Todd's new S2000

[Toddxxx]

Another video from the other day. Not a fast lap (around 1.56 or so iirc) and my braking, shifting and lines aren't that great. Just some fun driving and making my way through some traffic. Funnily enough I got spoken to after this as I was driving too erratically apparently :P
Channeled my inner Garth walden on turn 5 haha

[Toddxxx]

Used the weekend to finally do my post track day check over.

I started with the brakes. Pads and rotors are fine and still have plenty of life left in both. The fluid however has been causing some issues for me.
I experienced brake fade at the last track day and since my brake pedal has felt a little soft and spongy. I also noticed that the fluid level in the reservoir has dropped quite a bit. Putting those two together my guess is that the brake fluid has boiled at some stage.
Luckily I was already planning on doing a mid year fluid change so I already have some new brake fluid ready to go in.

Next up were my tyres. I noted in my last update that my current 245/40 RS3s are down to the wear indicator on the inside edge of the wheel. It's more noticeable on the rear due to my toe in setting.
Here are some pics of the tyres.

Fronts


Rears


Ive done 3 track days (2xSMSP and 1xwakefield), i've also done about 1500kms of street driving and before i bought them the previous owner daily drove on them for close to a year i believe so the RS3 have lasted a while and perform well on the track and for their price they cant be beaten imo.
I want to upgrade to 255/40 RS3 next to compare to the 245/40s but currently no one in Aus has any in stock -___-. I was thinking of maybe getting some AD08R in 255/40 so i could enter the Neova cup but their price is not justifiable to me.
I was meant to have a track day at Wakefield next week and my tyres could possibly have lasted but with no real option to use after said track day ive decided to pull out and put the OEM 16s back on the car to conserve the RS3 for later in the year when some 255s are available.

Ill be doing my half yearly service and removing the wing next weekend and from there i will just let the car sit in the garage for a few months as i focus on other things outside of cars for a little while. I have a small list of DIY things to do to the car like remove the soft top and sort out my hard top window seals etc so that should keep me busy for a few months hopefully.
Knowing that ive cancelled next week though has already got the track bug biting :P

[iamtonee]

AD08R! they might last you a bit longer than the rs3..i could justify the price but then again i picked mine up for $900 at the time 265/35

[eskimo_firefighter]

Wow, the inner tyre is worn like crazy but the rest of the tyre looks okay. I'd say its worth flipping the tyres around and reuse them for a few more track days.

What kind of alignment are you running?

I agree on the notion that AD08R are expensive, have you considered other tyres besides the RS3 and AD08R?

[Toddxxx]

AD08R! they might last you a bit longer than the rs3..i could justify the price but then again i picked mine up for $900 at the time 265/35

Haha with how much I drive the car the RS3 will still last a long time. All I'm really worried about is performance and comparing the two the RS3 is the faster tyre in the dry.
I can get a set of 255/40 RS3 for $960 compared to 255/40 AD08R for $1600
That $500 difference can go a long way in other parts of the car so for now I can't justify AD08R haha

Wow, the inner tyre is worn like crazy but the rest of the tyre looks okay. I'd say its worth flipping the tyres around and reuse them for a few more track days.

What kind of alignment are you running?

I agree on the notion that AD08R are expensive, have you considered other tyres besides the RS3 and AD08R?

That's exactly what I'll be doing Pete
The outside edge still has a bit of meat left on them (maybe 1-2mm above wear indicator)
I'm just taking them off the car for now for the odd occasion where I drive it around. This will save them as much as possible and once flipped I should easily get winton in November and another SMSP track day out of them.
I'm really just trying to stop track day and car spending and save for other things at the moment haha

My alignment is pretty common.

Front
-2.2 camber
0 toe
Max caster

Rear
-2.5 camber
1mm toe in each side (2mm toe in total)

In the future I may try to dial the rear camber in a bit to offset the toe and increase front camber.

I want to stay RS3 so I can do a direct comparison between 245 RS3 and 255 RS3. After that I may consider changing to another tyre? But the RS3 is pretty hard to beat

[Toddxxx]

It's been a quiet month or so with the car.. It really hasn't moved much but I have been slowly working away at some of the bigger jobs on my list of things to do.

