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The ease of an rb swap.


TheSnail

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Stony, the short story is that Nissan, being Nissan, made everything interchangable. The crossmember from the 32/33 skyline will bolt into the S13/14, etc. If you do this, the RB26 will go right in with no mods using the 2WD RB mounts. However, steering rack mount will be an issue because the 240 is on the "wrong" side ;) The modded aluminum pan is now in the mail. The front has been notched to clear the Cefiro/Silvia sway bar and may not need any other mods to clear your sway bar. If you need a crossmember, I can see if one is small enough to mail through PSC. If so, I can get them all day long for free. Do you still have the one that came off of the R31?

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Hey stony, I got pics of both.

 

Mine

f5d2bc5f.jpg

 

My friends

DSC02016.JPG

 

 

Also the gtr pan will hit the crossmember/stearing slightly, though you can grind it down a little bit and be fine. The swaybar on the other hand somwhat depends on the mounts, if you use aftermarket 20/25 mounts that set your 26 back one inch then you can clear the stock sway bar by mm's though you can get even better clearence by using extra spacers on the swaybar. If you used stock rb20mounts and and r32 crossmember, then you will not clear you swaybar, and a custom one would have to be made.

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  • 4 weeks later...
Guest TwistyFriZ

so youre moving from the sx world huh???? i remember your screename from over at zilvia.net, i used to have a white s13 with a redtop and a silvia front... had the z even longer, its just a work in progress though..... i miss my sx so bad(e36 m3 now), im hoping the z will help with that:):)

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  • 3 years later...

Hello I just want to clarify some things on the rb swap. I was shocked as to how easy swapping the motor was into the z. Ive done a dozen rb swaps into 240sx but never in a Z until this past weekend. It is basically the same, but the 240sx you swap out the crossmember and the z you swap the oil pan. So here is a outline of what we had to do.

 

The car is my friends 280z and the motor is a rb20det out of a 93 skyline. So first we took the l28 out and cleaned up the engine bay a bit, then changed the oil pan to a rear sump. Then we grinded down the nipples on the stock rb20 mounts as they are on opposite sides. Then we put the engine in. We used the stock Z trans mount and bolted it up to the rb tranny. Then we bolted every thing up. Then zizwheeled the cover plate off the input shaft, and bolted up the drive shaft. That was it. It sits in there just like one in a 240sx with the shifter forward one inch. So after that it was just fluids, fuel pump, wiring and a throttle cable from a 240sx. It took about 10hrs from start to finish.

 

After seeing how simple it was, I have decided on getting an rb25 for my newly acquired 240z (hence Im a newbe). I will use a rb20 trans and mounts just out of simplicity and a weekend of down time. I would keep the rb25 tranny around just incase I keep braking the rb20/ca/ka/sr tranny’s. But I think it will hold up just fine at 400hp. Same goes with the rb26, but the main ***** part with those is the whole oil pickup part. I had a rb26 240sx where I used rb20 mounts and a rb25de trans which is the same thing as a rb20det trans, and it bolted up just the same as any other rb. The tranny held up even after 460rwhp so Im just going to go with that. Anyways, I don’t know if what I said has already been covered but I figured I would share. Hopefully I'm not just wasting bandwidth.

 

Snail

 

hey i'm doing an rb20det swap, i was wondering if you had somewhat of a guide i could follow, im doing it on a 1980 280zx with and automatic its a non-turbo, thanks in advance.

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I'm gearing up for a rb26 swap into a s13. you say the crossmember has to be changed??? i was under the impression that the gtr oil pan with the diff cut off will work????? Is this incorrect?

 

Sorry guys, he caught my attention with that little piece of info

 

It depends what mount kit you're using. I think (not 100%) that the cut pan only works with Syko mounts and an R33 GTS-T cross member. This is the set-up I'm using and the fit is great, set's the motor in the bay really well. For more info, check this link, I just took those pics to the guy that modified my pan and he fixed me up. He told me that the cutting was a lot more difficult than we anticipated.

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