My RB30DET slapper

[ST240]

Heres the thread from my local forum. Figured you guys might be interested. This is the first time I've taken apart, and rebuilt, an internal combustion engine. Lol.

Bored and too tired to do anything else, decided to post this up.

Instead of continuing to update this thread:

http://forums.780tuners.com/showthread. ... ght=beater

which was originally my rb20 240sx, I figured I'd start a new one, since the only parts the cars will have in common will be the transmission and crossmember lol.

Here's the jist of what I'm doing:

-RB30 bottom end
-RB25DE for straight bolt on fitment
-Holset HY35 (insta-spool lol)
-Deatschwerk 740ccs
-Z32 MAF
-Nistune
-RB20 transmission with 4-puck sprung ACT. We'll see how many seconds that lasts lol. I got a RB26 transmission for $200 that I'm either gonna modify -for RWD or use the bellhousing with a 300zx transmission.
-Sensors/harness/etc pillaged from rb20.

Yes this is a slapper build for now. Yes I'm cutting corners where I can. I plan to build it this coming winter. Hoping for low 12s high 11s this summer.

Pics from the old thread above:






Crank damage


Foreign material piston damage


Was now forced to tear the entire engine apart... The plot thickens as per usual.

f*** boo-urns. Took it to Pro-Max Performance and they said they had a guy who could repair it and press on an extended crank collar. The guy ended up taking WAY too f*** long (they told me a week, ended up being six), but the guys at Pro-Max were very helpful when i asked them questions and it is a damn good repair job so i have good things to say about them. I'll be using them when i go forged this winter.

Heres what the crank looks like after they repaired it and pressed the collar on:



Sexy Julien .

[ST240]

Used the industrial parts washer at my work and cleaned up all the parts.







They look like new parts or what? Pro-max warned me if i was washing parts to soak them immediately after in WD40 to prevent flash rust. Good advice. You can see i also wrapped everything up in shipping wrap.



Yes ladies and gentlmen, those orange specs are chunks upon chunks of rust. And people wonder why RBs have cooling issues. Used a garden hose attachment and some hydrochloric acid to clean most that rust s*** out of there. I then took it in the back of my roommates truck on an engine stand to the car wash and pressure washed the s*** out of it. Again some good advice from Pro-Max.



Doing it the right way: stretch gauge, which barely fits past the f*** girdle, its a three man job, i swear... RB30 ARP rod bolts use 1.5 sr20det rod bolt sets

God do i have a story about this. SO you can't just f*** slap arp rod bolts in. You have to get the rods resized. I was considering reusing the stockers but lots of guys say no no no to that. SO ok, i had a HELL of a time finding a shop that would reshape the tunnel cuz its so busy right now. Took them to a shop, guy installs the bolts, resizes the rods, and hands me all my rod bearings back in a f*** pile. I say wtfbbq? He goes, "oh dont worry they're all the same anyway" :smack: .

So i assemble the bottom end and no, they aren't the f*** same. The rotating assembly feels like s***. Face palm to the maximum. I was going to get all new ones from nissan (they cross with 90-96 300zxs), but in the meantime i did some research, and the guys on nico said dont f*** bother cuz oem clearances are retarded, so i have some ACL race bearings on the way. Praying to baby jeebus i have the correct clearances which i will measure when they get here. If the guy mixed the pistons up too I'm REALLY f***...



This is an interesting pic. Look at the factory idler location. How the f*** are you supposed to put a pulley on that? That thing I'm holding is a spacer my machinist and i whipped up to level it out. Also notice the other relocated tensioner stud above the waterpump which we had to drill and tap the hole for... right into the water jacket. Lol. Nothing a little T-tape and pipe dope can't fix .

In the meantime i started tackling other s***:



Found a pic of the original holset wastegate setup. That tube with the O-ring simply rams in that gusset like so:



Retardedly simple actually. Unless I want my first and last run to be at 20+ psi, ill need a new wastegate. Other waste gates won't have that uber genius O-ring gig, so i drilled and tapped for 1/4" NPT which I'm going to put a barb fitting in to connect to le wastegate via vac hose.



Got that from ATP turbo. 6 psi actuator. Fits perfectly on the housing. Gonna cut the end off it, get a bolt, zip it off and weld it to the shaft so i can use the adjuster part from the holset wastegate.

[ST240]

As you can see i take special care in having a spotless environment for building engines lol. Measured the rod bearings (same as 300zx bearings) with a mic and a snap gauge (i know, i know). found everything to be within spec: 1.5-3 thou. YAY.



