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Story time - My rebello stroker... the goods, the bads -280z


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Well my 280z is now running on a rebello 3.0L stroker motor. After months of working the car and spending a lot of money, I finally write about the project.

 

The motor is cool, but it is not what I thought it would be. over $6000 invested and I probably only gained 20 horses. Still it is fun. It really gets up and goes and the sound... I love the sound of the header when I take off, especially when other cars are on the side of me as I fly past them. But is quite sluggish at high speeds.

 

The engine itself is a beauty. Very clean and runs great. The motor is also fuel injected, no carbs for me. I am using a turbo AFM with N/A internals, a Porsche fuel pump, 20 lb turbo injectors, custom fuel rail, steel braided lines, and MSD ignition. The motor itself includes all the rebello bells and whistles -mild stage 1 cam, ported head and intake, ross forged pistions, stroker crank, turbo oil pump, and 62 mm throttle body (which I think is junk)

I had planned on getting megajunk (megasquirt) and they wanted $1000 for that and $750 for dyno and tuning, which I turned down and saved almost 2 grand. Spent even more money to have the package shipped out to me in North Carolina.

As cool as it sounds, I regret to say I could have gone a better, cheaper route.

I was not impressed with rebello's port work at all. I do not however regret the actual engine... it was built with good quality, has good oil pressure, and I know will last a long, long time.

I spend a good amount of time going over the forums about stroker vs' turbo setups and I found that most people leaned towards turbo (inexpensive, cheap, easy, more dependable) Even after reading about people who went the rebello stroker route and regret not going the turbo route, I was still convinced the stroker was the better way.... well, I admit it, they were right. Now don't get me wrong, I really do love my new motor, but I could have saved soooo much time and money.

 

So, a week or so after I ordered my engine from rebello racing, I got in touch with a gentlemen named Franky Williams, who as it turns out, builds and races Z's, and lives less than a few miles from my house. (He's got a video on U-tube of the blue 280z turbo at the Fayetteville track... a car that pushes more than 500 horses, I kid you not).

Enthusiastic about my decision to order a rebello, I told my new friend Franky, and he just laughed and tore me up, urging me not to go with rebello and that I was wasting my money on garbage for a slow setup. It's actually good that we met because he helped me with the engine swap and hooked me up with a few good special mods to make my car better. Although he hates the stroker setup, he and I are both happy that I have a good quality motor, but he still gives me crap about going with rebello. When we saw what a poor job rebello did on the head and intake porting, I was really starting to regret things after I saw how much better his custom porting jobs were... There is no comparison. So I payed rebello thousands for basically a stock N42 head and intake.... they looked like they had been just polished and that's it. Very disappointing, Rebello.

So I tossed the intake rebello sent me and used one of franky williams' very well ported and shaved intakes.

 

To sum this up, I regret that I did not meet Mr. Williams before I got set on going with a Rebello stroker motor. I could have spent 2K and got a complete turbo motor, with Franky's intake/headwork, big turbo, nice BMW throttle body, and his custom turbo header and exhaust and ended up with a 500 hp car. Yes, I kid you not... a 500 HP car with stock turbo components... no big cams or cranks, no NOS, no carbs, strokers or V8 conversions. If you don't believe me, feel free to email Mr. Williams. Here is the video of his little blue car. So if you're looking at some serious speed that will skin a vette, Franky is the guy to talk to.

 

 

So I got a rebello motor that probably gave me 20 more horses than my stock motor had. Payed over 6000 bucks.

 

My opinion on the setup - motor -good quality, runs good. But, Rebello actually

left a a stuck motor mount bolt with the head

broke off, in the block - ggrrrrrr

TB - crap, tends to stick on acceleration.

Header - turned out to be a Pacesetter, which had to

have custom tabs welded on to prevent exhuast

leaks. (Rebello does not do this)

And not to mention, they sent me the wrong type of gasket with the header.

 

But I can't trash them on the overall quality of the motor... it is very sound.

The only good thing about my motor setup is that I had Dave Rebello build it so that I could run it with a turbo. The people out at Rebello are real nice and build great motors, but if I were to do it over again, I would completely go the cheaper turbo route.

 

So what do I do now? Well, I got the stroker motor that I wanted, and now I am going to put a big turbo on it hopefully soon... with the help of Franky Williams, of course. :)

 

Here is a link to the car and some engine pics -

 

http://s228.photobucket.com/albums/ee98/bonfire79/Datsun/

 

Hope this helps anyone who is thinking about getting a rebello stroker setup.

 

Happy Holidays,

 

Bon

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Bon,

 

Good job on just stating the facts and not getting emotional and trashing Rebello. I do feel for ya (the tune of $6000 is a tough pill to swallow) and I hope the turbo will be everything you want it to be. You might be able to score some good turbo stuff for cheap if you are patient.

 

Good write-up. Maybe Santa will bring you a T66 for Christmas :mrgreen:

 

Davy

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Bon,

 

Good job on just stating the facts and not getting emotional and trashing Rebello. I do feel for ya (the tune of $6000 is a tough pill to swallow) and I hope the turbo will be everything you want it to be. You might be able to score some good turbo stuff for cheap if you are patient.

 

Good write-up. Maybe Santa will bring you a T66 for Christmas :mrgreen:

 

Davy

 

Thanks Davy,

 

I haven't had alot of good feedback on here or on zcar.com. I appreciate your comments. Well, I am still going to run the turbo with the stroker and I am really looking forward to it. X-mas sounds like a great time to get one too! I will keep the progress and the results posted...

 

Merry Christmas,

 

Bon

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