[Are RBs worth building reliability wise]

I want to build my RB25, what puts me off is they just don't seem to last a long time at a powerlevel of 550-600hp. Seems as soon as you mess with the factory engine, RBs just don't last. Two of my mates who had forged RBs, one was in a drift car which spun bearings more times than he would like to admit and since he's gone to a Ford Barra engine. My other mate had the bore crack.

Is it even worth putting 10-15K into an engine you can't be sure will stand up to the power level because there is so much uncertainty in the quality of parts, engine builder and tuner. As well as the various other issues the car can have. 

Has anyone here had a rb put out at least 600rwhp and last for a long time 5 years/50,000km? Is there anyway to build the 5 speed manual on a budget to handle the 550rwhp, without having to do a low quality conversion kit to a T56/CD009?

[V35 Clutch install]

Going to pull the box off tomorrow, not even clutch experts know what the deal is. 

[V35 Clutch install]

No one? 😅

[V35 Clutch install]

Hi guys, today I installed a Exedy 5 Puk clutch (car is going to be used for drifting). Everything went well on the installation side no issues. 

With the clutch pedal all the way up, it has about ~5mm of dead play (within Nissan spec 3-5mm). The clutch seems to use the whole pedal to disengage, but isn't fully disengaged until about 10mm from the clutch pedal hitting its stop. It also fully engages about 3/4 of the stroke of the clutch pedal, about 15mm from the top of the pedal. 

Is that correct, or does it require adjustment. So in summary: 

Clutch pedal disengages fully about 10mm from bottoming out. 

Clutch pedal fully engages about 15mm from its maximum "up travel". 

Is this correct, I left the pedal adjustment as it is from factory I have not played with anything. Clutch was bled about 10,000km ago, and with the old oem clutch was good just its engagement/disengagement points were different. 

Thank you.  

[400R restoration - totally awesome.]

On 5/7/2021 at 9:27 AM, BK said:

They didn't, it was replaced with a new one.

Shh don't tell him that haha. 

For real that fibreglass repair was so good, its almost like a new one

[How did Nissan screw up the oiling system on the rbs so badly?]

7 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

No, actually it has been fixed for years. Add a collar to short drive cranks. Use upgraded pump parts. Assemble carefully. It's the last part that has caught out so many. The majority of the failures* of good aftermarket pumps are attributable to people not paying attention to the fact that when they line bore an engine or do anything else that changes the relative location of the pump and crank, they need to make sure that it all still lines up.

*Not including the failures caused by knob ends beating the living shit out of their engines by manging around limiter bashing like 17 year olds.

You can't bash limiter in an rb, its not ideal but it happens in a drift car. The 25 in my 33 is tired, I don't want to spend 15-$20k building it just to suffer oiling issues drifting. Might be better to LS swap it idk. 

[How did Nissan screw up the oiling system on the rbs so badly?]

7 hours ago, Duncan said:

Interesting question. Seems to me it was perfectly fine for the purpose it was engineered for; 100-206kw road cars.

I guess a better question is, why do people expect road car engine oiling systems to be adequate for applications with triple the factory power, or sustained high g/ high rev usage?

In my opinion Nissan's engineering on the RB series skylines is so good that people 30 years later expect to be able to operate them well beyond their design limits. Try that with an EB Falcon or a VN Commodore.

BTW the Group A GTRs ran wet sumps with baffles. Any serious race engine (no matter what the production base was) will run a dry sump if the regs allow it.

Agreed, in street form they don't have an issue. But really a GTR (Grand Turismo Racing) as coined by Nissan, they never expected people to race them? A 2JZ is a street engine, but the oil pump drive on those is nearly bulletproof. Don't get me wrong, I like RBs but theres not really a solution for the oil pump issues that doesn't cost over $12-15K and not reliable long term (i.e can't use dry sump on the street long term, as they require constant inspection and maintenance). 

 

4 hours ago, Ben C34 said:

Should organise a class action against them.

Ls1 1000hp no worries

Ls1 = gods engine

3 hours ago, UWISSH! said:

Ls1 first appeared in 1997, rb26 was already well established by then.

while we are at it, why didn’t they come with forged internals, dry sumps, bigger radiator, and everything else people change on them. 
Didn’t nissan foresee the future that everyone was going to be making 700+ Hp with them in 30 years time?

