dwarlick

I debated about this a lot before doing my RB and I too preferred the look of the older bumpers. It is easy to obsess about the little differences from year to year. I would focus more on condition and less on which model. It is easy enough to back date a 280 to closely resemble a 240. It is less easy to do thousands of dollars in rust repairs on a 240 that was not a good restoration candidate but you talked yourself into buying it because you were mesmerized buy the chrome bumpers. johnc has a great sticky in the chassis section on what improvements need to be done to make a z capable of handling a high horsepower motor. There really isn't much more that you don't have to do to a 280 that you will have to do to the 240. I did the RB26 with upgraded turbos and other modifications. That motor is total overkill for a Z chassis and results in an excessive and costly amount of unusable horsepower. You should consider an RB25, but if you have to have the RB26 it would be hypocritical of me to question your judgment because it was pretty awesome.

Thank you for the pictures. I am confused is that the picture of the reworked RB26 intake manifold on an RB20? Or is that someone elses motor if so what intake manifold is that? It appears OEM.

Tomei Makes an assortment of cams for the DET. I don't know that they will work for this applicaion or not since they are all turbo cams. I want the peak HP to be on the high end RPM wise while still keeping the motor drivable nothing too extreme. The lifters may need to be solid as I have heard the hydrolic lifters don't always behave well under high RPMs. I am still in the brainstorming stages on the motor, but it is hard not to get sucked in to the "while your at it" thinking when you talk about replacing cams and pistons. We will get the stock DET motor running in the chasis in the next few weeks. I'm sure it will run like poop with the carbs, but I want to get all the fab work done before I tear down the chasis for paint.

I had heard both versions of the "2" but tony is correct. I do think the 2.0 would be appropriate for this build. As for the timing Matt at mega squirt said the CAS will work with the AEM wheel. He thought a crank trigger would be easier though. Since I did the trigger wheel swap before and know it only took about 10 min. I will try that first. I'd rather not clutter up the front with a crank sensor. The other nice thing is I can use the MS 1 which has an internal igniter they also sell a six post coil pack which should be nice and tidy. The whole lot is less than 500 bucks. I have already bought an RB20det motor and tranny local for super cheep. If nothing else I'll use it to do the mock up for the intake and exhaust and get a DE later. I spoke to ARias and they can make some flat top pistons with the stock 10.2-1 de compression. Does anyone know if the bottom end is stronger on the det than the de? One would think it would be because of the added horseys. I would also need to figure out the cams. Since i got the motor so cheep would it be better at this point to rework the RB20 or get a DE shipped to me for about $1k? And which would have the higher rev potential? The mikunis are en route.

I was trying to figure out a custom distributor setup off the CAS housing but I think it would be too complicated. If the factory ECU was only hooked to the ignitor and the CAS would it provide the spark I need or would it be affected by the limp mode?

I'm not sure you would think as with most N/A Nissans it would have a hell of a lot of torque. It might flatten out at the top end on HP. Unfortunately the Rocky Auto guys haven't published any dyno results on their carb'd Z's. Things are kind of falling in place on the preliminary investigating into this build. I don't think I can resist. I am going to try to start a build thread this time. I should have done one on the last RBZ I did.

That looks similar to the approach rocky auto took on carbon z you mentioned. In one of the pictures you can see the injector hole so they just adapted the carbs using the stock intake. Nice find on the motor I didn't see any N/A motors when I searched. Now if I only had one of the three rear sump pans and pickups I had from my old Z. Thanks for the input. Keeping it simple is the way to go. That was another reason for doing the carb'ed motor would be no major modifications to the fuel system would be needed. I am well aware of the bits and pieces adding up on the RB swap.

A L28 would be a better way to go but then you don't have the "2" liter part of the 432 plus other than badging and fender mirrors its a normal 240z. A N/A RB20 would be an better start except that the only RB20s getting imported to the US are turbos and since the shipping is a killer it would be cheaper to get a DET motorset for $1,500USD

Hey! I haven't been around much since I sold my RB26 240z. I bought a Porsche 996 Turbo and had fun with that this summer. I want to get my hands dirty and am thinking about doing another RBZ. It would be a Z432 tribute with an RB20 with Triple Carbs. This has been mentioned in passing on Hybrid Z before but never attempted to my knowledge. I would like to make it a high revving motor so a bottom end rebuild would be needed plus the switch from Turbo to N/A would require higher compression pistons. I'd like to keep the budget under $10k. Assuming I start with a clean body and paint would this be a saleable project or would it be too quirky to appeal to a broader market. My RB26 was a bit of a kick in the balls when I went to sell it but I was really at a dead end. Would a more modest project like a Z432 be at least breakeven because of the lower price point or would I be doing a project that only interests me and plan to lose $5-10k? A lot to mull over but any input would be appreciated.

