Guest nismoracer Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 im looking for any information i can get to help me figure out what i need to do to put an rb20det into my 1983 280zx. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest blusty Posted October 20, 2004 Share Posted October 20, 2004 did you read the sticky at the top of the forum? http://hybridz.org/nuke/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=23010 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gibbon Posted October 31, 2004 Share Posted October 31, 2004 im looking for any information i can get to help me figure out what i need to do to put an rb20det into my 1983 280zx. hey mate im doing exactly the same thing as youre planning to do. ask me any questions and i'll shoot answers back as i come across them. personally i think the sticky up the top is a little bit vague, it covers the rb26 more than the 20, and it doesnt go into details on some other little things that i would have liked to know Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest jjohnson Posted November 1, 2004 Share Posted November 1, 2004 Hey guys, I've just bought my engine and gearbox for my 240z - rb20engine + gearbox with 40,000 kms on it! will be in by the end of the week - This guy Charles sent me a document awhile ago which seemed pretty helpful. see how this goes for you Note: this is for an rb20det swap into a 1st generation two seater Zed Quote: 'Walkingpig' - Charles "If you're like me, you're one of the many who like to go fast, and 30 years ago, i suppose a Z was not so slow. But these days its certainly not fast! So there comes a time in every mans journey through life, where the 'need for speed' takes control of your wallet. For me, its still in control as you will see. I chose to fulfill my need for speed with an upgrade to the RB20DET found mostly in the nissan R32 SKyline Gtst. It comes stock with 160kw, lots more revviness, better fuel economy and more torque than the 160hp 260z. aside from this it is naturally a lot easier to upgrade than the outdated L series engine. So with a few minor upgrades as you'll see below, i expect to see not 160BHP, but at least 240RWHP! by no means will grannie be driving! :: beginnings :: Having made my selection and bracing my wallet for impact, i set about locating the parts i needed! having sourced the 1/2cut i began the painful job of stripping it down ready to put into my longer but not quite as wide Z engine bay. This was made much easier when i decided to become a leader, not a laborer and employ a friend to pull it apart:) Having done this, and selling the old L series L24(ditched the l26 ages ago) it was time to get to work mounting the new powerplant. A test alignment of the engine and gearbox had us smiling as the mounts on the RB equipment lined up perfectly with the L series crossmembers. So in she went, Note The Lxmember had 2 bolts attaching the engine mounts and the RB had one - so we made an adapterplate Once in we found that the EFI manifold was not going to clear the bonnet. So having be assured by my friend i would need a Torana bonnet scoop. I towed it down the road to a wonderful bunch called Q Mechanical (I highly recommend them if you are in Toowoomba). They remade the left mount(under the efi) and shortened the Right mount a little, and tihs straightened the engine up a little and also dropped it what must be at least 10cm, so now all the cooler piping and the efi will easily fit under the bonnet! Note: I used the RB engine mounts here - forgot to clarify The gearshift comes up a little further forward but i'm still hapy with it. Also i couldn't find my Z Gearbox Xmember so i can't tell you how well it fitted with the RB box, but i will include a photo of the new one. Once they had the engine in and sitting and the driveshaft connected... Yes the original Z driveshaft was the right length and slid straight into the RB gearbox! IT was time to have the sump remade to fit as the RB sump has the bowl at the front, and this wont clear the Z crossmember and steering rack. Also the engine/gearbox has a brace that joins the two which passes under the shallow end at the rear of the sump. So what we did was chop the whole bottom of the sump off and rebuilt a bowl in the middle of the sump.. Q Mechanical also did this(woohoo). Note Cost was $400, pretty much the same was quoted everywhere i asked With the sump attached, the engine was in, sitting very well, and and connected to the rear wheels! ready to roll... not! Here are pictures of the mounts, gearbox crossmember, sump and gearstick position. :: Wiring :: When confronted with approximately 3 meters of engine loom, and twice that from behind the dash of the 1/2cut, there's only one thing you can do, RUN for