Because they had to work to a budget, I understand that. The japs are generally really good at making engines, everything else about the RB is great, but the thing that really mattered was butchered

3 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

The 280ps agreement was already in the weeds when the RB26 came out. The R32 engine made more than that even without removing the bleed restrictor, and a lot more than that with it pulled. The R33 engine was more again. Those were nearly 400HP engines straight out of the factory. Everything on the RB26 was good for about that much power (the turbos, the injectors, etc etc).

The real reason why the RB oil pump is the way it is that it (and the engine it was bolted onto) was based on the older L6 engines, which trace their heritage back to the 1960s and Mercedes engines that Nissan borrowed ideas from. Engines from a simpler world with lower redlines. Engines that were mass produced on an engine assembly line with absolutely no special manufacturing/assembly/tolerance efforts put in. RB26s were no different from any other mass produced Nissan engine at the time.

So, as per others above, they were fit for purpose for the usage model expected of them.

30 years later and the aftermarket still hasn't really fixed it though, I'm not keen on spending $20k on the engine just for it to have oiling issues. Nitto sine drive looks promising and I'll probably end up buying it for my build. 

[How did Nissan screw up the oiling system on the rbs so badly?]

Did Nissan not test the RB26 with the wet sump in racing applications? I understand Nissan used dry sumps when they raced the 26 in GT. 

I pulled my 25det down this week, the oil pump design is terrible. About 4-6 thou of sloop in the gear from factory? Nearly no noticeable wear on the gear. 

I wonder why Nissan couldn't use a similar design to the LS pump design, they don't seem to have any issues. Also I'm now wondering if the Nitto crank collar and hardened billet oil pump is going to be good enough or if I should go with the Nissan Sine Drive. The billet pump gears have about as much play between the collar and the gear as the factory one ~5 thou. 

[Buy 370z over R33?]

23 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

350 and 370 are just bastard Renaults and I couldn't live with one. At least the 400Z has dumped a lot of the Frenchness - not that I can afford to waste that much money on a car so my opinion on that matter is moot.

Nothing can save the R33 from looking like a 1995 Maxima powerfully buttf**ked a 1996 Magna.

Just wondering what do you drive?

[Buy 370z over R33?]

3 hours ago, GTSBoy said:

Meh, either way?

It's recreational money spending whatever you do. There is no value proposition.

But, you're not going to get anywhere near the 550+ engine HP you have in the R33 from a supercharged VQ, and it is a ceentrifugal blower too right? So not even the promise of more boost from idle. The 370 might arguably drive better and put the power down better than the R33, so could be a better thing on the road, but it will not be as fast when stretching it out - only (possibly) faster in the cut and thrust of traffic, just off the lights, out of roundabouts, etc.

But if you want to get away from all the foibles of a rusty old R33 into something that is only marginally less ugly, then now is the time. People are paying dumb money for Skylines.

Good point, I don't think the VQ makes enough power. But there's not many other cars in the 30-40k price range that can come close to what an RB can put out with ~$15k spent on it. It's a tough one, considering spending the extra upgrading the 33. 

 

2 hours ago, tridentt150v said:

Meh...sell and buy a Genesis or a Stinger...straight out of the box, nothing to modify.

I torture myself with this train of thought all the time....but done nothing!!!

Haha same mate, not too keen on the Genesis. But I quite like the Stinger, I'm holding out for the 400Z can't decide what to do but. 

2 hours ago, SteveL said:

370z is a nice car to drive and, personally, on looks alone I'd take one of those over an R33 any day.     Had a supercharger on my Silhouette for awhile.   Great around town......BW diff didn't like it much though.

Yeah I definitely prefer how the 370z looks, I don't mind my series 2 r33 from the front but the back end is ugly in my opinion. 

 

1 hour ago, hardsteppa said:

Didn't you only recently make a topic on this exact same subject referencing the same 2 cars?

Could have sworn it was about a Patrol, but you are probably right. Not sure where else to ask and I appreciate your guys opinions. 

1 hour ago, robbo_rb180 said:

Depends, I have driven a few supercharged/turbo Zs from 260 to 450kw. Fun with all the modern things. 

Now after having my 370 for a while it's not a great car as daily driver. No room for groceries, not good on rough/poor condition roads (Townsville to Brisbane 1400km one way) and getting in and out of it. Mine is a nismo so suspension and seats are different but nothing different to Coilovers. I was going to turbo it but have given up on that as would ruin its reliability and could go buy a 2nd hand bmw/vw and not have to change the whole fuel system, cooling and other bits. 

