mjfawke

Make sure the tune is 100% before testing it out - from reports on SkylinesAustralia, at least 50% of GTR's delivered here lunch the motor in the first few days... Usually No. 6 rod bearing (the rear of the motors run hot, and it's always the first to detonate).

A friend of mine recently finished building an RB30DET for another friends R33 GTR. $15K Au in parts... He's a naval draftsman by trade, and discovered a minor engineering issue with the timing belt - none of the available belts are high temp rated, so are not reliable for an automotive application. The guy who provided the adaptor plate for the GTR front sump conversion was working with one of the belt manufacturers (Delco?) to come up with a kit for the RB30DET conversion, and my friend ended up taking over that side of the project. Ended up designing a setup with two tensioners and a brace plate... not sure what is happening with the kit. And as for the engine - with NISMO injectors, bigger turbo's and ported RB26DET head it made 306Kw @ wheels on 80% injector duty cycle. Safe RPM limit is around 6,500 for these engines.

Sorry, I haven't got back to this thread until now... The leading edges of the car are high pressure zones, and the air will flow to low pressure zones. Someone made some replacement covers for the original bonnet vents that were basically reverse cowls, and discovered air flowed into the engine bay at speed rather than out. Radiators rely mostly of the pressure differential to cause air to flow through the core, and because the core causes a restriction in airflow, there is quite a reduction in air pressure in the engine bay - as long as the radiator splash tray on the 240 is fitted, and with the 260/280 the rad support panel is low enough to block airflow. All this means is that if you cut holes in the bonnet in a high-pressure area, the air WILL flow into the engine bay. Proper bonnet vents have a raised section at the front to cause a low pressure zone over the hole, which sucks air OUT of the engine bay. Re. WRX - it has an intercooler to provide flow restriction, so it flows a lot less air than an open hole. Yes - the engine will still be cooled by the fan, but now the fan will be doing all of the work as it doesn't have the pressure differential across the radiator to cause airflow.

Great - now you have created a new air inlet which increases the air pressure in the engine bay and reduces airflow through the radiator. Large vents in bonnets are supposed to let air OUT, not in.

Roflmao!!

I never realised how much the Monaro (GTO) was 'softened' for the US market. Here is what they look like here in Aus... Link The only difference here (visually) is wheels and paint colour... Edit : When I say 'difference', I mean between HSV's offering and the standard car. The body of the HSV version is the same as the Holden version.

A friend of mine had his 260Z 2+2 up to 307kph... call it 190mph. L28 decompressed with T3, ~ 7500rpm in 5'th, can't remember his diff/tyre package. The stock Aus speedo goes to 240kph, his was locked onto the zero stop. The speed was worked out afterwards from the ECU peak rpm. Damned if I can work out how he had the time to look at the ECU controller... he described the car as an 'unguided missile' at those speeds. Forest rally guys just can't seem to get away from the need for adrenaline...

Yes - but I'm running a VLSD, which you cannot do with stock shafts.

Are you sure your start signal is going through? The engine will not start without it being connected. Also, if you have connected ignition to the accessories connection, you will loose your ign signal when cranking. What error codes are showing up on the computer? Put the computer into diagnostics mode and check.

I never found out which model it came from - they were imported from Japan for swapping into later style Nissan R180's. The Subie shafts from the diff had the CV flanges removed and Datun flanges welded on, the front flange was swapped for a Nissan flange. My original diff was a 4.375:1 Nissan with the Subie VLSD, but that died and as a temporary measure I dropped the complete spare diff in (3.7:1) - two years later, it's still there as it suits the turbo well. STI mech R180's are very rare here, but I found a number of them available very cheaply in the US on Ebay.

Not quite true. I have a VLSD R180 3.7:1 from a Subaru in my 240Z. And the STI WRX's have a mechanical LSD R180 in the rear.

Pic above is an R33 GTST rear end in a 240Z. The upper arms had to be modified to clear the chassis rails. Car also featured the R33 dash, steering column, front brakes and driveline from the R33. Awesome paint as well... won just about every prize at the 2005 Australian Datsun Nationals.

