Super Street's AP1 S2000 Gets an Engine Bay Overhaul

Extreme Makeover

We've been following Super Street's "Week to Wicked" AP1 S2000 build for some time now. And along the way, the rag has completed quite a few useful mods and upgrades on their in-house ride. The latest of which involves a complete engine bay redo, which is something quite a few of us could benefit from doing ourselves.

Photos: Super Street

Mild Changes

For whatever reason, the previous owner of this S2000 had adorned the engine bay with a bunch of blue parts that didn't really go with the red exterior. So the main goal here was to create a cohesive, complementary look. But SS didn't want to go too crazy, because this car will eventually be sold to make way for new projects. 

Photos: Super Street

>>Join the conversation on cleaning up the engine bay right here in the S2Ki forums.

Adding Contrast

Thus, they chose to paint quite a bit of the bay black. But some contrast was still needed to break that up. So SS went with a titanium color powder coat for the turbo kit's hot and cold side piping. A Turbo Guard mesh screen also took the place of the bright blue and chrome filter that previously resided here.

Photos: Super Street

>>Join the conversation on cleaning up the engine bay right here in the S2Ki forums.

New Hardware

As is often the case with an older car, much of this S2000's hardware was either corroded or painted over multiple times. So SS opted to ditch all of that rather than try to repair it, and replaced it with a full package of stainless-steel socket head bolts and billet aluminum beauty washers from Downstar. This goes perfectly with the already installed F-series engine kit that replaced the factory bolts on the intake manifold and various parts of the exterior of the block and head.

Photos: Super Street

>>Join the conversation on cleaning up the engine bay right here in the S2Ki forums.

Strong Piece

The OEM coil plug cover also got ditched in favor of a dimple-die piece from Circuit Hero. The company also provided a new two-point strut tower bar for the project, which utilizes a pair of horizontal bars joined by a flat metal upper portion with precision dimple dies. The design, which features no moving parts, is strengthened further with gusseting where the bars meet the shock tower anchors.

Photos: Super Street

>>Join the conversation on cleaning up the engine bay right here in the S2Ki forums.

Parts Roundup

Rounding out this fresh engine bay is a host of other cool parts including a Schmuckbuilt catch can and overflow tank, Finish Line Factory lines, a Koyorad radiator, and a Derale Performance dual fan and shroud kit. The only thing left to add at this point is a couple of block-off caps and line separators, and some hoses still need to be rerouted.

Photos: Super Street

>>Join the conversation on cleaning up the engine bay right here in the S2Ki forums.

Finding Inspiration

There's no denying that this engine bay has done a complete 180 with this carefully curated list of parts and some painting and powder coating. And if nothing else, it should inspire the rest of us to get cracking on our S2000's engine bays now that the weather is warming up!

Photos: Super Street

>>Join the conversation on cleaning up the engine bay right here in the S2Ki forums.