i was just reading about another zed engine that has gone bang and it got me thinking about engine conversions.....

 

Why hasnt any put an RB26 motor into a zed yet??? its nissans most bullet proof, and probably most tuneable engine, so surely its got to be favourate for a transplant into a zed.

 

I know that its set up for a 4WD transmission, but there are a fair few GTR's that have been RWD converted?

 

If anyone knows of anyone who has done/tried it, or of any reason why it cant be done feel free to enlighten me

 

cheers in advance

 

Nick

well youll never guess what................... IT CAN BE DONE BOYS AND GIRLS!!!

 

 

Ive already decided....... im doing it!

yep i have seen a few with this conversion done!! love the v6 though!!

in the UK or just on the interweb???

I wouldnt have thought it would go in because of the length and hieght but I stand corrected. Sounded great, but to be honest it didnt look that quick. Macca's video clearly showed the beast to be a fair bit quicker. maybe the bloke/bird hasnt tuned it enough but fair play all the same.

IMO if you want to tune a car even more than a 300ZX can be tuned then the only practical use is going to be on the strip. each to their own. :D

ive found this on a yank nissan forum if anyone wanted to read it

 

First i would like to go over our mount kit

a)the mounts are double sleeved chromemoly, tig welded, with a steel eyelet that houses a urethane insert. Mounts are are significantly gusseted and reinforced to ensure that they can handle any amount of power that you would ever want to throw at them.

b)It is necessary to be able to have a small amount of welding done to attach the mounting plates to the inside of the frame rails. These are straight line welds and can be mig or tig.

c)Engine crossmember needs to be modified. The factory crossmember is rectangular shaped across the middle. Across the middle section the top and front walls need to be cut out with torch or plasma cutter. New metal must be welded in in the shape of a triangle with the downward slant towards the front of the engine bay. Also, the lip on the front bottom grinded back about 1/2 inch. This service will be available through us although is very doable at home. The crossmember is then spaced down from the frame approx. 1/8 to 1/4 inch using washers around the 4 mounting bolts.

d)We will be offering a custom sway bar for this application. The bar is hardened and tempered chromemoly steel and is very strong and very very light. this is a direcy bolt on piece.

 

Now on to other mods necessary to complete swap

 

1) Transmission

a)parts needed: 1 300zx tt transmission, 1 rb25det transmission, rb25 slave cylinder, rb26 flywheel(supplied with motor), clutch of choice(we recommend a custom rps double sprung max clutch that we can supply )

b)attach bellhousing from rb25 tranny to the tail section of the vg30 transmission. The internals of the two are identical except for the input shafts. The rb25 input shaft must be used to compensate for the longer belhousing(any tranny shop can perform this for a decent price)

c)this tranny allows the use of the stock 300zx shifter, driveshaft, tranny crossmember,and all tranny wiring.

d)this tranny is a key element for correct placement and angle of the motor in the engine bay

 

2)WIRING

a)Wiring is fairly straight forward and simple. A dropping resistor pack is necessary to be wired in because of the low impedance injectors. Other than that there are only a few wires to power up the harness. This will be explained in more detail to those who wish to purchase the kit.

b)ALL factory gauges will work

c)alternator,starter,oil sending unit all use stock 300zx wiring from body harness

 

3)CORE SUPPORT

a) on my car we made the center section of the core support a removable piece bolted together with a plate on either side

b)this does NOT compromise structural rigitity in any way. When bolted in place the core support is as strong as it was before.

c)it does however give you ample room to work on the front of the motor when removed.

 

4)RADIATOR

a)Radiator must be placed between the headlights. This required cutting a bit if metal to make room. This is not difficult and took me 20 minutes with an air saw

b)The radiator used is a BeCool bouble pass radiator 31/2 inches thick with a 15"spal fan bolted on with an aluminum shroud.

c) small L-shaped brackets must be made to hold the bottom of the radiator in place tha come off of the front crossmember(once again, easy to do. Just bend some flat steel stock, and drill some holes)

d)This setup is proven not to overheat in the least little bit in 115 degree heat. It is very efficient

5)ECU

Stock rb26 ecu can be used but be aware that the maps are made for japanese fuel which is higher octane than ours. It is recommended to use a standalone such as the power fc D-jetro or the aem ems. These two ecu's allow you to eliminate the mass airflow sensors and a lot of piping and run off of map sensors. The car runs and idles every bit as good on map as it ever did on maf.