Late July saw me do my half yearly major service where I replaced all the cars fluids. I made a few changes this service so I can do a few comparisons etc
Engine oil stayed the same with penrite 5W-40 HPR 5 and a fresh HAMP filter.
I decided to change back to OEM gearbox oil to compare against the amsoil MTF. In the last few months I've felt that the amsoil has not been as effective as it once was and shifting has felt less smooth etc so I'll see if the OEM helps.
Diff oil stayed the same with the amsoil severe gear. No issues there.
Brake fluid changed to motul RBF600. I experienced brake fade at my last track day with the ATE super blue but was always planning on swapping to the RBF600 so it'll be good to compare the two and hopefully once I start tracking again we won't see any more fade!
On a side note. It was almost impossible to get all the ATE blue brake fluid out of the reservoir so my fluid has a very slight greenish tinge to it -___-

Nice pile of fresh fluids ready to go in



While doing the service I transferred the rubber strip from the stock radiator to the mishimoto one so there's no more gap between the radiator and the top rad support.
Also gave the engine bay a thorough clean and detail to clean out the debris after 5 track days.

I like this photo and the detail of the carbon weave on the js cooling plate.



I also had my new 295mm wing stands sent off to be powder coated.



August post up next

[Toddxxx]

As mentioned in a previous post my window seals on the hard top have been causing me a lot of grief. Previous owner didn't stick them down too well and they're all over the place and not straight and they've been pulled too tight so they've separated from the curved area on the hardtop. All of this has led to A LOT of annoying air leaks
I had a few options to fix this problem.

1. Fix current seals
2. Buy new extra thick hard top seals from RSG
3. Buy new OEM hardtop seals from Honda and retro fit onto replica hard top
4. Transfer OEM soft top seals and retrofit to hard top
5. Sell this hard top and buy genuine Mugen

-Option 5 was tempting but I'd rather stick with my well fitting/painted/third of the price replica so cross that off.
-Option 3 was also tempting.
This DIY shows how to do such a thing
http://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/9905...plica-hardtop/
$500 for 2 metal brackets and a bit of rubber was a bit steep though.
-Option 4 I was really thinking of doing. I removed the soft top seals and they were the same as the hard top seals and brackets just split into 3 for when the soft top folds down. In the end this just seemed like A LOT of work so I decided to leave that for now.
-Option 2 would work but RSG didn't reply to my email. I'll probably end up doing this option in the future but for now I settled on option 1 as it required me to only buy a $10 tube of sikaflex and some of my own time and well I can start at the cheapest option and if it doesn't fix the problem I can go from there.

I pulled off the seals and cleaned all the gunk out of the window/seal track on the hard top (there was layers of double sided tape and silicone etc to try and fix this problem already)
I laid down a thin line of sikaflex on each track and stuck the seals back down making sure not to pull too tightly and left them to partly dry. I then put sikaflex all along the inside edge of the seal through the curve to stop any further air leaks caused by separation.
I left this over night to dry and in the morning where the previous owner had folded the seal underneath the hard top I just cut off this bit as I had another solution.
I used a bit of the thick foam I had previously bought for the rear seal and placed a strip on either side just behind where the window sits.
When the hardtop is on you can't see this from the outside and maybe 1cm of it on the inside. It however stops the air leaking in through the bottom corner where the window does not meet the seal.

After putting the hard top back on and tightening everything up I took it for a few free way test drives up to 110km/h and no wind noises! The cabin is also considerably quieter now when driving which is good.
I plan to take the car to the drags next week (no track days till November) to test out higher speeds.

