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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.

Why do you need one? I seem to recall that some LD28s have them?

Hey, would you be able to tell me the lengths of the two different rotors? I have a couple of oil pumps but nothing to compare them against.

I normally mount them so the there is a little tension on the rod when the flapper is fully closed. So to fit it you need to pull the rod out slightly. I'm guessing if you back the adjustment all the way off then install it like that it would be fine, you can't really adjust it for less boost than it being fully wound out?

If it's rack & pinion power steer you'll need to change the front crossmember, it's not that difficult. You'll need to change the front crank pulley, swap the pump over etc etc

Very informative thread, thanks very much. I'm in the process of rebuilding the RB26 I just bought, it has spun the #1 rod bearing and scored the first 3 cylinders. Is that an actual aluminium grinding burr you are using in the porting video? The flutes look very close together compared to the ones that I have seen and it doesn't seem to be removing a lot of material.

You'll still need to have the manifold drilled and weld on some injector bungs, the RBs have them in that seperate plate in between the throttlebodies and head.

Yeah, standard T3. I had a feeling they don't have one, I'll make sure the surfaces are flat are run it without one and see how I go!

Hi guys, I haven't been able to find a solid answer on this one, on a VG30ET turbo that has the wastegate flapper built into the downpipe should there be a gasket between the downpipe and the exhaust housing? It should have 7 bolt holes if there is one. Nissan don't have a listing for it, they list the turbo & downpipe as one assembly.

Have a look at the external wastegate adaptor thread here: http://forums.hybridz.org/index.php/topic/85051-external-wastegate-adaptor/ There are some pictures of my HKS one in there which looks similar to your first picture except the wastegate sits on the side.

If you put the bellhousing off an RB FS5W71c on to it it will bolt up no problems. I have a 280ZX gearbox with an RB bellhousing on it behind an RB20DET in an R30 Skyline. It won't take the power for very long but it'll work.

They have been making factory turbo VQ engines since 1995ish in 3 litre form and these is also a 2.5 litre as well, just not in the States. They come up on Ebay from time to time I believe.

Just of interest a mate of mine has a VQ30DET in an S13, it made 430rwhp @ 16psi, stock motor except for computer, manifolds, injectors and turbo, it will make 500+ on 20-22psi once he sorts the sparkplugs out. Maybe something to consider if you guys can find them over there?

If you are going to be a jackass you are going to get very little help. Are you 100% sure the Haltech is being triggered by the dizzy? If the Haltech is being triggered off the front crank pulley then changing the dizzy is pointless. What kind of dizzy is it? Is it compatible with the Haltech? Are you using a reluctor distributor (non turbo) or a hall sensor type (turbo)? Do you need to change the trigger plate inside the dizzy? Have you read the Haltech instuction manual and do you understand what it says? Have you traced all the wires for the ignition side of things? By the looks of it there are only 6 at the most. Do you know what each one does and whether it is a signal wire, a power wire or a ground? Are they each doing what the should be doing? Is the ignitor wired correctly? If the distributor is a hall effect style does it have power and a ground? Is the power to it being supplied by the computer? I'm fairly sure it shouldn't be hooked directly up to a 12 volt source. Is the Haltech setup correctly according to the instruction manual for the ignitor/distributor setup you are using? Take the car to either an autoelectrican or someone that has experience with Haltechs.

I'm going to hazard a guess and say that the arms with the bolt on caliper bracket aren't 280ZX arms. Every one I've seen has had arms like your second set with the welded on caliper bracket. They could be Maxima or R30 Skyline or something similar?

Rubber grease?

I've had a bit of a search and can't seem to find the lengths of non turbo S130 driveshafts (2 seater and 2+2), does anybody know? Thanks!

The rear is really easy, unbolt the S130 brakes and stub axles, remove the wheel bearings. Fit the Z31 bearings & spacer, stub axle and brakes, use the Z31 half shafts if you want, they are stronger. I did have to space out the calipers a couple of mm on my setup but I used the earlier non vented Z31 stuff. My front set up is using Z31 hubs, HR31 Skyline struts (similar to the Z31 struts but they bolt straight up), R32 calipers (same as some Z32) and AU Ford Falcon rotors, these are the parts that were available in NZ when I did the conversion.

OER make 45s, 47s and 50s. OER Japan website

Yeah, it moves the turbo right up, backwards and out towards the guard a bit, I'm not sure how much difference it would make on a LHD car, but it clears everything on a RHD drive car including the engine mount when running a big compressor housing.

I thought I'd just put up some pictures of the adaptor that I'm using, it's an old HKS cast piece, it might originally be off an L series or maybe an FJ20? T3 flange one side, T4 flange the other side and a 35mm wastegate. Car is RHD and don't worry about the turbo & wastegate pipe, I didn't end up using them. These are the best pics I've got unfortunately, they were taken about 3 or 4 years ago and it's been on the car ever since.

Factory RB20DET injectors are only 270cc from memory, and they are high impedance so they won't work with a standard computer.

Whoops, sorry 2nd to last sentence! "The Japanese 300ZX Turbo made the same 200 hp (149 kW) as the USDM VG30ET, outperforming the 3.0 liter Z31s as their engines only made 210-219 hp." So the 300ZX made 200hp but outperformed the 3.0L Z31s that made 210-219hp? I'm pretty sure I'll keep the sump and mounts and might use them in my S130 one day.

Yeah, I've heard many a story of guys with RBs finding the exhaust wheel somewhere in the exhaust. I have a Turbonetics T3/4 that I'll probably end up putting on it.

Yeah it is the one that was on Trademe, I'm picking it up at 11am today. That last sentence of that Wiki article doesn't make sense to me.