 

6)INTERCOOLER

THis is basically the preference of the owner. The sky is the limit, However crazy you want to get with it,

 

7)EXHAUST

Exhaust must be custom made. Sigle or dual. If you already have a cat-back you can use your existing rear section and fab a downpipe and mid pipe with splitter.

8)OIL PAN

you will need an rb25 front sump oil pan to be fitted. It has to be modified slightly to fit the block where the oil pickup tube mounts to the block. The pan must be cut open pushed out and rewelded shut to allow clearance. small amounts af metal will have to be added to close the gaps where it is pushed out. Very understandable when seen in person. Nice little afternoon job. We will offer this service as well.

 

9) SWAP PRICING by us at SPEED and SOUND

If the customer wishes to have us perform the swap we have come up witha figure of 18k for a complete turn key car ready to drive. This swap includes

1)motor installed with stock internals

2)single turbo w/ manifold and tial waste gate

3)Standalone ecu with a base tune(dyno tuning extra)

4)all creature comforts cruise, power steering, a/c if desired

5)full suspension including tein coil overs and hicas elimination with some adjustable arms

6)moderate sized front mount intercooler with piping and bov of choice

7)alignment

8)full exhaust(customer decides single or dual)

9)bearings checked for wear and replaced if necessary

Please note that if you source your own motor, we are not responsible for the condition of the motor internally.

 

We are almost positive that we can also get the stock twin turbos to work as well which would obviously decrease the cost.

 

INDIVIDUAL MOUNT KIT PRICING

we are going to release the kits at the following rates

1) mounts and brackets alone $750

2) sway bar $425

3) modified crossmember $450 (250 if you supply us with your crossmember)

4)complete kit $1400

5)tt.net group buy price $1300

These are quality pieces that far exceed the strength to get the job done. So you can sleep easy knowing that everything will be top notch.

 

 

PROS AND CONS OF THIS SWAP

PROS 1)absolute simplicity to work on compared to vg30 motors.

2)oil pan removal 25 minutes

3) turbo removal 20 minutes

4) timing belt change 1.5 hours

5)stock 8200 rpm redline

6)you have an rb26 in your car

7) the sound

8)the rarity

9)extracts power more easily than vg with less money

10) stock injectors are 440cc instead of 370cc and top feed instead of unreliable side feeds

11)big weight savings

CONS

1) Some parts are more difficult to get and have to wait a bit longer

2) Small trade off of low rpm torque for high rpm horsepower

3) I personally can't think of any more

I have had my car on the street now for 10 months and have not had a single hiccup or problem with it yet. This is a rock solid kit that performs well and does not compromise handling or ride quality.

to be honest with you, the real bonus i can see with this is the reliablity, in comparison with a VG30DETT. When do you ever hear of a well maintained RB going bang......... now think of how many times youve heard of well maintained VG30 going bang.

to be honest with you, the real bonus i can see with this is the reliablity, in comparison with a VG30DETT. When do you ever hear of a well maintained RB going bang......... now think of how many times youve heard of well maintained VG30 going bang.

 

I do totally agree with you Nick. The idea is great and reliability is the key. I was just adding to the thread to say that tuning to the limit can only be for off road use unless that person has a death wish. The bloke I got my car from had a tuned skyline R33 I think (I am no expert on models) and it was tuned to 1080 BHP. Or there abouts. It was at the 2005 JAE on show (a Gold one) on he's stand He wheel spun it at 160 MPH and almost lost it and died. TOO MUCH POWER for the road?

 

I wish you luck in your venture. Keep us informed of the progress mate...If you decide to go for it.

 

Anyway...what you doing up so late/early. :rofl:

Vini

I think id go for the 2jz supra engine to be onest i know its a toyota but these engines are superb, bottom end are pretty much bullet proof as standard .Drift works are fitting one in there nissan s15 silvia drift car and ive seen a few in zeds in the fast east and the states.single turbo conversion as well.

