Honda S2000 - Oil Recommendations & Cam Lobe wear

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Hi All,

First time poster, long time lurker!

I acquired a 1999 AP1 Honda S2000 about 2 months ago. The prior owner was quite fastidious with the maintenance.
It currently has 143,000km (approximately 90,000 miles) on the clock.

On review of the service history, a Honda dealer once put a 0w20 oil in the car once which I wasn't too happy about. Would this have caused a significant amount of wear? Noting that this engine revs to 9000rpm.

Originally, the S2K was spec'd from Honda with 10w30 Mineral Oil (or 5w40 for cold climates). Acknowledging that oils have advanced greatly since then, I'm looking for recommendations. Currently, I've gone with Castrol Edge Titanium FST 10w30. I assume (correct me if I'm wrong) that this is a better oil than the equivalent 5w30 as there are less VIs in the oil? I also add 150ml of Liquimoly Mos2 per oil change.

I'm burning a little bit of oil, but attribute this to a faulty PCV valve (I have one on backorder now).

Is anyone able to shed some light on the best oil for this vehicle and whether the Mos2 is beneficial? (I feel it has done a lot of good to my old cars, previous owner of the s2000 used to use half a bottle per oil change as well).

I inspected the valve retainers on the weekend and took some photos of the cam wear. Pleased to note that the cams were smooth to the touch, and a layer of oil appeared to be "stuck" on them (perhaps the moly?)

I have motul gear 300 in the transmission and redline shockproof lightweight in the diff. Pretty happy with both
smile.gif


Appreciate the help!

S2K Cams1.jpg


S2K Cams2.jpg


S2K Cams3.jpg
 
welcome2.gif
to BITOG.

These engines are pretty durable and perform pretty well on anything put in there that is the right grade. (Likely a 30wt)
Just use what the manual calls for in your country. No additives needed. (Which can upset carefully balanced oil chemistry)

Looking at your pictures the cams look great and it's super clean so it was well cares for.

Enjoy that beautiful car. I wish they still made them.
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That engine looks clean
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Nothing wrong with the Edge 10w30 you are using now, but their A3/B4 0w30 would also be a good choice. A synthetic HDEO 5w30 would also work very well in your S2000

They used 0w20 on a 20-yo car in Australia?
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Should have access to Mobil 0w40! I have an old bottle of 10w40 Penrite Racing (esther) oil from my old car. Not sure if its suitable.

Thank you for the warm welcome, its a joy to drive and it is my "Forever" Car! Glad you think the engine looks good for its age!

Yep, perplexed! The dealership was using the oem 10w30, they must have run out and put 0w20 in. Fortunately the previous owner didn't drive it much, I bet he did a short OCI on that one.
 
Originally Posted by DV0993
a Honda dealer once put a 0w20 oil in the car once which I wasn't too happy about. Would this have caused a significant amount of wear? ...( this engine revs to 9000 rpm).


I guess the answer depends on how much time it spent at those speeds.

If it never went over 5,000 RPM for that entire oil change, I doubt any adverse wear occurred.
 
Welcome to BITOG! What you selected is way better that what was spec'd out back i 1999. 10W-30 now is better so go for it. Castrol Titanium wlll do great with that clean engine and keep it clean.
 
There is no MY 1999 S2000. Other than that run whatever oil you want just make sure you watch the level. I run Maxlife 10w30 and a Fram PH5046 on my 2000 s2000 right now. Had QS and a Honda filter last time. Run Honda oil in trans and differential.
 
My build plate is a September 1999 from memory! Its registered as a 1999 in Australia too.
I'm running the factory PCX filter (forgot to mention). Which I hear favours flow over filtration.
 
Originally Posted by DV0993
Hi All,

First time poster, long time lurker!

welcome2.gif
to BITOG!


Originally Posted by DV0993
On review of the service history, a Honda dealer once put a 0w20 oil in the car once which I wasn't too happy about. Would this have caused a significant amount of wear? Noting that this engine revs to 9000rpm.