Btw, decided the HY35 was too small, brand new HX35 seven blade. WOOT. HY is for sale.



Timing belt from a 1997-1999 Audi A4 fit perfectly



The RB30 has the same bore as the RB25 and RB26, it gets its extra .4 from a longer stroke, hence the block casting is roughly 1" taller than the other RBs, so i need all the room i can get. Took my brackets to my machinist for ze accurate slotting.



FY f*** I: this is the auto pilot bushing which is a f*** to remove. I couldnt find a pilot bushing puller anywhere without paying an arm and a leg. So my machinist made this rod for me. You pack the crank with grease and wiggle that rod in, which is 1 thou under the size of that bushing, to get all the air out. Pound that bastard with a hammer and the hydraulic force pushes the bushing out. Worked like a charm.

[ST240]

Remember the waste gate comparison picture? Amazingly the diameter of the shaft was the major diameter of a .25 UNC thread. So after some work with a die and a stove bolt and some nuts:



Now thats some handy a** work.



Theres the small matter of the turbo elbow. This was my first fab project ever. So whats a guy to do? Make a f*** jig thats what. Welded some scrap to the flanges bolted in the position i wanted.



There it is after i took it out.



After some pie cutting and tacking.



My welds sure leave something to be desired. Actually they leave a boat load of coke and hookers to be desired... But its function over form here boys and girls.



Like a glove. I'm so happy with myself and how well that worked. Lol.



Theres the intercooler piping. I also blocked off the stock crossover pipe BOV port with a blank flange and had my machinist make me a mitsu flange so i could relocate the stock BOV on that black pipe. I also welded a suction pipe with BOV recirc and PCV ports. Ill get a pic of that up shortly.

We turned it over and she fired up first try. But i forgot my nistune key. So she was running with 740ccs even though she thought she had the stock 270s. Talk about billionaire rich hahaha. I also didnt have a timing light.

After f*** around with soldering the consult port in five hundred f*** thousand combinations before i got it right, a rough resize and a rough "hand adjustment" time it idled like a champ.

[ST240]

Me and edmDSM busted our asses and got her done. My god did we have a hell of a time with the timing belt. It was tighter than a nuns p**** and making horrible horrible sounds. Then we had a bunch of other issues.... Aluminum shavings were involved... Turned out to be a f*** missle we dodged. Don't try to put the CAS on without the timing cover. I'm 100% not screwing around here. Lol.

After purchasing some Efans (2x 12" cheapo fans that flow just as much, if not more than FALs) from Mopac that work AWESOME, and sorting out some timing and idling issues in Nistune, this happened:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VW_rbIvaC7I

Then I... jizzed... in... my pants.

More to come.

[noodl35]

Great build, hopefully I can tinker with an rb30 someday. Love the comedic edge put in your thread lol.

[silviasgp06]

Awesome build. Not sure if I missed it or not but if your running the hx35 internally gated your probably going to have boost creep/instability issues if you don't do some major porting on the wastegate outlet. At least that's what others have experienced in the past.

Btw I'm interested in the HY35 you said was up for sale. PM me

-Daryl

[R32ONP]

yea i was thinking the same about the boost holding problems with internal gate...and a 6psi actuator lol a bit light dont ya think.....shuda put an external wastegate on it while u had the s*** out of the car bro...i had a turbonetics GT3076R on my old rb30 and with a internal gate i got crazi boost creep and s*** control..i pulled it off and put a 60mm external gate on and it held 1 bar perfectly and got there earlier too...... nice build tho man the downpipe came out allright aye

[ST240]

Yeah... Big time. I've already seen the boost creep. It's messed up. It spikes and s*** all weird.

The purpose of the 6psi internal is for tuning. I have it hooked up to an MBC as well. It won't stay at 6 psi. It wants more, I can tell already .

I'm going to take that elbow, get my machinist to machine out a portion where the dump is, and make a "gusset" with a chunk of pipe so it flows better if you get what i mean. The wastegate opens into a god damn wall as it sits right now. No wonder it creeps.

[ST240]

And by the way. The four puck sprung clutch is a bit of a b****. Anyone know if they loosen up after break-in?

[R32ONP]

yea opening into a wall is no good for flow lol...u could make a seperate pipe for the wastegate and plum it back into the dump pipe?? just a thort cos itd flow really good

[R32ONP]

something like this bro
http://www.mcse100.fsnet.co.uk/images/P ... s%2001.jpg

[flatrate]

sweet buisness, try more heat and less wire speed, whip the gun back and forth and it'll look like its tig welded with a little bit of slag

[R32ONP]

yea but as long as the welds dont leak its allg haha...just wrap heatwrap around it to hide the welds lol

[ST240]

"Hide your shame" lol.

