synthtk Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 So I have lurked on and off for a few years now but finally I have reason to create an account and to post. Last week I received my R33 RB26DETT swap which I purchased through HybridZ member Racer98 (Karim @ R390 Sports) the lucky recipient of this engine is a 71 240Z (Series One I believe) that I have owned for a few years now and aside from a small electrical fire a year ago she has treated me well. Background: I found the Z in the middle of nowhere Californian desert, it was owned by a guy who had it for a few years and it was his project that he became sick of, a feeling I am sure all of us can relate to. It had a lot done to it and I think I got it for a pretty good deal considering the amount of parts that came on it already and the amount of labor put into it. For the most part it has remained in the same state from when I purchased it to now, I have spent some time on the restoration of the interior which besides a new dash was non existent, put in an AutoPower roll bar (which I now wish I had opted for a weld in cage), Cobra buckets, a few aesthetic pieces, R200 3.9 diff (which will be installed along with the RB26), sway bars and most recently redid the wiring harness with some improvements due to the electrical fire. My first Z was a 91 300zx TT which ended up only getting some bolt ons before some rain, bad judgment on my part, and an inconsiderate tree sent her to the great scrapyard in the sky, and while the S30 is only my second Z I have loved these cars ever since I was a kid. My previous project before the S30 Z was a 1st gen Mitsubishi Eclipse AWD which had just about everything done to it and was quite fun but ended up being parted out and then crushed for a few different reasons. It took awhile to finally decide on the RB26 for the swap but I am glad I did as it seems to be right at home int he S30 engine bay. I am planning to do as much of the swap myself as possible. In my past projects I have been able to do all the fab, installation and tuning myself for the most part, with help from some of my friends, my parents and of course the community so I am hopeful I can have similar success with this project. Machining and any transmission/diff work however I let the pros handle. Things the swap came with: -R33 RB26DETT (any one know how to decipher the serial number to figure out the year?) -Front Sump Pan (any use for this?) -Cross member with mounts (any use for this?) -ECU w/ uncut harness -MAFs -R34 RB25DET RWD Trans & stock mount -Downpipes -Driveshaft -I also got a bonus of a Nismo G-Max Twin Disc clutch Here are some pics of the engine while in Japan, Ongoing: I am still trying to decide how I want to handle the oil pan, if I want to have one made or just do the Z31 rear sump pan and mod the pickup. I have so far mounted the engine on a stand and started a basic tear down, I pulled off the oil pump, water pump, tensioners belt and pan, everything looks in great condition but I figured it is best to replace these items now while the engine is out of the car rather than risk it and have to do it in the car at a later time or worse have something break and rebuild the motor completely. More Pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/rb240z I will update the thread as progress continues -Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roostmonkey Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 Welcome, I'm at the same stage as you and putting it in a series one Z also.Mine came with the Nismo twin disc clutch too.Well, good luck.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zcarmark Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 I'm also at the same stage you guys are. 72 240Z r33 RB26. My RB came with n1 turbos and O.S Giken twin disk clutch. I bought the motor about two years ago for 2400.00 to my door. seems like a good deal, but I havent heard it run yet. Have lots of NOS parts for my Z. One being a brand new dash, man is it beautiful! If I knew how to put up pictures I would. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest dirtbike daron Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 zcarmark: whered you find your rb for that price? im looking for a legit place to buy from. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stony Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 congrats welcome.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zcarmark Posted January 31, 2007 Share Posted January 31, 2007 Some importer in Wisconsin, but I think he went out of bussiness. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synthtk Posted May 10, 2007 Author Share Posted May 10, 2007 Well I have slacked on updating this thread with my progress so here it goes.... Pardon the rough dates they are just to set a time line of progress. End of Jan I tore down the front of the engine, everything looks good but I am going to go ahead and replace the pumps etc for peace of mind. For the motor mounts I decided to go ahead and order the Rick Wong (Infinity Machining) mounts, they will save quite a bit of time in this area of the project and put the motor at the correct tilt and placement without me having to guess. Early Feb I go back and forth on how to handle the oil pan, at first I think about just cutting the front sump RB25 pan and swapping the flange and then think about just doing the R200 rear pan