I know lots of people change engines in their cars for various reasons, including increased performance and reliability, but IMHO I think it's a shame as the car then loses it's soul and is no longer a thoroughbred.

 

I wish you luck and I am sure you will get enormous pleasure from the challenges you face but.........it's not for me.

 

"Horses For Courses" as they say

 

Cheers - Dave

Damn good idea, I always thought it wouldn't be possible to fit a straight six in there. Much less hassle for the enthusiast. I wonder how much it effects the handling? I'd imagine there would be more weight in front of the front axle. One of the good points about the zed (and reasons for I think?) V6 is so it is almost mid-mounted.

i agree - take the engine out and you've taken the car away. although if thats what you want to do then go for it!

from that clip, it sounds awesome when being revved, but when idling the exhaust loses the V6 rumble :(

to be honest with you, the real bonus i can see with this is the reliablity, in comparison with a VG30DETT. When do you ever hear of a well maintained RB going bang......... now think of how many times youve heard of well maintained VG30 going bang.

 

 

Have heard and seen quite a few rb's going bang, even after 100k is spent on one they are not as bullet proof as people think!

Have heard and seen quite a few rb's going bang, even after 100k is spent on one they are not as bullet proof as people think!

 

Yep you are correct, RB26's in standard form are good for 4-500 bhp, with a metal head gasket then slightly more but the pistons are only good for around 600 bhp.

 

The downside is just to buy an engine your talking the best part of 3-4k in fact your better off buying a cheap R32 gtr and use it to transplant.

 

Its not a bad idea, yes they are much more tuneable and you can get them to 7-800 bhp fairly easy.

 

They also suffer from oil starvation so most fit a larger sump.

 

The RB25 gearbox is near identical to the z32 box but tbh you would be better to convert a gtr box to fit the z32, all you would need to do is plate up the front transferbox and have a custom prop made up and this then lends you to having a sequencial box fitted ;)

 

As was said the supra engine is just as easy to fit as well and tbh if its bhp per pound this is the way to go, the bottom ends are good for 6-700+ bhp and you can get 500++ bhp for as little as £2k from a supra engine :eek:

 

Mike

to be honest with you, the real bonus i can see with this is the reliablity, in comparison with a VG30DETT. When do you ever hear of a well maintained RB going bang......... now think of how many times youve heard of well maintained VG30 going bang.

 

LOL the skyline owners just don't scream and shout as much as Zed owners whe their engine goes bang - probably because they realise that these things do happen. RB26 bottom end isn't as strong as a lot would have you believe - the number that do big end bearings in is quite high. As for 8200rpm limit on standard internals BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA :rofl: Good job it only takes 25 minutes to remove the sump because those shells are not going to last long at all!!!!!!!!

Unless you're wanting 700bhp+ I don't see the point.

For the expense of buying the engine alone you could have a reliable 500bhp Z and much more than that is pretty silly for the road.

 

If you just want to brag about figures then the Skyline engine will add credibility to your lies :rofl:

 

IMO changing the engine defeats the point, it's no longer the car you started with so just buy a skyline in the first place.

If you don't mind using the best of parts from different cars then build a kit car - You could have an Ultima GTR, one of the fastest cars in the world, for similar money.

 

For some reason people look at Skylines/Supras and think they're going to be ultra powerful.

Most are pretty average from my experience.

At the recent north east rolling road day our 300's beat all the Skylines - mainly GTS but also a GTR.

At JAE 2005 I somehow managed to get most powerful car of the weekend on Thor's RR against some flash skylines and awesome looking top secret supras etc and my car was running like a bag of ****! :rofl:

 

All I can say is:

 

DREAM ON! :rofl:

Another point - if you are going to the effort of dropping another lump in there go for something bigger. V8 with a supercharger would be nice...

The RB26 had a tendancy to over rev and the standard crank doesn't like it. I know of three Skylines that have written the crank off just by going airborn over a humpback bridge. The car over revs and twists the crank.

