Jimbo

Anyone who doubts the ability of Mugen mods (suspension or power) to make an S2000 faster on a roadcourse did not see the N/A Mugen S2000 make an e46 M3, z06 and NSX blush at the Laguna Seca S2KCA event a few years back.

Power is only one small part of the equation to making a fast road course car.

Jimbo

ultimate lurker

Cold air intakes - work, definitely

Headers (Mugen or Toda) - work, definitely

Exhausts (any good single including the Spugens) - Work, definitely

VAFC - works, definitely

Someday we'll have programmable ECUs, good cams, etc. and make 50 hp more than stock while remaining normally aspirated.

But if you do those 4 things above, you'll pick up at least 10-15 peak hp and nice gains throughout the power band. Its not a lot of power, and the headers are exorbitantly priced, but otherwise, its not bad. And not only will you feel it, but the gains will show on the dyno, and will make a difference on the track.

UL

dolebludger

I know that power and acceleration are only part of making a great road course car, and maybe not even the most important part. But power and acceleration (pre VTEC) are the things I seem to lack most in my driving, ESPECIALLY when the outside temperatures are 105! I'm perfectly satisfied with stock (or nearly so) on crisp fall days, but it seems as if the summer heat here just sucks what low end power there is away. I've tried xviper's suggested "Radmat" to insulate radiator heat from the air intake horn, and am trying to figure out how to insulate the intake tube as he suggests (having problems, guess I am a fool!). Even tried a few things of my own creation like "jacking up" the filter in the airbox to let air get to the bottom too, and shimming the grill - radiator dam out just under the intake to let more outside air in. All did some good, but not as much as a brief cool spell the other day. I guess I'm "fishing" for a solution to the hot outside air power drain.

Do any of you drive in Colorado's Rocky Mountains? I know it's not hot there, but the air is thin, as is hot air. I've never driven my s2k there, but have driven other sports cars in those mountains, and experienced the same problems. So what do you Colorado drivers do to correct this problem?

Thanks,
Richard

xviper

I used some pipe insulation - 3/16" thick styrofoam tape, with aluminum on one side, about 2" wide roll. Find it at place like Home Depot, etc. I took the intake tube off and stuck on 2 layers of this stuff covering every square in of of the tube. It looked ugly as sin but it did not allow the air to heat up on the way to the throttle body.
OK, are you ready? SHIELD YOUR EYES!

Actually, this was my first attempt. My second attempt was much, much neater when I tried to line up all the tape and wrapped it tighter.

afetherw8

Does anybody have 0-60, 0-100, or 1/4 mile times for comptech or vortech s/c'd s2ks? They're claiming somewhere near 300 hp at the wheels, that's 33% more power than stock without a substantial increase in weight. I can't imagine that this wouldn't dramatically increase the acceleration of our car. If somebody could find these numbers it would go a long way to settling the argument, plus I'm damn curious myself.

dolebludger

xviper:

The stuff they sell at Home Depot here is different than what you got, I think. It is foil on only one side, and is a very thick and stout synthetic "horsehair" material on the other side. Not a foil encased bubble wrap. It has an insulating factor of R 19! Higher than a lot of walls in my house. While it made one heck of a "Radmat", it is just too inflexible for wrapping that intake tubing, with all the needed bends and cut outs. I'll look around for something a little more flexible, while maybe putting a strip of the R 19 stuff on the "engine side" of the tube.

But I've got to say that with just the "Radmat" and a couple of my own "home grown" mods, the car ran like a bat out of
Hell when we had a day this week with high temps in the 70's. Now, the question is, how to get its performance to suffer less when we have our usual Oklahoma summer high temps from the mid 90's to 105+ I'm hoping some s2k owners who drive in the thin mountain air of the Colorado Rocky Mountains can offer advice here.

Thanks again,
Richard

xviper

[QUOTE]Originally posted by afetherw8
[B]Does anybody have 0-60, 0-100, or 1/4 mile times for comptech or vortech s/c'd s2ks?

xviper

[QUOTE]Originally posted by dolebludger
[B]xviper:

The stuff they sell at Home Depot here is different than what you got, I think. It is foil on only one side, and is a very thick and stout synthetic "horsehair" material on the other side. Not a foil encased bubble wrap. It has an insulating factor of R 19! Higher than a lot of walls in my house. While it made one heck of a "Radmat", it is just too inflexible for wrapping that intake tubing, with all the needed bends and cut outs. I'll look around for something a little more flexible, while maybe putting a strip of the R 19 stuff on the "engine side" of the tube.

dolebludger

afertherw8:

If you read "Road and TracK", check out your April '03 issue in the "Tech Questions" near the back for my question much like yours. Basically, the R&T people answered (for what it's worth) that IF I were able to generate that kind of hp and torque on an s2k, my drivetrain would be very short lived. Just what I was told.


xviper:

Your suggested mods did a world of good, and you have nothing to be sorry about. I live in a part of the country with very extreme weather, to say the least. The one "normal" day when I could try the "Radmat", the car ran "like a bat out of Hell". And I did not even have all your suggested mods in place (though some of my own were). Again, my only goal is to get my car to perform (straight line) as it does (even totally stock) in our cooler weather months. That's good enough for me, and a bunch of stuff I've put into the rear view mirror! And your suggestions are all aimed at reducing engine heat from being inducted into the airbox and TB, which is great! Let's have it no hotter than we must. But my problem goes one step further. What if there is no "cool air" to induct? Or, in the case of those who live in the Rocky Mountains, what if there is nothing but thin, high altitude air to induct? While of no help to the mountain folks, I actually wonder about the BMW Z4 air induction which, given a certain amount of throttle, actually inducts air from the passenger compartment which is air conditioned! Keep in mind that I have not totally "lost it" but am just throwing out ideas.

Thanks,
Richard

xviper

The A/C idea has been tossed around for this car but was never pursued very far. I think the complications involved with the way this car is set up makes it too much work. Also, making some sort of "ice box" has been thrown around too.
The difficulty one faces when trying to get "cool" air into the intake is further aggravated by "road temps". My measurements showed that temps near the road surface (within a couple feet of the ground) in city environments can be 5-10 degrees C higher than ambient.
Additionally, this engine sucks in around 300 - 400 cfm of air at max revs. I'm not so sure our A/C system could keep up with this.