and pickup. However after some searching here I see pictures of SpeedShopThagard's pan and inquire if he has anymore blanks, I am in luck and he has one still, after much pondering I decide this is the route I want to go and order the pan from James. I will be the baffling setup and pickup scheme that J. Soileau used for his SST pan. I order the following from Shea @ Nismoparts.com (Great guy, highly recommended): R33 RB26 complete gasket kit, N1 oil and water pumps, idler, tensioner and stock t-belt, Nismo thermostat. The pumps are on back order and the gasket needs to come from JDM land, this is fine as I wont be needing the parts anytime soon. The Infinity Mounts come in and look like a thing of beauty [more pics] Mid Feb The SST pan is in, and I picked up a -12 AN pickup fitting from J. Soileau. [more pics] In an attempt to save money where I can I pickup a set of the Anchor #2265 isolators J. Solieau found that work with the Rick Wong mounts, however they need to be spaced off to have the SST pan clear the steering rack. A machine shop makes me some trick yet simple spacer plates for these mounts. [more pics] March 3rd/4th The L24 is pulled (anyone need one?) [more pics] The pan is put on for test fit purposes (it is still a blank at this point) and the motor mounts are attached to the block with hardware picked up at NAPA (when did bolts become so expensive?!) [more pics] The holes on the cross member for the motor mounts are opened up to 12mm to allow the new isolators to be installed. The RB26 is dropped in for a test fit, note to self next time remove the shifter as it dragged and got snagged on just about everything it could. A BFS (Big F***ing Stick) is used to help pry the engine into place so the mounts pop in. [more pics] With the Anchor #2265 isolators and the spacers the SST pan still comes too close to comfort to the steering rack, after much debate I decide I will order the Supra Mk3 isolators. Still the engine sits very nicely in the engine bay almost like it was meant to be there from the factory. After spending many minutes under the car trying to decide the best way to mount the transmission I decide that the stock mounts must be moved back to align to the RB25DET trans mount and allow the speed sensor to clear. Milestone 1 complete there is an RB26 sitting (albeit with jacks) in the S30 March 10/11th The R200 was sent in to have the LSD installed earlier this week and is now ready to be installed. The old R180 is pulled out. Not sure what else happened. March 17/18th The Supra Mk3 isolators that I purchased from RockAuto.com are in, I am pleased to find that these came with their own nuts and washers so I don't need to go dig some up, however each one has an alignment tab on them... a quick hit with a grinder removes that issue. The engine is lifted up and the isolators are swapped, after using the BFS again to get the engine to cooperate the engine sits at its true placement and the SST pan has plenty of room over the steering rack now. [more pics] I pull out the old fuel lines as they will be replaced with a -10 feed and -6 return, I also drop the fuel tank to start the modification of it. I will be putting a -10 and -6 bung and new pickup pipe on the stock tank so everything is a bolt up affair (or at least that was the plan). The stock pickup tube/return plate is cut out and a new plate is made to cover the hole. The old transmission mounts are cut off of the car, the drivers side mount ended up coming off a lot cleaner than the passenger mount (ie clean cuts and in 1 piece),ah the benefits of switching to a flex head Dremel over a large Makita grinder and an air chisel... I ponder creating new mounts or just reattaching the old ones in a new location, I end up deciding to use the old mounts on a new back plate. I remove the undercoating with a wire wheel (talk about a mess) and then after some digging around the back yard I find some thin steel, some quick measurements and scribbles new back plates are measured and ready to be cut. The drivers side mount should be very straight forward as the trans tunnel is still smooth at the point it needs to be mounted, however the passenger side starts to change shape so the back plate will be a bit more tricky. After some trial and error the new back plates are made and fit decently, not bad for mostly eyeballing I think. [more pics] Having only welded one thing before with my cheap TIG, my welding is horrible at best. After burning many holes in scrap pieces of steel I go ahead and tack up the passenger side back plage to the body and then the mount itself. The driver side mount due to its unmutilated state and simple back panel will be welded to the back panel first then mounted to the car. April 7/8th At this point I decide to take a break from the front half of the car and finish the rear half. The logic was as follows: Before I can finish the transmission mount welding I need to remove the engine, before I remove the engine I want to take measurements for the drive shaft which means the R200 must be installed and before I install the R200 I want to run the fuel lines so I do not have to snake them around the diff. I had ordered -10 and -6 weld bungs among other fittings to finish the fuel tank mod, I weld the bungs to the back plate with little issue. A new pickup tube is formed from some copper and the plate is welded to the tank. This is where everything with