 

The myth of the skyline really is beyound what the car really is. The engine that Nissan went seriously racing with wasn't a RB26, but a 3.5 ltr V8. A scaled down version of the VH45. As used in the RC390

crikey, i couldnt imagine so many people sticking up for the VG30!

 

I totally agree with the alot of the points that have been raised. I love the sound of the VG, so much so that when my old zed got onto boost, it used to make my willy tingle :rofl:

 

With regard to the reliablity of the RB lump, all i know is the reputation, i dont know that much about the RB lump, so i guess ive been corrected on that one :nelson:

 

Not sure about the weight difference of the two lumps, and i couldnt even comment on how it would effect the handling. I wouldnt even think of commenting on it purely because i havent driven a zed with an RB conversion!

 

taking the soul away from the car......... can kinda see what you mean, but then why stick a small block chevy in a zed? :confused:

 

TBH the likely hood i ACTUALLY do it is small, bearing in mind it was 4am in the morning after finishing a really busy night shift when i saw that video, so i was probably a bit giddy :hyper:, and i was curious to why a V8 is the first point of call for an engine conversion?

 

But like i said all your opinions are valid, so keep em coming

 

cheers

 

nick

...when my old zed got onto boost, it used to make my willy tingle :rofl: ...

 

 

Dude.... quote of the year so far! Top class!

 

:rofl: :nana2: :dance:

Sometimes i get pretty jaded about the UK jap import tuning scene as it tends to be just treading a well worn path that was made by the japanese themselves many years previous. I stopped buying the UK jap mags because they rarely cover zeds and actually most just read like a shopping report followed by and "it was fettled to run on UK fuel by joe lock-up with a dyno who was last decade seen running cozzeez at X bar boost".

 

blah blah blah Mr X bought this hyper rare car from japan and it has a kin big turbo and loads of bits that the wangan racer previous owner fitted years ago blah blah JDM blah blah before he was done with it. I mean the dolts that bought that jun hyper lemon skyline must have had rocks in their heads. watching them at santa pod is like going to see a tyson fight i.e. "your fookin 15 years too late bud".

 

So what exactly have the UK owners done or any UK tuning shop that is truly groundbreaking enough to feature in a mag?

 

So at least even though I think fitting the RB26 was pretty pointless at least it was a bit different.

 

What we do know is Nissan won Le Mans with the VG engine std rods and crank and if you want to see how far behind we are in tuning terms read the following posts and then check the date. Most VG's go bang because they have been run into the ground by a succession of idiots who runthem without maintenance and then an equally big idiot ups the boost, fits the goodies and expects a 15year old engine to just take it.........

 

Unless we are talking about fitting a V8 or perhaps a sequential 6 speed gearbox i think it has already all been said or done in a Z tuning wise. :rant:

 

uh must have eaten too much read meat today

 

Chris

Let's all pack up and go home then :D

good point well said lol

Pants point i thought really!! :S

 

Firstly the folk who have the "Jun hyper Lemon" are not the people who owned it originally, it was bought fresh by a Scottish guy called Dave Jones, the original creator of lemmings whose company DMA went on to produce the GTA series of games. It was a regular car up at Crail and was maintained (although not greatly) by Greer Sport. When it was punted to its new owners i believe Abbey motorsport rebuilt it completely and its no longer a genuine JUN car for that reason. If you scouer the net im sure you will find the original top gear footage of JC driving it round crail when it was first brought over and running its true power!

 

Secondly there is a UK tuning company and person/car worth mentioning!!! the company is RB Motorsport and the car/owner is our friendly Aberdonian plummer Keith Cowie, Still hold the fastest skyline in europe title i believe???? with his beast of an r32 GTR which has now been built even more hardcore for this season!!

 

 

Well theres some facts for you guys so think what you like, however to go back on topic, your all totally mental if you honestly think that an RB26 is more reliable than the VG!!!! :S as has been said by others, the cranks flex like noones business and the big end shells love to disintegrate!!

 

Also oil and water galleries in the block are prone to cracking and the 2 fluids mix. New block and costly rebuild please sir..........