So on the one hand, that's obviously thinner than Honda wants for that engine. But on the other hand, all 0W-20s are semi- or fully-synthetic by necessity, and as you note, this car was designed to run on conventional.

Also, 0W-20s used by Japanese manufacturers tend to be loaded with friction modifiers (e.g. moly) to help fuel economy. Your bearings probably wouldn't mind that so much.

So yeah, I think as long as it didn't spend a lot of time running high oil temps, it's probably fine. Engines are much more resilient to non-spec oil changes than we on this site give them credit for.
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Originally Posted by DV0993
Originally, the S2K was spec'd from Honda with 10w30 Mineral Oil (or 5w40 for cold climates). Acknowledging that oils have advanced greatly since then, I'm looking for recommendations. Currently, I've gone with Castrol Edge Titanium FST 10w30. I assume (correct me if I'm wrong) that this is a better oil than the equivalent 5w30 as there are less VIs in the oil? I also add 150ml of Liquimoly Mos2 per oil change.

Edge 10W-30 should be a good option. Not sure how much better it'd be than the equivalent 5W-30; yes it likely has less VII content, but it's not like the 5W-30 will have a ton anyway.

It'll be hard to find something better, honestly. Any modern synthetic that meets the specs in the owner's manual will blow away what the car was designed to run on, so there shouldn't be a lot of noticeable differences among various options.

No need for the MoS2. The oil will be fine on its own, and it's always best to leave a fully formulated oil alone if possible.
 
0w20 will shred that engine apart. If you want to stick with mineral run Formula Shell 5 or 10w30 if you want synthetic run Mobil one in same weights. With an engine like that I would personally run conventional shell or Wal-Mart 10w30 supertech full synthetic and change at the 5-6k range. I would rather change more frequently.
 
Originally Posted by FordCapriDriver
Not sure i like the scoring on those cam lobes....
How about Penrite HPR5 5W-40? I think it might benefit from the high Zinc and Phsohorous.

No scoring that I can see.

I'd run a 0/5/10/15W-40 depending on your climate. OCI at 3,000 for conventional or 5,000 for synthetic.

Check your valve retainers if your valve cover is off. I found 3 cracked on mine at 40,000 miles.
 
Originally Posted by rooflessVW
Originally Posted by FordCapriDriver
Not sure i like the scoring on those cam lobes....
How about Penrite HPR5 5W-40? I think it might benefit from the high Zinc and Phsohorous.

No scoring that I can see.


I thought the scoring marks are rather obvious as FCD perceived, not on one but all three pictures, with darkened marks around cams contacting zones giving indications of occurence of high temperature phenomena.
Good news is, OP claimed the said zones are smooth which I'm not doubting its validity .........
even though OP may have not done a 'feeling' test by 'scatching' the scoring areas with finger nails.
AW additives had done its job here, IMHO.



S2K-Cams1.jpg


S2K-Cams2.jpg
 
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Originally Posted by 2strokeNorthstar
There is no MY 1999 S2000. Other than that run whatever oil you want just make sure you watch the level. I run Maxlife 10w30 and a Fram PH5046 on my 2000 s2000 right now. Had QS and a Honda filter last time. Run Honda oil in trans and differential.


Model years are counted in a different manner in Australia compared to the US.
The first model year for the FXT with the 2.0l DIT was 2013 in Australia and 2014 in the US.
 
Originally Posted by zeng
Originally Posted by rooflessVW
Originally Posted by FordCapriDriver
Not sure i like the scoring on those cam lobes....
How about Penrite HPR5 5W-40? I think it might benefit from the high Zinc and Phsohorous.

No scoring that I can see.


I thought the scoring marks are rather obvious as FCD perceived, not on one but all three pictures, with darkened marks around cams contacting zones giving indications of occurence of high temperature phenomena.
Good news is, OP claimed the said zones are smooth which I'm not doubting its validity .........
even though OP may have not done a 'feeling' test by 'scatching' the scoring areas with finger nails.
AW additives had done its job here, IMHO.




Looks normal to me.
 
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