When we last left off in (PT 3), the engine had just been installed. However, we still have a tremendous amount of work to do (thanks to Ever’s ability to frivolously spend money faster than a responsible person would). As you’ll read and see below, now that the swap is installed in the car, we are no longer going to see massive headway being made… Blog posts about engine building, engine out, and engine in are a thing of the past. Now that the big chunks are bolted in, we are going to have to button up all the loose ends. So, it may seem like things are moving a slower pace but in reality, there are just so many loose ends to tie up that it just looks like we are dragging our feet.
Before we get into the “meat” of (PT 4), if you are new to this series, please get you self caught up by reading the prior three parts that are linked below.
The many loose ends I speak of include, wiring the car, installing the fuel system, plumbing all the cooling, drive line, diff upgrade, digital dash, new wheel bearing all around, and much more. Of course, most of these things are actually quite easy and wouldn’t take much time. But because of Ever’s unquenchable lust to overdo everything, we are left with custom project after custom project.
In this post we are going to start to share what our plans are for some of the items mentioned above, begin the installation processes, and provide lots of pictures as we start to dive in.
Jumping right in, I know I told you this Guy wasn’t playing around… But AEM Infinity? Is this even necessary? Nope, it sure isn’t, but when “Remy Buxaplenty” is building a car, this Guy spares no expense. The best part about it is… Ever is only doing this for himself, he’s not clout chasing, he doesn’t have friends to impress or that even care if he spends thousands of dollars on his car. The worst part is… Like I had mentioned in PT 3, once this car is running and driving it will most likely spend the next few years parked up in his parent’s garage while he lives out his midlife crisis in bumfuck Arizona, living off the grid, opening his third eye, and getting abducted by aliens.
Anyways, getting back on track here. No, a standalone ECU is totally not necessary and quite honestly, he could have saved a lot by just going with Hondata Kpro system. Sure, a standalone ECU is the pinnacle when it comes to vehicle performance and adjustability. With a standalone ECU, the sky is truly the limit when it comes to tuning, adjustability, and data. But Ever isn’t building a full-on race car. No, just a fun weekend “track car”. For us regulars, the Hondata K pro will be more than we will ever need.
Next, we could have just gotten a wiring harness and then adapted a few plugs and adjusted some wire lengths. NOPE, Ever’s convoluted thought process is to just get a completely custom wiring harness. He thinks this will make things easier, but in reality, it will only make thing more complicated. I’m not exactly sure what the complications will be yet, but when we cross those paths, I will definitely be calling them out.
So, below you can see the Infinity and completely custom Rywire harness.
Next, we are addressing some fueling concerns. If you read (PT 2) you will have seen that we installed some drag cartel cams in this K24. Since the OEM K series injectors are only a 310cc they start to run out of duty cycle when trying to push above 250 horsepower. For this reason, I convinced Ever that it would be wise to raise his celling when it comes to fueling, especially since he has cams and will be getting a tune. This way we can rest assured that as long as the cars stays N/A, we will never be held back by an inadequate fuel system.
Taking my advice, Ever ordered brand new OEM RDX injectors. RDX injectors are not only bigger at 410cc, but they also have a unique spray pattern that has been known to slightly increase horsepower. If you are reading this and thinking about doing the RDX injectors, weather you have a K24 or a K20, these injectors will add peace of mind. But do yourself a favor and don’t get the ones from eBay for 179 bucks or the ones from amazon for 75 bucks. Just because they are blue does not mean they are the same. Real OEM RDX injectors will cost you 350-400 depending on availability. Also, these are not a direct plug and play and you will need to purchase some pigtail adapters. Or you can be like Ever and get a completely custom wire harness that comes pinned already with the correct plugs. (Don’t be like Ever). If you do buy pigtails, make sure you buy high quality ones. lower quality ones have been known to cause random fuel issues and can even, in worst case scenario, blow up your engine because fuel isn’t getting delivered properly. This is usually because there is a wire not properly crimped to the pins, or the pin doesn’t fit snugly into the clips.
Next, we dive into fuel lines and retrofitting. Because the K series is a return less style fuel system and Ever’s S2000 is a return style. We need to run new fuel lines and an aftermarket fuel pressure regulator.
