, and SoCal speed shop) we settled on Reline MTL (this is what Pat runs in his S2000)
The internet is littered with theories on F20C1 oil capacity. Just get 6 quarts because it never hurts to have extra. Since the oil pan was swapped for a brand new one the new pan was completely dry, this meant we were for sure going to use more than your average oil change anyways. Normally, when you change the oil there is always a small amount of oil left in the bottom of the pan since the drain bolt isn’t on the lowest point of the pan (this is also true for most cars)
And you only need 2 quarts of fluid for trans flush. Technically you need a little less than 2, 1.7 quarts to be exact but you can only purchase the oil in 1 quart increments.
Oil change is easy and I’m not going to go over that.
But I will touch on trans fluid flush. Jack the car up and identify the bolts that will need to be removed. (I stole the picture below from google images. Ever wishes his trans was that clean) With the car up in the air it is very easy to find these, they are located on the left-hand side (drivers’ side in the U.S.A) of the transmission.
Get a socket wrench extension and insert it into the drain bolt (square hole) loosen and remove the bolt. Make sure you have a drain pan underneath as oil will start coming out. Next take a 17mm wrench of socket and loosen the fill hole bolt. This will break the vacuum and cause the fluid to start rapidly flowing out.
Once all the fluid is out, reinstall the drain plug (lower square bolt) then pump the fluid into the fill hole. Make sure the car is completely level when doing this because the way to identify when the trans is full is when the fluid starts coming out of the fill hole. Having the car at an angle would cause inaccurate readings.
Once fluid starts to flow out of the top fill hole (17mm bolt hole) you can now reinstall the 17mm bolt. Torque fill bolt to 33 lb/ft and the drain bolt to 29 lb/ft.
Oil and trans fluids are now all changed, and car height is adjusted. It’s now time to do an alignment.
I’m not going to do the step-by-step process because I have already done a blog post on DIY alignments. You can click the link below to read about it. But just because I know someone is going to call me out for some dumb shit. Relax, the car is sitting on Laminate floor pieces, with three sheets of wax paper sandwiched between the top and bottom layers of floor laminate. It’s slick enough that there is no binding of the suspension at all.
Also, please keep in mind that I wrote the DIY almost 3 years ago. Since then, I have acquired the proper tools to make doing alignments in my garage much easier. I’ll have you know though, the alignment I did on my car three years ago with jack stands and string worked flawlessly for track days that I attended.
ALSO, keep in mind we are only adjusting toe. I do have a camber gauge to accurately measure camber, but there are still more mods coming so it would be pointless to do that detailed of an alignment at this stage. I hate that I must put some many disclaimers in, but there is always one misanthropic loser that thrives on bringing down others.
Boom! Here it is. This is the final ride height that we both decided on. It is worth noting that to get the massive 275’s to fit we did have to trim the lip a bit on the front fenders. They are fiberglass so it was easy and Ever also has some new rear fenders that he plans to put on the car too which will also allow for more clearance. I promise the new rear fenders will take away the slight “poke.”
Keep in mind that 275’s are HUGE for this chassis especially when paired to a +22 offset wheel. Ever does plan to downsize to a 265 in the future but for now he will rock the 275’s. They do rub up front at full lock or coming in or out of driveways.
The previous set up that was on the car was 18×9.5 +22 but it had a 235 tire. So, as you can imagine, the car is much slower now with these big ass 275’s. Again, 275 aren’t necessary to be quick. Pat is doing sub-2’s at Buttonwillow with his 17×9.5 +50 255/40’s. This slamming deal on wheels is what came up and Ever is just rolling with it (Hehe).
I’ll just let you know now, Ever has already installed the new rear fenders and they look amazing with this wheel and tire combo. Unfortunately, you won’t see those pictures until “Part 4” comes out.
Thanks for tuning in. I hope reading about this car’s transformation from jalopy to polished turd is motivating you to do some work on your own car. Ever and I’s work schedules are very different so the only day that we have to work on his car is Thursdays every week. So far, we have spent a total of three Thursdays doing all this work on his car. We work from 8am to 9pm and that usually includes morning coffee, bagels, parts run, dinner, and a quick photo shoot of what we have done for the day. Not only have I really been enjoying the work that we have been doing to the car but working on S2000’s is very easy (especially compared to my FK8) and relaxing. It’s literally just Legos. Plus, working on cars together with friends, if only for those 10-12 hours 1 day a week really helps us stay positive in this fucked-up world we live in. It gives us something to look forward too, it gives us motivation to keep working hard to pay for car parts, and it gives us a sense of accomplishment to see the transformation.
I’m extra excited about what’s to come in the next few parts of this saga. I know, I know, I say that at the end of each blog post but this time it’s BIG. Ever’s next thing that he will be doing is going to blow you away and that all I’m going to say about it. Trust me I’m not just building suspense for the sake of blog views.
As always, thanks for continuing to find interest in my ramblings. If you have any questions, or comments please feel free to reach out to me. Instagram: @Functiontheory, Email: Billy@Functiontheory.com, or simply comment on the post and ill respond.
I really appreciate your though process when it comes to modifying cars
Thank you for acknowledging. I just want everyone to learn and be able to work on their own cars and truly enjoy every aspect of this hobby