this idea went wrong. My amateurish TIG welding paired with dirty metal created leaky, crack filled welds. What is worse is the gas ran out and it was a Sunday so AirGas was closed so it was thought that the welds could be fixed with good ole acedy/oxy welding. At the end of the day the welds went from ok looking but slightly leaky to horrible and might as well just be a hole in the tank. [more pics] After much frustration and decision I decide that I am just going to use a fuel cell. I tell myself that this is better anyway as the fuel cell will have foam for safety, baffling and a sump to provide positive pressure to the fuel pump as recommended. I decide on a 15g cell that is 20x18x10 w/ foam, GM sender and sump. A cardboard mock up was used to gauge size and placement in the car. April 14/15th I borrow a MIG for rest of the fabrication, and life is much better. I get tired of losing auctions on eBay I purchase the cell from Summit along with a -10 bulkhead fitting to replace one of the two -8 bulkheads on the cell so I have -10 from the tank to the pump. After receiving the cell I decide to try to sink it in the floor as much as possible yet leave as much clearance as I can. A trip to IMS for some metal and AirGas for a new tank of gas for the welder we are ready to start. The first step was to cut out the spare tire wheel well, after taking some measurements more of the floor was cut out. Some quick measurements are made and the 2" cold steel straps are cut and bent to make a cradle for the cell. 1.5" straps are cut to create a mounting point for the fuel pump and add additional support to the cradle. After some grinding, welding and some drilling we have a fuel cell mount. The cell is about 4" out of the floor and sits on strips of rubber glued to the cradle. The fuel pump is mounted to its bracket and a feed line is fed to the fuel pump inlet filter. [more pics] During the cradle creation process I realized that I should make sure the R200 and its mounts would not cause any issue with the fuel cell and pump placement so I end up swapping the old R180 mustache and hanger for the R200 units. Everything but the idler comes in from the order I had with Nismoparts. This week I also placed an order for 2ft of -10 fuel rail extrusion for the custom fuel rail. The fuel system will be -10 from the cell all the way to the rail and regulator and then -6 back. April 21st/22nd The evil of eBay strikes and during the week it was determined that the -10AN line I had purchased does not work with normal AN fittings but requires special crimp fittings. I went ahead and purchased new -10 lines and a new -10 90deg fitting. The new lines are put together and the -10 feed and -6 return are routed towards the front of the car. Because the vent/tip over and return fittings are -8 and I have -6 lines for those -8 to -6 adapters are used. [more pics] The R200 diff is installed [more pics] The drivers side transmission mount is tacked into place and measurements are made for a new cross bar. The first cross bar created had a dip in it to allow the transmission to sit properly or so I thought... Once I lowered the jack putting weight on the stock rubber RB25DET trans mount it compressed and the trans sat a bit too low in the tail, in the end the cross bar ended up just being a straight bar across. to give it strength it is made from 1/4 steal. [more pics] A quick look at the drive shaft install brings me great joy. It looks like all I need to do is swap the R200 diff flange onto the ER34 drive shaft. The shaft is 3/10" short which can be left as is or compensated for with a spacer plate. Milestone 2 is completed, the RB sits in the car on its own without jacks and on its new transmission mounts. April 25 The N1 oil pump is disassembled so that it can have a -12 bung welded to it for the external pickup. [more pics] I remove the fuel rail so the extrusion can be made to match [more pics] May 5/6th It is time for the engine to be pulled so the pan can be removed for baffling, external pickup, drain and the front part of the engine installed. I am very pleased on how easy it is to pull out the engine even though I hope this is the last time for awhile it will need to be out of the car. Once the engine is out I finish up the welds on the transmission mounts, it is much easier to weld without a transmission in the way. For the drive shaft I remove the differential flanges off the shafts, after a quick comparison of the U-Joints and some quick searching of local stores I buy a new 240z shaft u-joint. The stock u-joint is slightly larger than the ER34 shaft u-joint so the holes must be bored out, after they are bored out the u-joint goes in with no problem and I now have a completed drive shaft for the low price of a $8 u-joint, not bad considering I was planning on spending a few hundred to have a custom shaft made. [more pics] The oil pan drain location is determined, marked and drilled so is the external pickup location. An aluminum hinge will be used for the trap door and the baffling design will be like J. Soileau's. [more pics] -Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synthtk Posted May 11, 2007 Author Share Posted May 11, 2007 Added in the missing pics. Today found out that the front U-Joint is bad on the driveshaft so will be replacing that one also. -Chris Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RB26powered74zcar Posted May 11, 2007 Share Posted May 11, 2007 Looking good Chris, keep the pics coming!! Sorry Chris, I called you Brandon..