I think more heat and ill be blowing through man. I've gotta try playing with it. Thanks for the tip.

I'm thinking like this, but making the gusset even longer and wider:

[R32ONP]

yea that creates alota turbulance tho wre the 2 exhaust gases meet..if u run a pipe like the picture i showed it creates alot less turbulence which mean free'er flowing exhaust gases

[R32ONP]

yea that creates alota turbulance tho wre the 2 exhaust gases meet..if u run a pipe like the picture i showed it creates alot less turbulence which mean free'er flowing exhaust gases

[flatrate]

gotta move, mig welding is a pretty fast process

[ST240]

For those that didn't see it:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PfnZKjEbILI[/youtube]

I've alread established that my turbo setup isn't ideal, but I decided to dyno it on a whim (at exactly 12pm today) before the snow flies. HP Solutions got me in for 3:30pm. Awesome.

RB30 stock bottom end
R32 RB25DE head
Precision 6262 .58 T4
Nistune'd by myself



This thing is running PIG rich; when I got in there it wouldnt even register on the sniffer (<10:1). I should have tuned that out beforehand. I pulled some fuel and it went from 350 to 370 HP and it still didnt even register on the sniffer. With more fuel pull/timing add 400 rwhp is certainly possible. Not bad for the JB 6262. I'm impressed. The only downside is the .58 rear is choking it above 5800. Operator let off at 6500.

Original project here:
http://forums.780tuners.com/showthread. ... sx-project

I was running this thing at 350 whp (which I later tuned to 370 whp, but never raced it with that), and only managed 13 flat at 114. That time was telling me I was good enough for 11s, but my launches were so terrible, I should be embarassed. There were some major setup issues. The first being the f*** 4-puck clutch that was like an on off switch. I don't even think I managed a 2.0 60'. I ran a 1.89 60' with my STOCK RB20 WITH STOCK CLUTCH!!@#%.

I also wanted to clean up the engine bay. One thing lead to the next and this was my grocery list:

RB26 head - (cleaner, better, why didn't I use it in the first place)
New turbine housing - bought a TS .86 T4 from Sasha
New intercooler - also from Sasha
Battery relocation - with kill switch
Line lock - round-about way to clean up my brake lines.
Modified (chinese, rant to follow) turbo manifold to suit RB26 head.

I put the kybosh on the Z32 transmission adapter for now. I have a feeling I'll be needing that in the near future when the RB20 transmission finally calfs on me lol.

I bought a flange from Zacho (great guy to deal with) since he had a universal one left over from his project. I was simply going to hack the runners off, weld some extensions on, and weld up the new flange.



The observant people will notice how much those runners moved after they were cut off the flange. They will also notice the rusty patches, and what a terrible job they did welding braces on there which I removed with my bare hands. But I still thought to myself "just make due with what you have", and I was still going to go ahead with the mods.



f***. Lol. I knew I had an exhaust leak, I didn't know it was from that though. My own dumb fault for using that manifold in the first place. I think everyone who is serious about working on cars has a moment when they truly realize and understand you cannot use cheap s***, because it WILL cost you more in the long run. And this was mine. So I made a phone call to Kyle @ 6boost. Said he could have on built for me in 2 weeks! Now that's service.

Meanwhile I started tackling other s***:



I welded up a tray and hold-down from scrap that I had lying around. I used two strands of 3 AWG from Home Depot. Do not do this, it is an absolute b**** to deal with because it is so stiff.



Welded up and mounted a bracket for the kill switch. Looks pretty serious .


Needed head dowels which I couldnt find anywhere. Nissan couldn't find me any. So I just machined some up. Took a pic for anyone who wants to make their own. You should add about 15 thou to that tho as they were a little loose.



Here's the RB26 head I got my hands on:



The green was actually kinda growing on me, but I think I'm gonna change it to blue or copper or something. Didn't even really inspect it, just slapped her on. Classic.

More s***:

f*** wiring DISASTER. Started hacking s*** off and ended up with a mess. I think I eventually managed to get it under control but the proof will be if the thing starts up lol:



All new lines and line lock for lighting up ze big smokey ones:



300zx front brake swap on a whim:

[ST240]

New intercooler:



Thanks to Sasha for modding this thing up before selling it to me. That type of design is good for a few ponies .



