280ZX RB26 install

[djz]

Hey, I thought I'd start a thread for my 280ZX.

 

First of all does anybody have any pictures of S130's with RB26s in them? Especially with single turbo setups? I'm not too sure whether the manifold & turbo combination I have is actually going to fit.

 

This has been cut and pasted from another forum that I've been posting on so my apologies if it doesn't make complete sense.

 

So I've had my 280ZX for about 7ish years now and it's been through a lot of development throughout that time, some things worked quite well, some things didn't work at all.

 

I decided recently it was time to pull the 320hp L28 out before I dump more money into it with little gain and start fresh with something a little bit newer.

 

So this:

 

Will be combined with this:

(the RB, not the Sigma)

 

Motor has a knock so will be pulled down first for inspection, hopefully it's not too rooted inside.

 

The car will also be receiving if I can afford it:

A T04Z turbo or GT3582R, still need to do more research

Stainless manifold

A new front mount (600x300) if I can get it to fit

Some new suspension & brakes, the plan is for S13 coilovers with the R33 front calipers I already have

Forgies plus cams maybe, depending on how much I have to spend fixing the motor

 

Motor turned up today, pulled the rocker covers off and the cams look fine. Turbos look/feel fine.

 

Pulled the sump off and no real suprise, number one rod bearing is rooted, oil pump drive is a bit worn, drive surface in the oil pump is worn. The two halves of the bearing were actually on top of each other = not good.

 

I don't think I mentioned that it looked like the motor had been apart before, there was heaps of red silicon sealant everywhere, oil pump, sump, rear main seal holder thing, on the threads for the oil pressure sensor, around the rocker covers etc when we rolled the motor over to take the sump off a suspicous looking washer fell out of the head, I thought hmm that looks like a head bolt washer. Pulled the head off today and some **** has put one of the headbolts back in without a washer on it and left the washer floating around in the head.

 

Looks like it's been run hot/low on oil, there are detonation marks on the pistons and head on cylinders 1, 2 & 3, those bores are also rooted.

[djz]

I also got some R30 front lower arms and some S14 5 stud hubs and uprights, by the looks of it it won't be too hard to swap it to S13/14 coil overs and the R33 brakes that I've got. I can get some custom ball joints made that have the S14 taper on them and I can also get them made a bit longer so I won't need to use roll center adjusters.

 

Block is ready to be bored, head is completely stripped ready to be surfaced and I'll probably try a little porting as well. Where they mill cut in from the combustion chamber for the valve seats is a really rough transition so I'm going to smooth that out a bit.

 

Acquired this week:

Tomei type B Poncams

JE forged pistons

Linished & shotpeened factory rods

Factory fuel rail fitted with a Nismo adjustable FPR

RB26 crank fitted with a Jun oil pump drive, grub screwed, enlarged oil galleries

Got some new rings on the way from the States

 

And another complete inlet side minus injectors for my mate, he is planning on fitting an RB25 into his C110 with RB26 throttles, it'll be in the distant future though.

 

Sold the original turbos, looks like I'll definitely be going single turbo, just have to decide which one.

 

Painted the rocker covers, coil cover and cambelt top cover and inlet plenum, any colour as long as it's black.

 

Finished porting/cleaning up the head, there are lots of little bits and pieces that people recommend doing so I've done pretty much all of those! Cleaning old gaskets off things is a real pain in the ass, the throttle body gaskets are rock hard, I tried everything to get them off nicely and ended up with a brass wire wheel on my die grinder and also a drill.

 

I need to pull the gearbox out and change the bellhousing over.

 

Bidding on some bigger injectors on Trademe, pretty sure I'll max out the 444cc GTR ones I was using in the L28.

 

I really want to get the motor back so I can start putting it together, the rings only just left the States on the 18th even thought I ordered them 7 or 8 days ago, got ripped $60US for shipping so they better be here pretty damn fast.

 

My mate and I parted out an '83 280ZX 2+2 ages ago that's why my car has rack & pinion power steering, I kept the brake booster & master cylinder out of it as well as I knew they'd come in handy one day. The booster is different, the mounting studs for the master cylinder are more like the later Nissans - side to side instead of top and bottom like the earlier Z's, so a later model master should bolt straight on, I'm keeping an eye out for a 1" Z32 master.

[djz]

Stupid earthquake has slowed things down a bit.

 

Got a few more bits and pieces on the way, a 44mm Tial wastegate and some 550cc RX7 injectors.

 

I bought and fitted some Tomei rocker cover baffles, I'm not really sure whether they are necessary but a lot of people recommend fitting them, the factory ones are just open at the front so if any oil gets in them it'll just go straight through the PCV valve and into the intake manifold by the looks of it.

 

Still trying to decide on a turbo, I'm leaning towards the larger side of things, maybe a GT4088R. The GT3582R looks alright but they have brought out the GTX3582Rs now that have billet compressor wheels, lots of people recommend the T04Z but then lots of people say they are old style wheels are inefficent, it's pretty hard to decide!

 

I've chopped up the 200ZR sump and I'm going to extend it, the "bowl" could be increased in size by probably 1 or 2 litres pretty easily.

