synthtk

Wow, spend a few months away from the board and miss progress of an amazing project. Everything looks great stony keep up with the updates and the great work!

Just a FYI, be sure to check your oil pan clearance with these cheap mounts, I had them at first hoping to save some $$ but with my custom aluminum oil pan it hit the steering rack, I think you will be ok if you use a RB20 pan though.

Can you give a link to VPW or wherever you are planning to purchase your balancer? I would like to pick one up, although would still prefer a 1 rib unit, but those seem non existent. The ATi while a very nice looking unit, is a bit too spendy at the moment. Also does anyone have a good source or part # for a new crank pulley bolt? Mine has a few buggered threads.

Intercooler looks great, a lot nicer than my eBay special!

Great numbers, once I get my EMS in I may be asking you a few questions about your calibration

Do any of the available balancers come w/ just 1 rib for the alt/water pump? That is all I have on my motor, no AC, no PS. My stock balancer has a chip taken out of the first ridge.... so looking to get something new.

Are these numbers for the push or pull slave cyl?

I just wanted to say that without this wiring guide getting my RB26 running would have been a much larger headache than it was, Great job Chris.

Welcome

Definitely, any port on the plenum alone will never see the correct vacuum/positive pressure readings if you are using ITBs. You would want to use the small port off the balance tube.

Hrm, good possibility. I am also trying to figure out where the second wire out of the VSS goes, one obviously goes to the Speedo which then goes back to the ECU but where does the grey/red (if I remember correctly) go? Did you get your tach working in the S30 pods? That one looks pretty straight forward but for grins I hooked it up to a 12v source and then used alligator clip from the tach output in the engine bay to the Sig on the tach and it did not do anything....

Did anyone ever figure out what the 4 screws mapped to on the speedo? I am about to jump into this same project but cannot figure out which screws correspond to which wire on the speedo, there is sig+ marked, and I think I have identified ground but not sure about the other two, one is bound to be V+ (5 or 12v?) but baffled on the last screw.

So just a quick update, clutch is now fine, I never touched it and it just kinda started working better... Odd. I purchased an AEM EMS (I had one before so am semi familiar with it) along with a Zeitronix wideband, 3.5 bar MAP and that all will be going in the car soon, I have been trying to battle all the small electrical gremlins first before putting this stuff in. Speaking of electrical gremlins, I am not sure why but the harness side of my ECU plug is very finicky. All of the issues I have been having as far as driveability and random check engine codes are because of it. I can sit and wiggle the wires and turn my car from a 6 cyl to a 4 cyl, take out the knock sensors, start signal etc. Its amazing how much better the car runs on all 6 cyls in fact its pretty darn quick at the moment, the only issue I can't seem to resolve is the rear o2 sensor reading but that will be replaced by the wideband soon enough, the car just seems to run pig rich in the mean time. Oh and when I turn on my electric radiator fan the engine idle becomes very rough.... sometimes.... Those will all be fixed soon enough, the plan is to remove the pins one by one and solder the pin to the wire and then tighten them up so its not like throwing a hot dog down the hall way. I must admit this car is a blast to drive, the ole butt dyno says it is not as fast as my old DSM.... yet. But spinning the tires all the way through 2nd gear is mighty fun, I cannot wait until I turn the boost up some.

I have found using the small port off the back of the balance tube just fine for my MAP based Defi Boost Gauge, my 3.5 bar map for my AEM EMS is T'd off the clutch booster port along with my BOV.

Yeah the head was pretty disgusting, lots of old sludge build up. If taking the head off would not require me to get ARP studs and a Tomei metal headgasket kit (as I would refuse to put it back without those upgraded items) I would have pulled it and had it cleaned. That is for the 'rebuild' when it happens I am not sure the exact mileage on my motor but I would not be surprised if its in the 50-60k mi or higher.