Below you will see we have identified the fuel line running from the tank to the rail, this could be called the high-pressure line (even though it’s only ~50 PSI)
You will need a flare nut wrench to loosen and remove the nut on the hardline where it connects to the rubber line. If you do not use a flare nut wrench you can possibly round off the nut. This would not be good, so do yourself a favor and buy a set of flare but wrenches. If you are a, do it yourselfer, you will no doubt come across many other scenarios where you’ll need flare nut wrenches.
If you decide to purchase a flare nut wrench set, do yourself a favor and buy a good quality brand. If you cheap out and buy some Harbor Freight or amazon special ones, they will most likely still round off the nuts because the wrenches are made with inferior metal, don’t have good quality control when being manufactured, and the tolerances on the wrenches aren’t as tight.
It probably would have been easier to remove the fuel line with the engine out of the car… But, as I will mention a lot in the series, this is our first time doing a RWD K-swap. Next time around, if there is anyone I know that wants to K swap their S2000, we will have much better idea of how to efficiently do this swap.
BOOM, Fuel line is out.
Now it’s time to thread this adapter on so we can use AN lines for the fuel system.
Rigby can’t be bothered, he’s just out here for the sun rays.
Below you can see how the adapter easily threads on to the OEM fuel hardline.
Now we can thread on the fuel line that will supply the fuel rail.
While Ever was fiddling around with “what the best way to run the fuel line is”, I began installing the injectors.
and the Radium fuel rail.
WOWSERS! That looks so damn good. Obviously, the fuel system isn’t complete. Unfortunately, we ran out of fuel lines and fittings for how we wanted to run everything. At this point, we had to pause the fuel system install and move on to something else while we waited for some supplies to come in.
Next, we will jump to cooling. Because of Ever affinity for CSF products, he has taken a somewhat unorthodox approach to his cooling setup. Ever has chosen to run a tucked style radiator regardless of the fact that he is not building a show car. Despite being a tucked style radiator, it is a crossflow and does have a very large capacity. Even though Pat and I gave Ever shit for buying a show car radiator, there is a very good chance this will be able to maintain good engine coolant temps while on track.
And… If it doesn’t work, MoneyBags McGee will just buy one that does work.
As you can see below, this thing is THICC!
Because this is a tucked style radiator, we needed to remove the brackets for the A/C condenser. Some tin snips will make light work of removing the brackets.
Next, it’s time to drill the radiator brackets and chassis where it will bolt in.
We didn’t plan on doing much work to the car today, so we decided not to move it diagonally across the garage like we usually do.
That was all we did that day. We would pick things up a week later after more supplies had arrived.
We ended that day with the injectors, and fuel rail, installed on the manifold. The manifold back on (temporarily) while we figure out the fuel line routing. Fuel pressure regulator bolted in the engine bay, AN adapter fitting installed on OEM hardline coming from the fuel tank, braided line from that AN fitting to the fuel rail, and the radiator mocked up where it needs to be.
Best car EVER!
The next week came, and a new day has arrived. FK8 is back out of the garage, the S2000 is now angled across the garage, and we are ready to make some serious headway on the project.
Ever is getting suited up so he can get dirty.
He jumps straight in where we left off… Getting the radiator completely mounted in. Last week we didn’t have large enough Nutserts so we couldn’t get it permanently mounted in. Pictured below he is drilling the holes out to a larger size to accept the nutsert.
He had to remove the splitter brackets so he could get the nutsert tool in there.
Too bad he couldn’t remember which hole was for the radiator brackets and ended up putting the nutsert into the wrong hole. (He doesn’t know it yet)
Rigby’s got some good smells on the CSF box.
Back to Ever unknowingly putting the nutsert int he wrong hole.
I decided to take a little artsy spoon “brake” while Ever tries to figure out which hole needs the nutsert…. get it? break, brake… see what I did there.
Now he’s on the other side still unknowingly putting the nutserts into the wrong holes.
I’m not sure why I decided to take this picture. But his car looks like a sad forgotten project.
I had to take another picture of the engine bay; it just looks so damn hawt.
Drilling out the radiator brackets to accept larger bolts.
As Ever begins to unwrap the radiator, he is still unaware that he has put nutserts in the wrong holes.