Was going also going to sell my Rb25 sil80 but it does a few things better than the Z. 

Also depends if you are going to track it as Z needs decent oil cooler to help temps but everything else is good to go. 

I think I really need to test drive one, going to see if I can tomorrow. 

[Buy 370z over R33?]

Been considering selling my R33, stripping all the aftermarket parts off and selling it as a stock example. And upgrading to a 370z that I'd ideally buy a ~2015 model for around $35k and with the extra money from selling parts off my 33 put a supercharger kit on the 370z. 

How would a 370z with a Stillen supercharger kit compare to my 33 which makes 440rwhp? 

I mostly want to upgrade because the car is much newer and I won't have to deal with rust/seal issues which will likely crop up with the 33 soon. However I've also spent a lot of money on the 33 and owned it for the last 8 years so its going to be difficult for me to sell.. 

Opinions?

[VQ swapping an R34]

On 4/28/2021 at 11:36 AM, ElPablo said:

So after some reading, I found out that custom engine looms are being sold. Made to order from companies like Panic Made. But somehow they are so busy and declined to do one. Do other companies do that kind of work? 

Hi mate I have put a vq35de into a r33 drift car. The wiring is straight forward, I can send you thru the engine harness diagrams for both - it does require some work, took me a weekend but only spent about 6-8 hours total on it going slowly. 

You will need to notch the chassis rails, since the r33 was a stat write off, we cut out about 20mm and boxed it back in. On a street car it would be more suitable to make some new headers for clearance. I believe r34 shared the same chassis rail width as a R33. 

You will also need to bash the firewall in for clearance of the gearbox, and cut a new hole in the trans tunnel for the shifter (I believe serial nine may have a shifter that puts it in the right spot now though). 

Other than routing new ac lines, power steering lines, fuel lines, charcoal canister, brake booster lines etc its a fairly straight forward. 

Definitely wasn't worth the effort in my opinion, go an LS. 

[Where to buy 10mm p-clamps]

On 4/30/2021 at 3:51 PM, SteveL said:

Have used these guys in the past but they have minimum order requirements.    Maybe they can put you onto someone that will sell you the number you need.

http://www.montronics.com.au/index.php?dispatch=categories.view&category_id=10

http://www.montronics.com.au/images/PDF Docs/P-Clamps Parts List (Rev 161014).pdf

Awesome thanks for sharing I've just made a couple orders. 

Wish someone local sold them but 😅

[Where to buy 10mm p-clamps]

On 4/30/2021 at 8:17 PM, Rusty Nuts said:

Try the Tridon site, I have used the 10mm ones. 

TPE580 6mm Dia.
TPE582  8mm Dia.
TPE584 10mm Dia.
TPE586  13mm Dia.
TPE588 18mm Dia.

Hey dude those ones are the internal size I meant the bolting hole size 🙂

[Where to buy 10mm p-clamps]

P-Clamps are super useful and I've used them in place of zip ties for several reasons on my car. 

For some reason locally and online all I can find is P-Clamps with 8mm mounting holes, but I've seen them on other cars being used on even 12mm bolts. 

Yes I have tried drilling them and it doesn't really work not enough material there. 

Any suggestions? 

 

[No wheel speed all of a sudden?]

On 4/24/2021 at 8:17 PM, robbo_rb180 said:

Good to hear you got it sorted. 

Thanks mate, really appreciate your help your suggestion lead straight to the cause. 

 

[No wheel speed all of a sudden?]

Issue sorted, I ended up having to pull the whole dash out of my car and replacing the heater core. 

Heater core must've exploded or been leaking for a bit. Soaked those connectors in question with coolant, took it all apart cleaned it out with contact cleaner. Replaced the heater core made sure it doesn't leak and put it all back together and have my speed signal back.  

Replace those heater cores guys, they're getting too old now lol. 

[No wheel speed all of a sudden?]

1 hour ago, robbo_rb180 said:

Have had issues in the past with Rb to s chassis conversion wiring with the that dash output not connected and speed needs to be connected for things to work correctly. 

 

Pin 53 is speedo input on Rb25 ecu

Double check connectors here and back of the cluster. 

Hey mate, I've just pulled the cluster out of my car, but can't find any connects like that behind it? 