 

The cheap Chinese manifolds are pretty interesting, the good ones are split between the front 3 and back 3 cylinders and could be made fully divided by fitting 2 wastegates, they vary heaps in price even though they all look exactly the same, the cheapest I found was $245 but he has no stock, next ones are $375 and $400.

 

Got my new intercooler and chopped it up hah it's quite large but once the end tanks are modified it should fit pretty damn well.

 

 

 

My rings turned up and the idiots sent the wrong ones, if anybody needs some rings to suit 87mm SR20DET JE pistons let me know.

 

Sold the front suspension so it's full steam ahead with the S14 setup.

[djz]

Got my chur-bro today, finally. It didn't come with the other half of the v band or clamp which is a bit of a bummer, hope one of the Trademe special ones will fit.

 

 

You can see the oil and water lines that I got off eBay, cheaper than buying only the oil feed line I had made up for the L28! Also got a drain flange and a nice stainless gasket.

 

 

 

 

Just noticed the manifold isn't tapped for studs, bummer. Not sure what to do I don't really want to run nuts and bolts and the holes are too big to tap now. Might have to weld bolts in from the underside?

Edited April 20, 2011 by djz

[djz]

I got a new master cylinder, 1" bore from an S15 - bolted straight on to the later booster I'll just have to adjust the push rod thing by the looks of it. Pulled the old master & booster out and discovered the locknut on the clevis eye bit was loose, whoops. Also pulled out the engine bay wiring harness.

 

So as it sits now the motor is being put back together either this week or next week.

 

I bought an RB25DET gearbox, and I'm waiting for my light weight flywheel to turn up.

[5thgenluder]

looks good. Ill be watching this one for sure. Cant wait to see more updates. Keep up the good work.

[dexter72]

Looks great so far. One question, Where are you getting an oil pan from?.

[djz]

I bought an RB20DET out of a Z31 and used the motor in my R30 Skyline so I've already got a sump & engine mounts.

 

 

It's a work in progress too.

Edited April 20, 2011 by djz

[NZeder]

That explains the sale of the L28ET parts off then

 

There is a 280zx in Japan fitted with an RB30D (triple DCOE carbs) but like you say not too many S130 with the RB26DET conversion.

[djz]

I've slowly been making progress:

 

Bought an HKS oil cooler kit out of an R32 GTR

 

Finished painting the engine bay:

 

Ready for this:

[ZT-R]

what kinda manifold is that on the 26?

[djz]

It's a Chinese one, can't remember what brand. They are all pretty much the same.

[Coolwhip]

looking good

[djz]

Got the motor sitting in the bay tonight.

 

 

Not much clearance here.

 

Not much clearance here either.

 

Too much clearance here.

 

Clearance here for the wastegate looks okay.

[ArchetypeDatsun]

Nice build bro!!! I would like to drop an RB26 in my 280zx one day when I have the money for it, keep up the progress.

[djz]

The Z31 200ZR mounts weren't really working, I read on here that R31/VL would be perfect. So I got a set of VL mounts and they were even worse, the LHS mount is pretty much the same, there was a couple of mm difference but that could just be from the manufacturing process. The RHS mount was probably 40 - 50mm longer than the 200ZR mount which tipped the motor over even further to the LHS of the engine bay reducing the turbo clearance even more.

 

With the standard VL metal mounts installed the motor wouldn't even sit on the LHS rubber mount correctly.

 

Modified the VL right hand side engine mount, motor is sitting at a pretty good angle now.

 

 

This gives me more clearance here

 

And also here, where it mattered the most

 

Need to weld that bit onto here for the water return from the turbo

[BluDestiny]

You are my hero. A dedicated RB swap installation into an s130

[djz]

It's been a while since I updated this but:

 

Quick little video of it running.

 

 

It sounds like a tractor 'cause the exhaust is only tacked together atm.

[djz]

Doing another dump into this thread from threads on other forums:

 

The finished sump, 4 trap doors, one really long pickup and space ship looking wings.

 

Rob @ Racefab welded this up for me too, I need to get a 45 degree fitting for it to put it a bit closer to the top cover.

 

Zac finished up my intercooler, looks & fits perfect. Need to make up some mounts for it now.

 

The beginnings of my very very industrial looking gearbox mount, the RHS is a light hanging bracket that I found at work hah, hopefully it's thick/strong enough for the certifier.

 

10 ton 150mm stroke rams, base plates and top plates, 4 of these should lift my car pretty easily hah.

 

Found out something interesting today, I finally got the back end of the car jacked up and removed the original driveshaft, it looks like the front half of the R33 driveshaft is the perfect length. All I need to do is change the flange on the diff which hopefully the S14 diff that I have at home will have the right one on it!

[djz]

Wheels showed up today so I quickly pulled two of them apart and moved the centres then tried them on the car.

 

They don't actually look too bad with 25mm spacers from and rear.

 

7.5"s on the front, 9"s on the back with spacers

 

Would prefer this much dish on the front

 

Rather than this

 

9"s on the front showing how much they stick out with 25mm spacers, tread is well within the guards and would be even more if I swap the 235s onto the 9"s instead of the 255s.