At this point, I wonder if he is questioning why he didn’t just get a Koyo radiator.
HMMMM, it’s not quite fitting like it was when we test fitted it. (I wonder why)
If you look closely, you can clearly see the radiator bracket bolted into the wrong hole. The hole it is supposed to be in is the smaller one centered right above the bracket. Don’t worry, Ever eventually gets it figured all out.
But not after taking the radiator back out and trying to figure out why it’s not fitting like it was during the test fit a week ago.
Annnnnd, back in.
Below you can see that he has finally figured it all out and now has the correct holes drilled out, and nutserts installed in them.
The radiator is now officially bolted in!
I know I said it before, but this thing is really thick! Pictures don’t really do it justice.
Rigby’s always keeping an eye on what’s happening outside the garage.
Below you are about to witness Ever deliberately increasing the difficulty of this swap.
That’s right, AN radiator fittings and for no other reason than just to spite me and make this swap even more complicated. He says AN fittings and braided lines are the “Bees Knees” and what “real race cars” use. I then respond to him angrily. “YOU’RE NOT BUILDING A RACE CAR! YOU’RE BUILDING A FUN WEEKEND CAR THAT WILL OCCASIONALLY SEE A TRACK.”
He is really interested in all the stuff that came from Rywire. Maybe they have a dog at their shop?
Please don’t think you will ever need AN fittings and braided lines for your cooling. Yes, it’s really cool looking, but it will make things more complicated. Having AN fittings and braided lines can make trackside repairs more difficult and might even force you to end your track weekend early because you need such specific parts/tools for the lines. On the other hand, having rubber radiator hoses with worm style clamps will allow you to make temporary fixes while at a track event. Because those are very common parts that can easily be found at auto parts stores or possibly someone might even have spares at the track. Easily being able to repair your car while at a track event ensures you more track time or at the very least can assure you are able to drive the car home.
Always remember K.I.S.S. Keep It Simple Stupid.
As Ever bolts the fans to the shroud, we both become a bit skeptical that there will be enough airflow through the radiator with that large of fan shroud. Oh well, the upside to having AEM Infinity is there will be a lot of sensors and live monitoring. Coolant temp in two places, coolant pressure, and multiple fan speed settings. That way, if this radiator set up isn’t adequate, we will know right away.
Best tool investment ever. Electric ratchet.
We won’t be wiring the fans in today. That will most likely be further on down the road, but when we do wire them in, I will make sure we document it.
Next, it’s time to install some “cool points” GET IT!!! Man, I’m on fire with the spoon puns.
And that is as far as we are going to get on the cooling for today. Ever had ordered some AN assembly tools and large -16 lines so we can start making the radiator lines. We are also waiting on the AN tools to button up the fuel system as well. Unfortunately, you’ll have to wait for a future post to see how we finalized both cooling and fuel systems.
The only thing left that we could get knocked out (that wouldn’t take hours) was the spherical compliance bushings. Recently, I made a blog post about how to install them on a S2000, (we did them on Pat’s car) If you’re interested in the complete process with full DIY, you can click the link below to read about it. Otherwise, you can read the “abridged” version as we document installing them on Ever’s car.
Start by getting the front of the car jacked up.
Remove the front wheels.
Unbolt the lower ball joint from the spindle.
Disconnect the sway bar endlink.
Unbolt the lower shock mount.
Rigby loves his vitamin D.
Then, unbolt the lower control arm at the two points where it bolts to the subframe and the whole lower control arm will come out.
Spray some PB blaster (or other sort of penetrant) around compliance bushing. At this point having a press and proper sized accessories for pressing things out would be really beneficial. It might be possible other ways, but the press will just make this whole process so quick, easy, and reduce the chance of damaging the bushing during install.
OEM compliance bushing is pressed out.
And what it looks like with the new spherical bushing pressed in.
And what it looks like bolted back on the car.
Make sure you reattach the endlink,
Bolt the lower ball joint back to the spindle.
And bolt the lower shock mount back to the lower control arm.
Tighten up the lower control arm bolts where the attach to the subframe. The actual “HOW TO” article I linked above shows much more detail of how to install the spherical compliance bushings. If you’re truly interested in doing them on your own S2000, I highly recommend clicking the link and reading all about it. If you’re not, then the abridged version will sum it all up for you.
