blues2k3

Jim,

what else have you done to the drivetrain in order to support the load. thanks

hondaS2001

yea, racer, when sitting at idle i can hear a VERY VERY faint kinda tapping noise coming from the valve train, it doesnt increase at all with the slightest rev, and is very hard to decipher, its kinda fast and random not in a pattern, do you think this is normal?

xviper

Valve train noise will change with engine rpm. It is strange that yours does not. If it is fast and random, I'm beginning to think that it might just be expansion and contraction of various parts due to heating a cooling of various parts - like heat shields, header, etc. - things that do not live in sync with engine rpm. If this is so, when you hear it, turn off your engine and continue to listen. If you still hear it, then it has confirmed what I just said. Oh, and in this case, it would be normal.

hondaS2001

yea, those sounds i can hear also, like ticking from the exhaust etc, even when i turn the car off....what im talking about is very very faint and you have to listen hard for it inside the car with the windows up etc.... or if you put your head close to the valve cover, kind of sounds like a very subtle tap of wood with metal or like if you very very softly tapped a wood desk with your fingernail.... do you think this is normal or not? it doesnt do it constantly like tap tap tap tap tap etc, its just tap tap..... tap tap tap ...... tap tap etc, seems like normal valvetrain or timing chain noise to me, or could be cooling down of various parts like you are saying viper

xviper

[QUOTE]Originally posted by hondaS2001
yea, those sounds i can hear also, like ticking from the exhaust etc, even when i turn the car off....what im talking about is very very faint and you have to listen hard for it inside the car with the windows up etc.... or if you put your head close to the valve cover, kind of sounds like a very subtle tap of wood with metal or like if you very very softly tapped a wood desk with your fingernail.... do you think this is normal or not? it doesnt do it constantly like tap tap tap tap tap etc,

hondaS2001

haha yea im probably kinda of worrying too much, everyone tells me its nothing..... but i know how i can have you hear it (well maybe not since yours is s/c, but maybe that wont happen) when the car has had the air pump go off and its idling, put your ear where the V of the vtec is on the valve cover and see if you hear any types of noises, thats where mine sounds like its coming from, but once again, its very very faint so maybe its rocker noise? ill stop worrying bout it now, thanks... haha

hondaS2001

the air pump thing could be it, i never paid attention to the correlation of the air pump being on and that noise being made, next time I make a cold start or the air pump comes on ill check, since it seems to happen more so when the car is cold etc....

jimknapp

I'm not sure here. Are you asking Jim Knapp the question?

blues2k3

yep, Jim Knapp. If you could offer some details on your car that would be great for some of us out there tuners. Thanks

jimknapp

Thanks, blues2k3,

Supporting the "load" is no issue as the motor is virtually "bone" stock. And it's not like I'm doing a 4500 rpm clutch drop on a 40 pound flywheel twisting 16 inch slicks in a Pro Street Chevelle, so a lot of driveline beef is not necessary. Where I race, mostly Bonneville Salt Flats, traction is a major issue as the coeeficient of friction is about equal to wet asphalt so driveline strength is not THE issue.

But for the record the car has a V8 Monza rear end narrowed to about 18 inches with negatively offset wheels that give the car a 14 inch rear tread.

Being a race only car does have some major advantages over trying to get more performance out of a daily driver.

I don't need exhaust: my system uses the stock Honda four wide header as it comes out of the head, down to a slightly modified (for clearance) two pipe system into the Honda 2 to 1 pipe "Y". Then 2.5 inch pipe about 18 inches long with one purpose; get the exhaust and the heat out of and away from the car ASAP. It just turns left (or right depending on where you're standing) and dumps right out through the side panel.

Additionally I could not figure out how to run the stock Honda computer so I just trashed it and replaced it with an Electromotive Tec II that I found on Ebay. I've since upgraded to a tec III, but when I was running the car on a Super Flow chassis dyno (different dynos give slightly different results BTW) we got 230 corrected RWHP.

"Performance" mods during that run that were different from what the factory delivers? The Electromotive, the exhaust, and the rear end (I was running a 2.73 at that time).

I believe the most I have seen from a new S2000 in the stock car as delivered is about 195-200 RWHP. I believe that the stock exhaust may be restrictive, but I don't know, and the stock computer has to meet emissions, start at -40 degrees and get good gas mileage, all things that I don't care about, so maybe that helped too. And the stock 4.11 rear end would rob a bit more power. So, maybe that all adds up, but frankly I can't believe Honda would "give up" that much in the stock car.

Again I'm not much help on daily driver mods so I hope this helps.

All the best,

Jim Knapp