 

The blocks themselves are renowned for being porous and sometimes overnight when parked you will wake up to a puddle of coolant beneath your car!!!

 

Oh then theres the rebuild costs............. get that remortgage sorted out now in advance guys........

 

VG30 in my opinion is a far better built engine, if people on here spent half as much ion the engine as they do on stick on bits of plastic there would be some seriously fast and reliable zeds at all these big drag and drift events all over the uk.

I currently have a Z project under way, and looking at achieving the 500 bhp mark.

 

However, after watching Top Gear for the last couple of weeks, with the un-controllable 600 bhp Merc, and the un-usable 600bhp Lambo, I need to ask myself "What's the point?"

 

These companies have spent millions on development for these power upgrades, and still can't get it to work. Do I honestly think I will have better luck with my 15 year old car, working on it in my driveway in between rain showers? :D

 

Probably not, but it will be worth a giggle ;)

 

I think the Standard Zed engine style can produce more than we can handle as it is without introducing an even more powerfull block.

 

I love my V6. It looks insanely complicated to the un-trained eye (and even more so to the trained, lol) But it sounds fantastic, and has the best feature of all.....

 

TORQUE :bow:

Pants point i thought really!! :S

 

 

 

Secondly there is a UK tuning company and person/car worth mentioning!!! the company is RB Motorsport and the car/owner is our friendly Aberdonian plummer Keith Cowie, Still hold the fastest skyline in europe title i believe???? with his beast of an r32 GTR which has now been built even more hardcore for this season!!

 

 

 

VG30 in my opinion is a far better built engine, if people on here spent half as much ion the engine as they do on stick on bits of plastic there would be some seriously fast and reliable zeds at all these big drag and drift events all over the uk.

 

Your making my points for me really so i think we 'violently agree':-

 

Rich kid buys the Jun car after they are done with it and runs it. fair play buy it and ride it but deserves mag articles? Top gear? nah!

 

My whole point (badly made perhaps), was we are light years behind in terms of the freshness of our 'tuning' stories. So now someone has bought it again and re-furbed it is it better? running better times? have we added anything to the mix, donen anything new or innovative? When is the last time you picked up a mage and went wow that is genuinely new and breakthrough for this or that model. To my mind for the Z that would be that shift-at-will thing.

 

"fastest in europe......."

So what! says I.

Lets see a league table of times set by the same cars worldwide by year since the model launch. I bet we make for sorry reading and are at least 5yrs or more off the pace."

 

My challenge is can any UK tuner claim to be 'world class' and have a rep that they have forged from their own work and development??

:ets see when the new GTR hits the UK who will be the ones pushing the envelope? How many Uk tuners are doing the 350Z even though its now been around for an age? --- None, they are waiting to copy what has already been done.

 

My worry is that because of our lack of 'real tuners' we in the UK seem to be unecessarily re-learning what other people have already been, done and got the T-shirt for years ago. I cannot see how buying an ex-tuners car and re-furbing it makes it magazine article worthy. Why not just re-run the orginal jap mag coverage? Honestly I bet the JUN guys just think WTF when they thing what has happened to their 'retired' project.

 

Anyway back on topic (sorry i took us off) Agree 100% bout the RB / VG engine but believe that all of the above causes the wrong headed decision to undertake such a project.

 

Have we actually lost many of the valuable lessons learned from the past or the chance to truly innovate? I mean the homage that is given to the RB engine is largely built on its recent mythology and before that the VG mill was seen as a brilliantly more capable engine. On launch the RB was seen in the industry as a step backwards due to more cost conscious times.

 

Agree that no-one seems to spending serious wonga on a VG based tune because I bet there is no one in the UK who could take it on exactly because my assertion is that most UK tuners are 'painting-by-numbers' artists copying earlier great works.

 

"pack-up-and-go-home" said an earlier quote. I am not saying that each punters 300zx upgrade journey is not a worthwhile journey but that upgrading a 300 should by now be pretty much a 'menu based' project as it has all pretty much been done before and you just pick your spec and build your car to your likes. Now to at least bring us somewhat up to date where can I get a carbon rear diffuser to fit the stock back-end ????

 

Chris C