Also known as: k20c, k20c1, k20c2, k20c4, 2.0 vtec turbo, type r engine, k20 turbo, k20c6, k20c8, k20c9
Honda's 2.0 VTEC Turbo — the Civic Type R's engine, and in lower states of tune the Accord's and the Acura RDX's.
It is a direct-injected turbocharged four and shares its diagnosis with every other one, which is the useful thing to say to somebody arriving from the older naturally aspirated K-series: intake-valve carbon is expected at mileage rather than a fault, because no fuel washes over the valves to keep them clean.
Fuel dilution of the oil is a known pattern on the lower-output versions in cold, short-journey use — the RDX and Accord rather than the Type R — and it presents as a rising oil level and a fuel smell from the dipstick. The remedy is use and interval, not a part.
The turbocharger's life tracks oil condition, and on an engine making this much power per litre that is not routine advice: it is the failure mode.
It is not the older K20A or K24, and almost nothing about those transfers — different block, different head, different management, and a K24 page exists here separately for the naturally aspirated family.
Cars fitted with this engine
7 generations, across 2 makes. From the authored catalogue — an absent car means the catalogue has not reached it, not that the engine was never fitted.
Information, not instruction
CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.
Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
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- The car — make, model, year and engine. The same fault behaves differently on each.
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