ECU Stock R33 RB26 ECU for now, although a standalone has always been on the project roadmap, I may be going to that point sooner or later. I will be getting the AEM EMS as I am familiar with it from my previous car and was quite impressed with it. But who knows something new and great may come up in the mean time. A bunch of friends are considering the newest MegaSquirt for their projects citing lots of progress for that standalone and its dirty cheap with lots and lots of support. Clutch I was able to adjust the clutch pedal so the car is drivable but it is definately not 100% correct. Also if I keep the clutch depressed it seems to lose pressure and I have to repump it. I have bled the clutch multiple times so that seems fine so I am thinking either the master or slave is leaking, but I do not see it dripping anywhere, and the fluid level is not moving. I have the R34 Pull Type RWD Trans, R33 GTR Nismo Twin Disk Pull type and the Pull Type slave off an RB26 which says 3/4 on the side (Thanks Stealth-Z) with what I am assuming is the stock master cyl and who knows its condition. Does everyone with an RB really run the stock master cyl? I know the V8 guys pretty much goto an upgraded unit immediately. Turbos & Oil I have thought about using restrictors for the turbos and seeing if that helps, but it still baffles me how an extra 20psi is making the turbos push the oil, the pump is a standard N1 pump, stock turbos etc. I would hate to cut those hard lines and fit a restrictor in there but will if needed. ATM I am seeing 2-7 bar of oil pressure (not exactly sure about RPM as I do not have a functioning tach/speedo yet). My old turbo project cars often would see 80-100psi of oil pressure with no issue at all, I can only think it may have to do with the ceramic setup of the stock turbos on the RB. Exhaust On a side note tonight I took some overall car measurements to figure out how I am going to run the full exhaust. Today one of the cutest girls at work commented that I 'smelled like gas, eww', can't have that happening now can we? I think I will build a 3.5" exhaust, I would like to run two vertical stacked tips like the 432R had but may not be able to pull it off with the choices of mufflers/tips out there in that size. I was considering 4" just for future growth but that eats up some ground clearance and just seems too big when I thought about it again.

Beautiful car and great work on documenting your project, cannot wait to see it all completed. If you ever want to sell those 17 CCWs let me know

ChinaBay 24x12x4 core w/ 3" top in/outlets. 31" overall. 3" aluminum IC piping and 3" 90°. I kept the stock hinges, but redid the core support, but that was mainly to repair it from an accident one of the previous owners was in. [more pics] [more pics] [more pics]

I bolted mine to the 4 transmission mounts, sat like that for months with no issue. Just figure out the size of the bolt ya need and raid your local hardware store for what works.

I have an early 71 with an R34 RB25DET trans in it, I did not have to modify the transmission tunnel except for cutting off and then moving the stock transmission mounts back. I am using the driveshaft for the R34 RB25DET trans and it fits perfect, I just had the rear flange changed to fit my R200. I am using Rick Wong/Infinity Machining motor mounts and the Supra Mk3 isolators for the main engine/trans placement.