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synthtk Posted May 11, 2007 Author Share Posted May 11, 2007 Looking good Chris, keep the pics coming!! Sorry Chris, I called you Brandon..... I will be updating the thread regularly now that I found a good home for pictures, no worries about the name haha Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zcarmark Posted May 12, 2007 Share Posted May 12, 2007 were did you get the sst oil pan and how much? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synthtk Posted May 12, 2007 Author Share Posted May 12, 2007 James on this board, his username is 240Z Turbo, his website is http://www.speedshopthagard.com/ I believe I got the last one he had made when he did a batch of them awhile back. Great guy to deal with, I wish I was closer so he could do some other fab work for me. were did you get the sst oil pan and how much? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
240Z Turbo Posted May 12, 2007 Share Posted May 12, 2007 I originally made 10 of these pans several years back and was selling them for approximately $300. I do have one remaining, but it is for my RB26/240sx project. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synthtk Posted May 16, 2007 Author Share Posted May 16, 2007 May 12 2007 Not too much happened today, I reassembled the N1 Oil Pump after having the -12 AN fitting welded to the external pickup port. [more pics] Rest of the day was spent installing ceiling fans at a friends house... so exciting. May 13 2007 A lot of progress was completed today, which is nice since I did not really work on it at all the previous day. The first order of the day was to go through piles of parts that have been cluttering my parents house to identify stuff that can be sold (expect some postings in classifieds soon), upon doing so I struck gold.... well aluminum. I found a box with various 3" aluminum bends that I had purchased to do an IC modification on my DSM when I had it. I thought I had sold these and was going to be buying new piping soon, glad I found this when I did. After parts were identified, cleaned, and pics were taken I decided I should open up the Nismo G-Max Spec II Twin Plate I got to check the condition of the discs... Sadly enough they look pretty worn, but enough to get the car rolling. Time to start tracking down replacements though... which so far has been a major PITA. After reviewing pictures I also realized that I need to make sure the camera is actually taking the picture... I thought I took a picture of the everything but it was not on the camera.... anyway here is a picture of one of the disk hubs. [more pics] Next up was pulling the girdle off and inspecting the bottom end, sadly it appears there is some abnormal to excessive wear on some of the lower mains. Very annoying as the motor otherwise looks in amazing condition. [more pics]Most of the mains look good, so do the rods but the #7 (rear) main, #3 main and the #4 (thrust) have me a bit worried. I guess it is time to start looking into replacement bearings. Very frustrating After looking for bearings for awhile I decide I should move forward at least... so it is time to relocate the dipstick! As you all know the RB26 is front sump from the factory but we need to use it as a rear sump which is why we all change oil pans and such and need to relocate the dipstick. Some RBs have the rear location already drilled and plugged meaning you can just pop out the plug put in the tube and call it a day, however my R33 block does not have this so it is time to bust out the drill. [more pics] Admittedly doing this had me a bit worried... but in the end it well and we had no issues with debris. We were careful to cover rest of the engine and try to get as good as of a tape seal as you can with an oily engine block, the vacuum helped the most. Here is the final result. It is a bit harder to get to, but still quite accessible... at least while it is on a stand, haha. Now I need to make/source a plug for the front tube location to complete this small but required task. At this point I reassemble girdle and get it all torqued down and install the baffle plates that I got from Stealth-Z Time to install the oil pump (something I will be kicking myself in the ass about later). After changing out the plug installed at the top of the pump for a smaller one to clear where the water pump goes (it is cooler looking blue now anyway), scraping off the old gasket and putting up the new gasket the oil pump is on. [more pics] Time for the N1 Water Pump, again.. scrape away the old gasket, clean up the surface rust on the passages, apply some good ole Nissan gasket maker and whala. [more pics] Thermostat time! For the thermostat I went ahead and got a Nismo unit (which Shea @ Nismoparts has a great price on), according to it, it is a 62°C thermostat which is only 144°F, and I thought 160°F tstats were pretty cold... wow. Before putting the tstat housing back on, I ran a wire wheel over it making it a bit nicer to look at least for a short time. [more pics] My father (without whom I would not have a place to store my parts/tools/car much less gotten as far as I have at this point without his help) discuss doing the head drain mod that I had been on/off again about doing. While at this point I do not want