Finally happy with the hardtop not leaking air i decided it was finally time to tackle the biggest job on my list. Soft top removal!
From reading online it seemed like this was going to be a mission of a job and super hard. Now that its completed i can say it really wasn't that bad. Yes it was time consuming and a bit fiddly at times but i just followed the DIY on S2ki and got through it easy enough doing it solo.
I wont get into the process of it but i just used this DIY
http://www.s2ki.com/s2000/topic/1014...t-top-removal/

before


during




Yes the whole interior has to basically come out to take out the soft top assembly

after


I decided to put all the plastics back in as i didnt want a stripped out interior like in my civic. Having no soft top now also allows for much more storage on the rear shelf.
Also as you can see on the rear shelf i re routed my third brake light which will now be located in the rear hard top window as im running an asm duck bill.
Now for the all important part. The weight savings!
AP1 soft top assembly/few interior trims i took out/insulation on back of plastics =30.6kg
Forbidden frp mugen hard top with RSG race brackets =13.8kg
Total weight savings =16.8kg

Before the soft top removal my weight reduction was up to
Street trim = 81.8kg
Race trim (removed passenger seat) = 97.1kg

So now my total tally sits at
Street trim = 98.6kg
Race trim = 113.9kg

My initial goal was to take 100kg out of the car without going too crazy and i've now achieved that goal and still have a few more things left to do.

[plAythiNG]

Good word todd. Keen to see the third brake light retro fitted

[eskimo_firefighter]

That's a lot of weight savings. That should literally improve the car in every way. Nice work.

[Toddxxx]

Good word todd. Keen to see the third brake light retro fitted

Should be done this week. Just waiting for my new battery to arrive so I can start the car and see if it works haha

That's a lot of weight savings. That should literally improve the car in every way. Nice work.

Definitely some good weight savings taking out the soft top. 100% reversible as well
Hoping to get the car weighed this week at the drags haha

[Bluscreama]

When's next track day!?[emoji16]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Toddxxx]

When's next track day!?[emoji16]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

if you go back to the previous page you'll see my tyres are cactus and i need to rotate them haha
just trying to lay low and focus on other stuff for a few month.
if my sources are correct a certain melbourne group should be doing a wakefield day in november and then theres circuit club at winton the week after. Probably do that double header and leave it at that for the year as i go to europe in december

[sugz]

great build TOdd!
i love how you took data of every bit of weight saved throughout the build!

[Toddxxx]

great build TOdd!
i love how you took data of every bit of weight saved throughout the build!

thanks man
it all counts and i get a kick out of collecting and comparing data on all sorts of things haha

[Toddxxx]

Went to take the car to work the other day for its bi monthly drive haha and it wouldn't start. I had dash, radio, lights etc and the starter motor was cranking so I narrowed it down to either the battery or alternator straight away.

Borrowed a friends multimeter and tested the battery which was only showing 10.2V. Further inspection revealed that my negative ground connector was super loose and could slide straight off the negative terminal.
A quick fix just to test things and a jump start later the battery was showing 14.8V with the car on and then 13.1V when turned off. Figured the problem was fixed and I'd just have to make a new negative ground when I had time over the weekend.

The next day I went to go to work and once again the car didn't start. Checked the battery and it was at 10.2V. Considering the battery's voltage when running the alternator is clearly working so I assumed the battery was damaged.
Excellent!
Perfect excuse to finally get a lightweight battery!

Was tossing up between the odyssey pc680 and a shorai. The shorai had slightly better specs than the pc680 and was considerably lighter but was more expensive and is largely untested in cars. In the end I went with pc680 as it is tried and tested and has been used for many years. It was also the cheaper option and let's be honest. I don't want to be paying $400ish dollars for a battery that will only last 2-3 years no matter how much weight it saves. The pc680 also came with the protective casing to protect it from heat which the shorai hates!

Anyway pictures

Unboxing


Size comparison with the old stock sized battery







The stock battery weighed in at 12.1kg whereas the pc680 was 7.1kg meaning the weight savings from the battery change was 5kg.
This brings total weight savings thus far to
103.5kg (street trim)
118.8kg (race trim

As the negative terminal was the issue with the last battery I collected the parts to make a new negative ground and assembled them at work.



To fit properly in the car I bought new j hooks and cut them down to fit on the new pint sized battery properly.



All fitted



Tested and the car started up first try. Voltage is at 12.6V off and 14.4V running so problem solved and more weight saved.