Ok guys I uploaded a bunch of pics to my photo site: http://picasaweb.google.com/rb240z everything from 2007 05 20 and newer was uploaded today. If there is some real interest I will go back and do the "work" log for those days as I did earlier in the thread. I am currently running the stock ECU and working out just small kinks with everything like, what seems high oil pressure and am not sure if that is causing oil to leak past the turbo seals, rough under load etc... but will eventually go with the AEM EMS standalone with a Zeitronix ZT-2 Wideband as input to it along with the other standard AEM sensors such as a 3.5 or 5 bar map, GM IAT and EGT probe. I actually may do this sooner than I planned... Head Drain Mod: The head drain is actually pretty simple as long as you have access to a basic machine shop (in my case some of my dad's friends who run the machine shop at his work) or even home tools. Here is what I used: 1 2x3 aluminum plate with an offset hole tapped for 3/4 NPT and then 4 mounting holes 1 90° -12AN to 3/4 NPT fitting 1 90° -12 AN hose end 1 Straight -12 AN hose end 1 -12AN to 3/4 NPT extension 3" length (originally for water pump?) 1 3/4 NPT Female Aluminum weld bung 1 3' -12 AN SS hose 1 3' piece of hose heat wrap. A piece of gasket material Some RTV Start by removing the Freeze/Welsh plug on the back of the head. Take dimensions of where the plate will fit and have the plate made accordingly (the hole is offset on mine but with different dimensions it could be centered). Tap the offset hole and drill the 4 mounting points into the plate. Line up the offset hole and use a transfer punch to mark the mounting points on the head. Drill and tap these mounting points out, I had a vacuum cleaner on and picking up all the debris from the head while I did this then cleaned up what was left by hand. Screw in the 90° AN to NPT fitting to the plate as far as you can using Teflon tape on the NPT side. I had the excess of the fitting and the plate itself trimmed down on a fly cutter. My plate was originally 1/2" and I had it cut down to about 1/4" you can start with 1/4" in and then just use a hacksaw to cut down the excess of your fittings. Mount the plate to the head using appropriate hardware. I used some gasket material and RTV to make a gasket between the plate and the head. Weld the 3/4 NPT bung into your oil pan. Wrap the NPT end of your extension with Teflon tape and screw this into your new bung. Attach the 90° -12 AN hose end to the extension Attach the straignt -12 AN hose end to the hose Screw the hose onto the head drain plate/fitting, measure, set the 90° hose end to the desired angle for your hose routing and cut your hose accordingly. Trim and slip on the heat wrap. Put the -12 AN hose end on the hose. Secure the heat wrap with tie wraps. Attach everything and whala, cheap head drain. Now I used a 90° fitting and the extension to clear the webbing on the block you could use a different angle or more length and a different return point on your own block. If anyone is interested I can dig up the Summit part numbers I used for all of the fittings, everything was pretty darn cheap I think the 90° -12 AN hose end and the extension were the most expensive pieces at about $18 each. [more pics] [more pics] [more pics] Exhaust: The exhaust was put together with the stock GTR downpipe and some old 2.25" exhaust I had laying around in the back from my old Honda. Borrowing a chopsaw made cutting up the pieces a breeze. Unfortunately I did not realize the time saving element of tacking the pieces together while they were on the car until the last few cuts. This exhaust is only temporary, I will likely reuse the parts that goto the turbos but cut off the sections after the pipes clear the engine/trans as they are just there to aim the dumps away from the car and that is why they hang down a bit more than I would like. I think I will make up some 3.5" exhaust for the final exhaust. On a side note... these exhaust dumps are *very* loud and make the cabin very smelly. [more pics]

I will upload pics tonight and detail the head drain mod, it was actually really simple and really cheap to do. Got to love Summit and some quick machine shop access Drove the car for the first time last night, having some clutch engagement issues so I think it may be time for a new master cyl, I noticed that no one in the RB forum seems to upgrade theirs but the V8 guys switch to Wilwood or Tilton units... Car is also running not 100%, it is breaking up a lot, I am hoping it is because its running very rich and possibly because there is no filters currently on the MAFs (in the mail) which I know is an issue on Karmen Vortex types MAFs but unsure on a hotwire. The turbos are also making my intercooler a nice oil resivoir There seems to be no shaft play on them but they sure are sputting out a lot of oil from the compressor. I hope they are not completely blown as turbos were not in 'plan' or budget to be replaced for some time.

So the car ran for the first time tonight, need to button up a few things before it can drive and this thread is in dire need of updating... but woohoo!

Great writeup, thanks! I was also excited when I saw the pictures and a large detailed wiring diagram printout, I was hoping it was for the RB wiring but alas it seems its for the Z32.

May 17 2007 Tonight my dad brought back the baffling pieces from his work's machine shop, after some trimming here and there it is now ready to be welded. The design is a copy of Joel's. We also marked, and punched the hole where the head drain return is going to be. The bung is 3/4 NPT and a 3" 3/4 NPT to -12AN adapter will be screwed into it. The adapter is to allow the 90° -12AN fitting to clear the webbing at the rear of the block without issues. [more pics] The pan is now ready to be welded, hopefully I can have that done this weekend. In other news, I have decided to button up the bottom end for now and move forward. My reasoning for this is as follows. Right now I need the engine complete and in the car to move forward with other aspects of the project (IC, wiring, fuel hookups, etc). The motor at this point will be stock, and with stock boost as I will be using the stock ECU for now. I believe the bearings in the condition they are in which is not as bad as I first thought are definately capable of that, but I would not trust them if I was say going to try to make 500 hp or anything or if I wanted the motor to run another 70k mi. The plan has always been to "get the car running then look at upgrades/rebuilding" so after the car is running I am going to do new bearings/rods/pistons among other things and have it profesionally machined. For a bit of piece of mind, I mic'd things and even used good ole plastigage to check the oil clearances and all are within tolerances. Tonight I ordered a black TiAL BOV w/ aluminum flange and a 24"x11"3" w/ 3" mid end tank in/outlets.