Jah2000

There is something wrong with the tests and shops at this point. Tests 1, 2 & 3 are completely different than each other.

I'd do the compression check yourself. I'd do it maybe 3x, a day or a week apart from each test. Then compare and look for any consistency between the 3 different tests that were taken on these different days..to make sure they are indeed valid.

Billman250

No way you have 95% leakdown. They likely had the cylinder improperly timed, and a valve was slightly opened.

DO A COMP TEST YOURSELF or you will never get anywhere. It's not rocket science.

DONT bother with a leakdown, unless a compression test directs you.

You too Jah2000 got that comp test done

Jah2000

Wow...unreal and disappointing.

This honestly needs to be open to the public to help all current/future members (not to bag on them specifically (I'm totally not the type to shit on others, demean others nor even direct/project any anger/frustrations onto other people)) .. simply just to help other S2k owners). If this helpful info was more readily available, then s2k owners (or potential or new owners) would never go there for a PPI.

I asked in the SoCal board (when I was shopping for my first S2k) for PPI recommendations and also researched history/past threads...and, I really am upset that several people recommended them.

Jah2000

But hey...none of my business. At least I know the compression numbers I got a couple months ago (with low compression in 1 cylinder) may be totally invalid.

Jah2000

Yeah...I feel like doing it now. Especially since after reading this thread - there's a chance my compression could be perfectly fine and consistent.

Jah2000

Billman,

Since you’ve been working on S2k’s for more than a decade, can I ask you a question?

- What psi range do you typically and usually see compression numbers hovering around? Around 180-200psi? Or, around 230-240psi?

The reason I am asking is because I have spoken to two separate/different, very highly rated, and reputable, certified Honda mechanics about this. They told me similar things (pretty much exactly the same thing...and I didn't even ask them about it).

One mechanic has been a certified Master mechanic at Honda and BMW, etc., etc. since the mid (or early) ’90s. Has a shop that specializes in Honda and Toyota. And, is also well known within the S2ki community and is an S2000 specialist.

The other mechanic, same as above; but instead of BMW, his additional expertise and specialty is Volvo. And, he’s been certified and/or master mechanic since the late ‘80s (or maybe even longer ago..I think it was 25+ years experience or something). Lastly, he is known in the NSX community and that is his specialty.

Both of them, sound very modest, nice, noticeably good listeners and helpful. They both are going to be my go-to mechanics, if something were to happen to or breaks on my s2k, outside of my skill level (I actually haven’t used their services yet…since I do all the basic maintenance myself and nothing has broken yet).


Anyways.. both of them told me the same thing. First, I asked them about my low compression in one of my cylinders; and they both responded with almost the exact same thing. Something like, “woah, 230-240psi? I don’t think that’s even possible and I’ve never seen that high of compression psi in all my years of working as a mechanic and never on an S2000.” They also both told me S2k’s (at least healthy ones) almost always hover in the 180-190psi range. Lastly, they also both told me that the shop that did my compression check, probably has a mis-calibrated or faulty compression checker tool.

Keep in mind, I Never asked them what healthy/normal compression numbers ought to be. I never asked them if the numbers should be this or that (ie: I never asked them if a healthy S2000 motor should be outputting 230-240psi, rather than let’s say 190psi). All I simply told them, was my compression results and those numbers.

Your take?

jkelley

For people that want to get their car done right for a non-gouging price, you NEED to be able to a few things yourself. A compression test is critical (in my opinion) to do yourself. For some unknown reason, shops are either terrible at doing them or feel if you're going to come to them asking for a compression test in the first place then you already suspect there is damage to your motor so they're going to falsify the results.

A compression test is not difficult to do, period. To break it down into a couple sentences, you take the 4 screws off the vtec logo plate, take out the 1 screw per coil pack, slip each coil pack out, pull each spark plug out, thread the compression gauge in, remove the fuel pump fuse, and crank the car several times with the throttle down. Look into the detailed DIY to make sure I didn't miss anything but seriously... it's that easy.

These motors were capable of 240 psi from the factory i believe. It's a high compression motor. It produces the HIGHEST hp per unit of displacement than any other motor in it's time except for one specific Ferrari (I think the 538?). It's very common for people's gauges to be uncalibrated but the general consensus is that it doesn't matter much. Typically if your gauge is off on calibration (like the harbor freight ones off the shelf) they're almost always on the high side. For example, my harbor freight gauge shows each of my cylinders at 280 psi. Obviously not possible. But when Jordan did the compression test for my motor he got 237 psi on each cylinder with a calibrate and verified gauge, after I had my head work done. Even before the head work, I got 237 psi on 1-2-4 and 130 on #3, leading to the head work. But now I know that at that end of the range it's off by about 40 psi. So when I tested my motor 15k miles later with my gauge and got 280-280-280-280 I knew that was about 237 across the board and MORE importantly, they were all spot on between each other.

I will not bad mouth your "master" mechanics that you've friendlied up to. Some of them can be great and have a passion for what they do. In my personal experience, most of them are not. They moved up the shop ladder in a corporate blue-chip automotive company with the nice Honda benefits and are where they are because of how long they stuck around probably. So be VERY cautious. For what it's worth, I will NEVER let anyone from Honda touch my S2000. There are WAY too many horror stories of complete negligence and price gouging for me. And just because they say the master mechanic will work on the car, they don't give a S***. They'll put a rookie tech on it most likely and say "go for it."

Billman250

Average compression numbers I see are 205-218 across the board. I've been using the same gauge for 25 years. It's possible my gauge is off 5 or 10, probably low, but that is of no concern.

I have also seen 185-205 on healthy higher mile cars.

Ask 100 mechanics across the globe what they look for in a compression test, they will tell you consistency.

I only run a comp or leakdown if requested (customer wants the data) or chasing down a problematic cylinder. With that said, I do it on 5 cars out of 100.

Of course 240 would be nice. The only cars I have ever seen so high were very low mile AP2s. Even they were 230 or so.

Maybe I should contact the other 95% of perfect running cars, ones that track and attend the dragon yearly, and tell them their car needs a head job.

Car Analogy

The compression numbers that our cars generate is on a whole different scale than most cars, even performance cars, that most mechanics work on. 180 is a typical 'very healthy' number for most other cars. 200 is like high compression, high performance, super fresh.

Most mechanics don't do compression tests that often. So while they might work on a lot of cars, they probably don't know what their compression numbers are.

But since most cars the same range of scale usually applies, they don't need to know. 180 is awesome, 150 or lower, an aging motor that isn't going to produce as much power as it used to, but still quite usable.

So when you say your motor should be 205, that is going to sound very strange to most mechanics. To say you hope it might be more like 220-230, well yeah, that is not even going to sound possible to them. 240 is like a whole different planet.

There are many reasons why our cars are 'different', and require specialized knowledge. The problem is they have a Honda badge and a Miata kinship (in a lot of peoples minds), so these uniquenesses are unexpected and overlooked, leading to a lot of problems. Ironically most of at a Honda dealer service bay.

Sent from my SM-G920P using IB AutoGroup

s2kcrick

So this is a SoCal shop? Who is it?