Omfg lol. Look at the difference. Also the .86 is divided. When comparing T3 to T4 and divided, Precision said a .63 T4 would flow a little better than a T3 .86. They also said a divided T4 .86 flows like a non divided .63. I'm hoping to get similar performance to the Auzzies .86 T3s with their GT35r s.

Just over 3 weeks from placing the order. Couldn't believe it:







Notice how I flapper'd the "RB26" off the cam cover. I'm going to try to find some "RB30" lettering after powdercoat .



What a work of art that manifold is omfg.

The reason I went twin gate is because he said a single MV-S will have creep issues. I told him I didn't have any issues on my chinese manfold, he said that due to how inefficient the collector is and how poorly it flows, the chinese manifolds can use smaller gates. So I figured since I already own a single MV-S, just buy another for true twin scroll.

It's no secret that I have a metric asston of work to do to get that to fit lol. My plan is two flex pipes off the dumps, merge into 1.75" and merge that into the downpipe where my original dump is.

I figure with the RB26 head, new housing and manifold, intercooler and hence, smoother piping, I should be well into 400 whp with the mods alone. Lean it out and maybe I'll be around 450ish whp. If I can tune and crank the boost to 500, all the better.

[Darius]

Looks awesome! Kyle has always been known for his customer support @ 6boost. I'm glad things haven't changed over the years.

[Carl H]

ballin...im still a little mad i didnt go 26 head with mine.

[Shocker]

ballin...im still a little mad i didnt go 26 head with mine.

Its all good, not a huge diff as you know anyway if you don't plan to rev it out very high.. I did take me like 6 months to find a good one.. almost just bought a damn long block lol..

Looking good man! I love my motor, RB30's are absolute beasts when pushed and are great to drive around daily too. I did over 250 miles yesterday on mine including a half dozen pulls, get it tuned well and right is the key! Along with a good bottom end re-build/go-over.

[bmxarmy]

By any chance where you at the provost drags last August? I think I may have talked to you there, (green hotrod) The rambler ate the turbo right before that weekend?

[ST240]

Hahaha yes I was there! I'll be going again this year and hopefully running better than a 13 flat lol. I don't remember a rambler or talking about one tho.

[ST240]

ballin...im still a little mad i didnt go 26 head with mine.

Its all good, not a huge diff as you know anyway if you don't plan to rev it out very high.. I did take me like 6 months to find a good one.. almost just bought a damn long block lol..

Looking good man! I love my motor, RB30's are absolute beasts when pushed and are great to drive around daily too. I did over 250 miles yesterday on mine including a half dozen pulls, get it tuned well and right is the key! Along with a good bottom end re-build/go-over.

Serious? I bought the first one I saw and to be honest it didn't look like it was in the greatest shape :/. I'm banking on that head making somewhat of a difference though. I suspect it will, even if only revving to 6500.

Yeah my tune and setup sucked ballz last season. Should be leaps and bounds better this year.

[Shocker]

Serious? I bought the first one I saw and to be honest it didn't look like it was in the greatest shape :/. I'm banking on that head making somewhat of a difference though. I suspect it will, even if only revving to 6500.

Yeah my tune and setup sucked ballz last season. Should be leaps and bounds better this year.

Stock to stock no, I was comparing Carls cammed 25de head versus a stock 26 head, thats all.

You can go higher than 6500, I'm taking mine to 7200 with no issues (stock rods). Helps if you running a larger turbo since it widens your powerband (granted your still making power up top).

[ST240]

Ah ok I didn't know that.

Agreed about the powerband. I just wanted to er on the side of caution. I did however install ARP rod bolts for safety on the stock rods. Maybe I can goto 7k then >:)

[Carl H]

i rev mine to 7300 with a 7500 hard limiter, seems to be ok so far.
my buddy who has the sister motor to mine is running a 26 head and revving hard to 7200 as well with no issues either.
arp bolts fitted to both motors while apart.

[ST240]

This is very encouraging . It makes it that much better now that I have the 26 head too.

Im working on the twin dump back into the downpipe, what a fking nip and tuck operation. I had originally intended to use a small 1.5" flex section in each dump tube. Do you think that's necessary? It sure is proving to be a pain. But from my experience once that dump/DP heat up and cool off a few times they tend to warp a bit. And with two vbands and the turbine outlet that have to line up I might prove difficult to ever get back together if I take it apart. Also it would lend itself to cracking.

Thoughts?