Civic Type R break! Sorry, I just can’t help it.
Since the spherical bushing install didn’t take long and we wanted to cross more of our list. We installed a fitting in the valve cover to allow him to run AN fittings and braided lines for the catch can setup.
It’s no secret that you should have a catch can setup if you are at all tracking your car and since Ever is going to have AN and braided cooling lines, and fuel lines, he might as well have AN and braided catch can lines too.
Radium engineering has come out with an awesome solution for those who don’t want to weld bungs on to their valve covers when trying to run AN catch can lines.
The nifty piece below allows you to press this AN fitting into your valve cover where the OEM PCV provision is.
Starting out, you will need to remove the OEM fitting from the valve cover. However, this is easier said than done.
I’m sure there is a better way than what we did, but our way worked none the less. We placed the valve cover on a piece of wood, and I stood on the valve cover. First, we tried using some pliers and large channel locks but ended up using a good old fashioned pipe wrench. The pipe wrench was able to lock on to the fitting, then, while I stood on the valve cover, Ever hit the pipe wrench with a BFH (big freaking hammer) while simultaneously rotating the pipe wrench to assist in breaking the fitting loose.
VOILA!
Be careful while twisting the pipe wrench to not mar up the valve cover with the wrench.
As you can see below the new fitting will just press into the hole in the valve cover and BOOM, you now have the ability to run AN lines for your catch can set up.
The fitting has a slight tapper to help center/align to ensure it is seated correctly when fully installed.
With your hands you can get it somewhat started.
Then, once you are certain it is centered, you can hit it in using a hammer. Make sure to use something to place in between the hammer and the fitting so you don’t damage the fitting. We used a piece of wood.
And this is what it should look like all pressed in.
Below you can see there is still assembly lube on the cams and valvetrain from (PT 1) when we installed the cams.
Because this engine was designed to be in this chassis, there are some clearance issues that you will have to cope with. First issue we came across was getting the valve cover off. In a stock S2000 that has the original F20/22 motor, it is already a tight squeeze getting the valve cover off.
Now with the K24 in there, you will need to modify/customize the windshield wiper cowl. Below you can see how we only had to slightly bend up a small section to get the valve cover off and back on. We just took a crescent wrench, slid it over the metal lip, ensured it was snugged down tight, and then barley lift up to bend the metal enough to gain the clearance you’ll need.
Slightly different angle.
And with the plastic wiper cowl back on, you can’t even see the part we had to bend.
Installing the bung in the valve cover only consumed about 30 minutes of our time and as the sun began to set, we tried to keep the ball rolling and knock out another item off the to-do list.
We began laying out the wiring harness and running it loosely where it needed to be just so we could start planning out the next stage of the project.
We only got about this far but that’s only because yet again, we are waiting on more parts to arrive. You see, when Ever ordered the harness, he ordered it with all AEM sensor plugs and not OEM Honda style ones. This means that Ever had to order all AEM sensors. We will save all of that fun stuff for the next installment of Ever’s K24 swapped S2000.
As you can see the sun has set and Moose is in the garage reminding us that it is his dinner time. We got the wheels back on the car, situate it to the side of the garage so I can bring the FK8 back in, and we officially end (PT 4).
Thank you all for reading, I truly hope you enjoy the progress we are making and hopefully we are inspiring you to get out and work on your car. This will sadly be the end of updates for about a month as Ever has now retreated back to rural Arizona. and doesn’t plan on being back until maybe after Christmas.
However, I do have some unique stuff coming up that I have done to the FK8 recently and will be posting about it on the blog probably for the next few posts that I make.
As always, if you have any questions, comments, concerns, gripes, complements, or shade you want to throw our way. Please reach out to me via Email, Billy@Functiontheory.com, DM me on Instagram @Functiontheory, or simply comment on the post below and I will respond.
This is quickly becoming one of my favorite blogs. Your FK8 and Ever’s S2K are built for the same purpose, using completely opposite mind sets hahah. Love it.
Much respect 🇬🇧 🇺🇸
Thank you so much for the kind words. I’m glad there are others who find interest in my ramblings. Also, thank you for taking the time to write a comment, I love hearing from readers.