mikizzle

I am at a crossroad where my motor has finally on its way out. I am debating if rebuilding my motor back to OEM specs is better than purchasing a low mileage f20 motor.
Car is a 2000 and would like to make it as painless as possible.

Now when it comes to rebuilding the motor, would it be worth it to upgrade a few parts to increase power? As for power, not looking to build a tsukuba bound track motor, but if there are minor upgrades that can be done while tearing the motor apart, it would be a plus
My motor definitely drinks motor oil like honey water, so I assume the block needs to be reworked.

Anyone with experience in rebuilding f20 motors?> or know of anyone I could go to get further detail.

Not sure if I'm approaching this the right way. Any insight would be greatly appreciated

watch0bak

It would definitely be more convenient to get a low mileage used motor. What is wrong with your current motor? How do you know its on its way out?

RT

thirstiness

s2000Junky

Its common for these engines to use oil, the question is how much in a given mileage. Honda states as much as 1q per 1000 miles is the threshold of acceptable. Have you been keeping track? How much are you drinking? What brand and weight oil are you using?

Output wise the motor is essentially "built" from the factory, although there have been a few minor revisions made in mid MY02+ so depending on which avenue you may take, rebuild or purchase used, there are a few things you should consider. When the shit hits the fan, many of us have found the 04-05 F22 to be a nice upgrade and it is 100% bolt in swap.

The first thing for you to do is determine how much oil your using in a given mileage, and then determine where its being used ie; Piston rings or valve guides. More times then not its coming from both on those early F20's, but you should find out before you go blowing 4k on a used engine swap or rebuild. Report back when you figure out the exact state of your motor and we will best direct you. I'm an expert in this arena unfortunately/fortunately.

mikizzle

I guess I should get a full diagnosis before making any assumptions or jumps, but the car idles horribly, fluctuates 900-1500. While driving when the car is put back into neutral, the car idles at 2500 till i come to a complete stop. Car also stalls at lights, drinks all 5 quarts before hitting 3000 miles. Just all sorts of issues, the car was supposedly tuned and maintained through Speed Factory, not dogging on them or saying bad things about them or anything. But car still runs like shit.

Been to several different places to run a check engine light scan and still no definitive results, the CEL light indicates different codes each time i run it. the only consistent code is the random misfire on all 4 cylinders.

mikizzle

5 quarts of oil and around 2000 miles I hear the TCT ticking, I'm guessing because of the lack of oil. I check the dip stick and its fairly low almost near the empty line. by the time it hits 3000, its even less oil left. I know oil consumption is fairly common but I feel my motor may be sipping on the oil more than others.

I noticed using mobile one full syn, the oil consumption is higher
I switched to Pennzoil syn blend and it seems to last a little longer but oil consumption still persists.
This last oil change, I used 4 quarts of Castrol regular oil and a quart of Lucas oil stabilizer, and the motor seems to consume more because at 1700 miles, the oil level is near empty.

I heard mixed reviews on using Lucas but i figure i try it out for myself. hopefully it didn't do any harm.

I will be doing an oil change within the next week, i'll try to keep track on miles and oil level to get more of an accurate reading.

And with a F22 swap, from what I read, it was a direct swap but a few minor modifications are required because of the issue dealing with the throttle cable/wire? again I just briefly looked over this topic, definitely will have to do more research

mikizzle

I definitely have my mind set on doing a J-swap but that wont be happening until 2 years from now.

I just don't know which route to go in fixing my current problem. Would hate to spend a lot of money now getting a reliable running motor and then spend money on starting the j-swap. Would be kind of wasting money.

I guess ultimately I'm looking for the most reasonable way to go about having a reliable motor with in mind that a swap will replace it in 2 years.

Maybe I have my priorities a bit mixed up

s2000Junky

That is a lot of oil. Unfortunately it seems like more times then not, a motor that otherwise runs good but consumes a average amount of oil, ends up being neglected, further compounding the usage, wear/tear on the motor becomes a downward exponential spiral. An example of this is waiting for the car to reach 1-2 quarts low before any oil is added. One time of forgetting and letting it run past 2 quarts low can be enough to severely injure it. The proper way to handle this car is to check the oil with every fuel up and top off as needed, even if its just 1 x worth on the dip stick. Its important to keep the level to the full mark at all times.

As for Speed Factory, several of us have had some nice motors built from them. I have never used their tuning department as I tune my own car, but I know of a few that have with good results. Without the details on your set up ie; engine management? Boosted/NA? I can only assume you have some other issues effecting the way your engine is operating, which is either equipment related or tuning. This needs to get resolved before you deal with the engine itself. If the oil getting into the combustion chamber is the root of the symptoms you are experiencing, then obviously the engine will need to be dealt with first in this case. As mentioned before, you need to do some trouble shooting and get to the bottom of whats causing the issues. Is it the chicken or the egg? For example, you don't want to put a new motor in and find out your current tune or bad coil packs have been creating a fuel washing condition and kill your next motor.

04-05 throttle cable F22 are 100% bolt in. 06+ DBW F22 require modification.

street_ruler

get an f22 like junky and have the best of all worlds.

mikizzle

interesting

Yea, I'm not here to say anything bad of Speed Factory. I purchased the car right after they had serviced the vehicle. And now I'm worried that I may have compounded the problem by letting the oil get too low.

So far the the parts that have been replaced are
-coil packs
-spark plugs
-tps
-valve retainers and keepers ap2
-map sensor zip tie