Hey everyone,

Im new here but i been a big fan of Zed cars for a long time now.

I live in Sydney Australia and as eveywhere those cars are very rare here as well.Im planning on getting a 240Z and 260Z to do a complete restore.The plan is to keep the 240Z in its calssic form as they are pretty much collectable items but 260Z will be modified with Turbo engine of some kind.SO the question is which one is faily easy to transplant into 260 engine bay ... considering the engine bay is so big in these cars you can put pretty much anything in there ... but where are easy then others?Will the Turbo 2.8L engine form 280zx fit into 260z without major modifications? I been told they used pretty much the same block from 240 up. Or how hard would it be to tranplant a Sklyine engine R32/R33/R34 turbo and twin turbo engines into the 260?Here in Australia we got all sort of skylines from RWD to 4WD with 4WS... with single and twin turbo setups... i they they were call RB26DET and RB26DETT...This is a long term project so the money is not an issue...What sort of performance could i expect from 280zx turbo engine in the 260z?Currently im driving a Ford laser TX3/Mazda GTX which does low 14s 1/4 so anything quicker then that would be nice.

Sorry for the long post and thanks

First of all, welcome to Nico!

As far as your questions go...

The 280ZX turbo engine (the L28ET) is physically the same size as the stock 260Z engine (the L26). They both use the 6 cylinder L block, just with different stroke (I *think*...I believe the bore is the same but not certain....somebody please correct me if I'm wrong on this). Therefore, a transplant of the L28ET should be fairly easy. Unfortunatly, in it's stock form, you will not see that much of gain in power. It would not suprise me if your Mazda GTX is still faster.

If you are looking to do a different engine, then you can make the 260Z really quick. You are correct about the Skyline engines. They use the RB block, which is also an I-6, and similar physical size to the L block. The RB block however uses new technology, is computer controlled, and is DOHC (in most cases).

The popular R32 engines include the RB20DET (in the GTS-t), and the RB26DETT (in the GTR). The popular R33 and R34 engines are the RB25DET (in the GTS-t) and again, the RB26DETT (in the GTR).

Any of these engines can be built to make an obscene amount of power, as they are all RB blocks, which have been proven to be one of the most (if not the most) indestructable block ever in production.

As far as fitting of these engines, I don't see why it would be much trouble. There is plenty of room under the Z's hood. There are many kits available to install Chevy 350's into older Z cars. And if those fit, then the RB block will surely fit being an I-6 (as opposed to a V-8 Chevy engine) like the original L block.

Just a quick reference to Nissan engine codes as well....

The first one or two letters is the engine family. The next two are the displacement size. Next is for valvetrain (D is for DOHC, no letter is for single cam). Next is for fuel delivery (E is for Electronic MPFI, no letter is carb). Finally, the last one or two letters are for induction type (T for turbo, TT for twin turbo).

Hopefully this will help you as well in deceding the specific engine you would like to install.

260Z = L26 (L block, 2.6 L, carb)280ZX turbo = L28ET (L block, 2.8 L, Elec. MPFI, Turbo)GTR = RB26DETT (RB block, 2.6 L, DOHC, Elec. MPFI, Twin Turbo)

Thanks Torry,

There was some great info there...Im glad you told me about the nissan engine codes as i never really new what they stand for...I been going through some old post on this and other forums and it seems like most people go with RB20DET and RB25DET engines as they cheaper then the 3 and 2.6 L ones and alot easyier to transplant.Most of my engine transplants that i have done been on FWD cars so i never really delt with RWD cars apart from reconditioning some of their engines...So from what i understood there is not much point getting the L28ET into the 260 as there isn't much power gain from that engine.I mean being a SOHC and all i wouldn't expect much ... probably my 1.6 DOHC turbo would be more powerful in the GTX...So is there alot of modification required to plan one of these RB20/RB25 engines into the 260 engine bay ... i been told that with 240 you need to modify the oil sump and stuff is that still the case with the 260?what about the engine mounts do you need to change/modify them too?

thanks alot for you help

I am sure you will need to modify the engine mounts, or make new custom mounts, as the S30 chassis was never designed for the RB engine. However, you may get lucky (as the case with the RB in the S13 or S14 chassis).

The reason the RB20DET and RB25DET are the more popular ones in the states, are a couple reasons.

First of all, the RB26DETT is significantly more expensive. Also, there is a problem of puting the RB26DETT into LHD cars, because in many cases, the steering rack interfers with the turbocharger placement (one of the reasons the Skyline was never produced in LHD). With a RHD car, this is not an issue.

The reason the RB30E is not popular in the states is for a couple other reasons. One is, the engine is extremely rare, as Austraila is the only country to ever see this engine in production. The other is that the power potential of the RB30E is not near the potential of its turbocharged brothers. (I say that relatively speaking, as with enough money and forced induction, the RB30E might be the way to go).

One thing to remember about the L28ET idea though....the engine is not very powerful in stock form, however there has been extensive aftermarket development on this engine, so there is everything under the sun made to make it more powerful. But there is just as much, and even more stuff for the RB series engines.

Don't forget. You have ready access to some great V8s from Holden and Ford.

Well im not really a big fan of V8s...I like small engines that can produce alot of power ...like 200kws from 1.6L 4 Cylinder engine...

Were are some sites I can buy engines from?

Hybrid240rb26 wrote:Were are some sites I can buy engines from?

Try some of our sponsors (lime creek motorsports, enjuku racing, etc.)

I can't find their links in the side ads.

Never mind I found were they are and their all SR perormance pages and I don't htink they sell engines.

Hybrid240rb26 wrote:I can't find their links in the side ads.

You can click directly on the ads.

check out http://www.hybridz.org a couple people have done the RB swap and 1 guy is running in the very low 11's with an rb26dett, FMIC, and exhaust.

Can't register I have been scanning thwier forums for about a month

there is a place in aus which has kits to do the rb series engine conversion. also the v8 chev and v8 holden conversions it might be worth checking out if you dont feel confident in fabricating your own mounts. Its http://www.rodshop.com.au