The pumps only draw around 5-10 amps, so a 20-30 amp relay is sufficient.

Ditto - my setup came without the fuel pump control. It is just for reducing noise and improving pump life.

Hmmm - it appears the R31 Skyline/Pintara setup bolts on as well, but need some minor mods. The R30 IRS disk brake rear end is a straight bolt on... but not as available. I'll have to have a closer look at the R31 setup.

No - you were correct the first time. R30 Skyline IRS with disc brakes, not R31 (live rear axle). Rather than go down the Hilux caliper path, I'd buy the Hopper Stoppers kit (~$1200Au) which gives you 297mm dia./28mm thick rotors with a 2-pistons PBR slider. If they would fit behind my current wheels, I'd have bought it already, but I can't justify buying new wheels as well.

Well... bought some S12W calipers today, and discovered they don't fit under my 15x7 wheels. They do, however, fit under my old 14x7 rims. So - buyer beware....

Lol! Friend of mine just finished building a motor for an R33 GTR using an RB30 bottom end - lots of fun with turbo mounting, cam belts etc. etc. Finished installing the motor in the bay, and then discovered the leaking water pump... Off came the IC, Rad etc. etc. No way in hell was the motor coming out again!

I am totally STUNNED.

And here is an engine mounting kit from Aus for the RB* to the Z. I suspect the tailshaft stays the same length. The price is only ~ $150au for the mounts. Not sure what comes in the kit. Look for 'EM81' http://www.rodshop.com.au/mounts.htm And - for the early Z, you can fit the engine/gearbox in original location (no short tailshaft), but cutting some 'V's out of the front of the stock crossmember, bending, welding and plating. Personally, I would NOT want to hang the gearbox too far back without fabricating new mounts on the tunnel to avoid placing a torsional load on the original mounts. The rear mounts carry more than half the engine/gearbox assembly weight...

And while everyone is on the RB30DE topic... a friend of mine has just finished building an RB30DET motor for another friend (for his R33 GTR, $15K Au in parts for the engine!) and has hit a minor issue - NONE of the available cam belts for this conversion are heat rated for the application (he has an engineering background and asked the right questions), and therefore the belts should be changed every 10,000km (the guaranteed limit for high temp applications). Gates is in the process of speccing a silicone backed belt for this specific application, with the assistance of said friend. The dummy belt is supposed to turn up this week so pictures can be taken to show how much clearance is left with the belt fitted and tensioners in place.

FWIW, there is an RB20DET running 1.3bar on a HKS turbo, making 230Kw at the wheels, which has had the throttle body relocated to the front of the manifold.

There was a big discussion on SkylinesAustralia about uneven flow in the RB20/RB25 manifolds and moving the throttle body - message from someone with dyno and race experience to back it up was that uneven flow wan't an issue until you headed towards 2-bar boost. Moving the throttle body to the front allows shorter piping length, which is a good thing.

I've sat in a Z with WRX seats - VERY NICE. The floor section near the trans tunnel behind the rail needs some work, and they are a fairly tight fit. I had trouble getting my legs between the seat and the wheel... but if there was a set going cheap, I'd grab them.

I never liked the earlier Link computers (8 bit processor). Not sure what they run now for a processor. The "king of the heap" is the Motec with the Motorolla 68332 processor, which is now also used by Haltech (last ~4 years, but there were bugs in the software), EMS (pretty good) etc. The almost "king of the heap" is the Autronic, made by a former Motec founder AFAIK, which uses an Intel 80186 processor, is as sophisticated as the Motec, but not as easy to tune. If money was no issue, Motec, then Autronic, then probably EMS/HALTECH etc. This really is a case of 'you get what you pay for'. A lot of the aftermarket EFI systems are suitable for drag/racing use, but are not sufficiently tunable for everyday driving (cold start mapping, temp correction etc.). Then again, a lot of the old factory systems are pretty crap as well. Nissan got away with a simple computer in the R32 because they used a mass airflow meter, which reduced the processing load considerably. Systems with a MAP sensor and digital ignition need a reasonable amount of processor grunt to do a half-decent job.