I've had a search around the ecu in the passenger side kick panel and can't find it either. I'm starting to feel really stupid - Or I am hoping I don't need to take the whole dash out to access that plug? 

[No wheel speed all of a sudden?]

23 minutes ago, robbo_rb180 said:

so Speedo works on the dash but ecu doesn't detect non-driven wheel speed?
What ecu? probably using one of the abs sensors for non-driven speed and you have now modified the circuit as some ecu require a digital input not Ac as most abs sensors are.

what happens when you reconnect the wire you cut?

Hi Robbo, 

As per my original post mate the car is a Non-ABS model. The vehicle speed comes from the gearbox. This is shared to both the dash and ecu. 

No difference, the wire I cut was for the HICAS warning light after reconnecting the warning light come back on the dash but still ECU doesn't pickup wheel speed as it did before. 

I am using a Link G4+ ECU, Link support has been very good and we have narrowed down the issue to be wiring but due to my inexperience I can't trace where that green/white wire goes. Currently considering a new old stock wiring harness my local Nissan dealer has in stock.. 

[No wheel speed all of a sudden?]

Just now, GTSBoy said:

In the speedo head. It's all in the speedo head.

When I search speedo head on google, its coming up with photos of the dash cluster. Is that where you mean mate? 

[No wheel speed all of a sudden?]

On 4/19/2021 at 2:36 PM, GTSBoy said:

There is circuitry to take the AC signal from the sender and make the needle move. That appears to be working. There is other circuitry that takes the AC signal from the sender and transmits it as the PWM signal on the bis. That could be borked. It happens.

Where abouts would that circuitry be? There's four wires coming off the back of this VSS on the gearbox. 

1 I have traced back to the cluster (the circuitry to convert it to dc for the needle, must be built into the dash cluster?) 

The green/white wire, I have traced goes over the gearbox under the back of the motor and ties into the ecu harness. From there I lose it, because otherwise I will need to strip the harness down. 

But I believe your right, because this green/white wire is not the same color as the one at Pin 29. 

Any ideas, I'm lost and most auto electricians near me are booked out a month in advance atm. 

[No wheel speed all of a sudden?]

1 hour ago, GTSBoy said:

So, we're not talking about wheel speed here. VSS is on the gearbox, not a wheel.

The VSS sends an AC signal to the speedo head, where it is converted to a PWM (square wave) 0-5V signal that the ECU, HICAS, TCU, etc all read on the vehicle bus.

If you want to measure the presence of that signal at the ECU it is best done with a scope of some sort, rather than a multimeter, as you won't reliably see it with a meter.

The speedo head might be faulty.

Hm ok, I don't have a scope. Is that something an auto electrician can sort out? 

When you mean the speedo head has a fault, but wouldn't the dash not be working then because both take inputs from the same sensor on the gearbox? I think I can role out a fault with the sensor on the gearbox? 

Waiting to hear back from Link support too, wondering if it could be an ECU issue. 

[No wheel speed all of a sudden?]

1996 R33 Skyline GTS25T, NON ABS MODEL. 

Up till a couple months ago ecu was displaying wheel speed well. For some reason now it is no longer showing it. Only thing I have touched wiring wise is cutting a wire for the hicas ecu which puts the hicas light on the dash after installing a delete kit. 

Wheel speed still works on the dash, but my boost by gear etc no longer works due to ecu not seeing wheel speed. 

I am going to try and reconnect this wire tomorrow and see if it fixes the issue. 

The Yellow/Green wire on the ecu is for Vehicle speed and probing it with a multimeter in ac or dc mode, it does not give a reading. 

Any ideas? 

[Sunroof seal leaking and brake upgrade kit]

Anyone? 😢

[Sunroof seal leaking and brake upgrade kit]

Hi guys, the sunroof seal on my r33 has started to leak and is coming into the car. I believe it is the main seal around the sunroof itself. Is there any options for fixing this, or replacing it with a new OEM unit the only way? 

Also I found my front brake calipers were leaking brake fluid. I know the seals are replacable but the bore/piston themselves are pitted and no good. I was considering upgrading them but don't want to spend a ton of money (I'm thinking up to $2.5K AUD). 

I came across these: https://www.mrpltd.co.nz/product/skyline-r32-33-34-big-brake-kit-355mm/

Are they any good, or should I consider another kit is there any that are ADR compliant for engineering purposes? 

Thank you.