There are some threads on here that outline the differences some plugs are different colors and the R33 oil cap has a single raised straight knob running down the middle vs. R32 has multiple indentations around the edge. The only surefire way though is to check the number on the motor. Above a certain number and you have an R32 with the improved crank or you have an R33. Don't remember the numbers but search here or Skylines Aussie and you'll find what you need. Determining the exact year may be a little trickier.

JDM Engine Corp also can't tell the difference between an R33 or an R32 RB26 motor. You need to go look at what they have.

Phil, I just want to warn you that the ebay fuel rail you might want to consider upgrading. I had the same one and the seam blew out about 1/3 of the way up the rail. It sprayed fuel all over the engine compartment. Luckily the motor was idling at the time and I killed the motor. Could have been a catastrophic and life threatening event had it happened on the road. Danny

Dude, don't open that can of worms right now just get it on the road and enjoy it. If you crack the motor open you are going to end up in a downward spiral of "while your at it" and before you know it you'll be posting a thread of which cams to put in it. The stock motor's power potential with bolt-on additions exceeds the power limits of the chassis in your current setup. The general consensus is that over 500hp the hp becomes unusable. When I've driven mine with boost turned up it's part fun scary and part Kelsey Grammer scary (like flip you car over in your driveway scary).

Oh yea your right I forgot to mention you would have to do upmounts to do the external wastegates. I was talking to my mechanic today and I was unaware that she had closed back up the wastgates. I drove the car quite a bit on Sunday and the Tomei dumps appear to have fixed the problem 14psi and no more. So thats good news! But my theory about internal gates being inadequate may be moot as the creep has disappeared. But it means you would have to plan on aftermarket or custom dumps.

AWD won't fit without modifications to the tranny hull. Surly there's a RWD trans for the RB motor what about off a Holden from aussie land. Also I think there is an adapter for T56 from Castlemine Rod Shop that should allow you to mate a GM auto trans. Also I think you will need a ECU from a Auto car but I could be wrong. As far as comments I don't think true believers of the Hybrid Z spirit will judge you. Besides texting while driving 100mph and trying shift gears and hold your drink is dangerous!

F**K no!

The problem I had with the -5 s is that I have boost creep. If you look at the performance curve for the -5. The optimal boost is in the range of 2 bar or 29psi which is where the boost tends to want to be. If you want to boost below the 22-23psi level you can't because the internal wastegates are unable to evacuate the charge and the boost creeps to this level. Initially I thought the stock dump pipes were the problem so replaced those and the headers with the Tomei Expreem. This very annoying because I have since then found out that this may have been corrected by simply porting the internal wastegates. But who wants to take a die grinder to a brand new set of turbos? I have not had a chance to determine if the new dump pipes have corrected the problem but for now I have left the wastegates partially open I don't want to close them again until I get it on a dyno. Street tuning is getting a little dangerous the car is just too fast. If 525 is your goal, which I think is a good one for a street driver with street tires, then the -5s are going to over shoot your mark. Like they did with me. The -7 on the other hand is closer to 1.75 bar or 25psi in the optimal range this is going to be closer to where you need to be. If you want to have complete variability from 4psi to 29psi then plan on the 2860R -5s with external wastgates and a boost controller.

I need a go pro I know the video sucks. The reasons for selling are I'm burned out and I don't have the support network to get the project where I want to go. In Cali or a bigger city I would have more resources at my disposal, and I don't mean money. I know I will regret it, but its time. Yea the gauges were over $1,500 installed. A drop in the bucket on this project. I didn't keep receipts intentionally because I didn't want to have a reminder of the cost of what I was doing. I stopped adding at $50k. I tell my wife: "At least I don't have a coke habit."

Dear Fellow RBZ dudes, It is with a heavy heart that I sell this, but its time. I can remember back in 2006 watching Amir's video and I was done! For the next 5 years I was completely obsessed with this car. I have been on this board and particularly in the RB section constantly for 5 years. I may not have had a lot of posts but I was always lurking about. I will miss it but I have to move on. It would have never happened without the help and encouragement of the great folks on Hybrid Z. Thanks Danny PS Here's a little

Have you read this thread? A guy here a few years ago had a similar setup. Has some good info, he originally had goals of 1000+ but settled at 720hp.

Congrats Bill! Very cool. You are on your way. Motor sounds really smooth and idles nice.

Washers will work fine, that's what I did. I had the RIPS pan and it did the same thing.

I don't ever plan to drive it in the rain. I have the same concerns but those filters angle down about 30 degrees and the pipes run up hill 6" or so inches. I guess I'll find out if I ever get caught in a heavy rain. As for the rear sway right now I have no plans to add it. From what I've read they tend to make the ass want to slide out in sharp cornering. I have it, if I ever get to the point where I'm tracking the car alot then I may try it.

I/C is a 4" ebay special and the radiator is a PRC double pass.