the bloody hills! listen veeeerry carefully as the wiring actually turned out a LOT less daunting than it seems... basically it goes like this SSH! listen veeeerry carefully ... the wiring actually turned out a LOT less daunting than it seems... basically it goes like this Chop a hole for the wiring to get through the firewall, chop the entire dash loom up and take out any frustrations on it before trashing it, take the engine loom and connect all the plugs where they go... Note i only managed to use abuot half of mine - i removed the aircon, the power steering, and the ABS units to name a few - leaving many of the sensors and wiring plugs unused. Connect a few wires on the ECU to the fuel pumps and the power and earth.. etc.. bring an igntition Start wire over to the ecu... and go have a beer! you're done. Ok its not quite that simple, well it is, but that wasn't very detailed - i will update this section with an indepth wiring article soon. :: Plumbing :: While i have decided not to go all out on the turbo, injectors, aftermarket ecu etc straight out, i did decide that i would get certain things right the first time. and the plumbing is one of them. The plumbing will be nicely sized stainless steel connecting the turbo, intake, and a HYBRID 600x300x76 intercooler together. The other plumbing is a 3 inch all the way Mandrel bent, with a custom dump pipe with a separate wastegate and main exhaust (proven to bring boost aruond 800rpm earlier on the rb20det with my vg30 turbo).i have a 3inch hi-flow Cat, and a nice unobtrusive muffler. I will bring this section up-to-date when the plumbing actually gets done!! :: Fuel System :: Most of you will be aware that the Z does not have baffles in the fuel tank... and so if you have less than aruond 1/3 of a tank of petrol, and go aruond a corner, your fuel line will start sucking air as the fuel sloshes aruond. this is bad for the fuel pumps and your engine:) SO to deal with this one must aquire a hi-volume pump, a surge tank, and a hi pressure pump. When one connects them up, you have a surge tank to supply the engine if the line from the fuel tank dries up... you get what i mean - i will draw a picture to explain... again more info to come when i actually do this part As we all know, the Z did not come with a Boost guage (amongst others) but since i have only the NEED to replace the boost guage right now, i'll tell you how i faired. :: You DONT need a clock! :: Fortunately Autometer(etc) make 2 5/8 guages! and this is precisely what you want. It fits perfectly inside the clocks old guage case. so open it up, and throw the clock, and the glass disc away (it pushes backwards). now you need to mark some holes for the 2 screws in the new AutoMeter Boost Guage to go through. You will also need to cut away the middle of the rear casing of the guage to fit the piping and light in. With this one its all a matter of screwing the guage in at the position you want it... you can even get it to face a slight angle by pushing one of the screws further in than the other. Below are the pictures of the half finished project, as you can see i'm still waiting for the weekend when i get a chance to go buy a file and hollow out enough of the back of the guage casing. so i cant get the guage to sit perfectly yet. Please ignore the entire dodgieness of these few photos - i will post more soon as i get a chance to finish working on it and get it sitting right. Also please ignore the fact i forgot to focus my camera:) All the pictures do is show you how mangled my Clockback already was (someone put a VDO voltmeter in) and where i put the new screw holes, and the 2nd pictures shows that the guage is the correct size... Check back for updates soon - having played without the cover on - i really wish all the old Z guages looked as good as this one did. But you'll see that soon enough:)" Any questions just post up and i'll try and help out.. Sean Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest blusty Posted November 1, 2004 Share Posted November 1, 2004 personally i think the sticky up the top is a little bit vague, it covers the rb26 more than the 20, and it doesnt go into details on some other little things that i would have liked to know I'm by no means an expert or anything thats why I didn't say much else, but I thought it would help if he read it supposeing he didn't(I figured guys like you would help him out further if he needed it). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gibbon Posted November 29, 2004 Share Posted November 29, 2004 fair enough, but i think the article posted in this thread should be part of that sticky, i found it way more useful Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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