to pop the head off to do the oil passage restrictor the head drain mod can be done fairly easily externally and it would be good to do while the oil pan is being modified. I decide that the freeze/welsh plug will be removed and a plate will be made to cover it with sort screws tapping into the head (but not penetrating) the line down to the pan will be -12AN. Because I do not want to trim the webbing on the block I will either need to loop the line around the webbing or somehow space out the return port... At this point it is time to call it a night. When I get home, I consult a few friends about the bearing wear, between my worry and how I describe it they recommend me changing it but say they would like to see pictures first. After realizing I did not take any pictures of the bad bearings I kick myself, time to open up the bottom end again! May 14 2007 Today I called up Shea @ Nismoparts inquiring about bearing availability, sadly he does not have any in stock nor knows of anyone in the US that does. I spend awhile searching other sites to see if I can locate any but cannot, I however can find ACL/"Race"/Cosworth etc bearings easily, however swapping in "STD" bearings where Nissan has an available 6 precise sizes worries me. I also order up some parts for the head drain modification from Summit, they have been seeing a lot of my money lately... May 15 2007 So after being spooked about the main bearings being worn I decided to open the bottom end back up and take some pictures, bust out the calipers to take some measurements for replacements and consult some people more knowledgeable than I. The pic below is the bearing I would consider the worst of the bunch, a few friends including a mechanic I trust said it would be something they would be concerned a bit about but does not seem excessive or something to completely worry about at this point. The wear is smooth, no debris and the crank itself is flawless. [more pics] Based on their input I think I will go ahead and order new bearings though, but assemble the bottom end just to move forward with the project and when they come in yank the engine again as it is easy enough to do. Eventually I will be building this motor so removing it at some point has always been in the plans. What now is really confusing (at least to me) is the sizing of bearings. Nissan was kind enough to stamp the block with a 0-3 grading each main, and then the crank 0-3 for each pin grade. My mains are 2 3 2 2 3 2 2 and my pins are [will fill in later] So based on the chart below I have STD 3 -> STD 6 bearings. However my calipers tell a completely different story... which is very frustrating because I do not want to put blind faith that the bearings that should be in there... are really in there. So it is time to borrow a set of calibrated calipers hopefully with higher accuracy. If anyone can give me some insight on how to determine which bearings I really need, it would be greatly appreciated. On a good note most of my Summit order came in with the parts I will use for the head drain mod... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Careless Posted May 17, 2007 Share Posted May 17, 2007 I originally made 10 of these pans several years back and was selling them for approximately $300. I do have one remaining, but it is for my RB26/240sx project. question, is having the oil picked up externally like that good on an N/A motor with the front sump adapter, or is useless, and would you change it? Im thinking I should just leave mine or something :/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synthtk Posted May 18, 2007 Author Share Posted May 18, 2007 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. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacecase70 Posted June 20, 2007 Share Posted June 20, 2007 do you still have the l24? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
synthtk Posted July 13, 2007 Author Share Posted July 13, 2007 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RB26powered74zcar Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 Cool Dood!! Where are the pics?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob_H Posted July 13, 2007 Share Posted July 13, 2007 Nice work! A few questions/comments. First, with your external pickup location in the pan - realize that you will have about a full quart or more of oil that it cannot pickup,(the pickup will need to be completely submerged for it to draw oil up). That means if under normal driving, it becomes uncovered - oil will stop flowing.... something to keep in mind - and i suggest overfilling. Make sure you mark a "full" mark on the dipstick. I did mine when the pan was off the car - and marked it just below the girdle. However, if yours is already installed, you might have to get creative. Whatever you do, don't rely on the stock markings as they were designed for a different pan depth/location. Second question - your custom head drain mod - what sizes, how did you make it fit, etc..? I'm working my own custom head mod solution, and I like your start and am interested in following. I assume your running the stock computer for now - any future plans or will you stick with that. Last, have you fabb'ed up an exhaust yet? I'm interested in seeing the front pipes,(that connect to the turbo's) -Bob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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