Shoota_77

What's wrong with the current engine? Completely grenaded or just oil/smoke/etc issues? My advice, buy a cheap engine, put a set of bearings in it, give it a quick hone, some new piston rings in and away you go. That's not a perfect way to do it but should give you a bit more piece of mind than just whacking a completely unknown engine in. Once the sump is off you'll get a pretty good idea of what sort of condition it's in.

You need power for the next level of shine. Get a die grinder and you can then buy el cheapo polishing kits from Supercheap that you can put in the die grinder check and polish the life out of it. The kits even come with different polishing compounds to match the different polishing pads to go through the different levels of shine.

Not sure if fishing......... You want a GT-R badge? Buy a GT-R. A GT-R spoiler I can live with as it's an aesthetic improvement, GT-R badge GTFO.

CA's are so cheap so I'd just find another one, bolt it in and off you go. You'll pick one up for a few hundred maximum. Lots of blokes here running standard bottom ends in race cars with no issues. Personally I'd rebuild it but if time is an object bolt the new cheap donk in and fix up the existing engine while the car is still on the track.

Great to see some GT-R's actually in this time! They outweigh BRZ/86..........ATM anyway....

If there were any dramas you'd know by now. It would have blown one of the fusible links in the boot if it shorted badly enough and for long enough.

With an RB30 unless it's a total pig should smash 500HP on E85 with the right turbo/s. Don't quote me on it but I read somewhere that even the HKS V Cam setup only increased performance marginally.

Too low in comp? Was it originally a turbo motor or non turbo? The turbo motors were something like 7.5:1 comp or something like that from memory. With comp like that to get the most out of it you need to run a big turbo which obviously means delayed onset of boost. To be a nice responsive motor off boost you need to be running at least 8.5:1 but preferably mid 9's would be better. If you're still running methanol in conjunction with E85 I'd imagine you could get away with even higher than that on a well tuned/well setup engine.

Was comp definitely good before the crash? May have busted ring lands or something that is hard to see. Make sure the valves aren't sticking in the head and just being pushed closed by the pistons. It only takes a tiny nudge to bend valves which can cause them to lock in the guides. With the head resting on timber so you don't further damage the valves, turn the cams around and see if the valves close of their own accord when the bucket comes off the lobe.

3 or 4 hours is heaps. You can start sanding it down (3M 2000 grit wet and dry sticky pads are the best) after that sort of time frame. I generally put as much paint (multiple applications) as required to fill the hole to slightly above paint level then sand it down with the sanding pads then cut back the whole area around the repair (30+ cm area) then finish off with a polish again of the whole area.

Looks good, well done! Whose decision was it (and for what purpose) to ditch the ITB's in favour of the single TB or was your car already like that? Can't tell from the original piccies.

It's a poofter of a job doing the clutch and brake pedals... I sweated and huffed and puffed and cursed and cried a little inside before mine were on. My fingers felt like I'd smacked them with a hammer for 5 minutes straight after it. A good looking simple upgrade though!

Couldn't agree more. No disrespect to people who had 'old Jeeps' but in general they were $hit. Fiat ownership has brought along European design influences and more importantly European production standards. The fit and finish and general build quality of the Jeeps is spot on. I've never seen a brand go from junk to top quality in such a short period of time. If I wasn't building a house, a shed and a car I'd have one for sure! Driving one as a demo whenever I like is a suitable alternative though!

I hope you detected the sarcasm of the last comment....

I sell Jeeps and we have had a few minor issues with the current version Grand Cherokee (fiddly little electrical dramas) but overall they are seriously a brilliant car. I can honestly say that the build quality of the new gerneration Grand Cherokee is brilliant. At this stage it's the only Jeep I would buy but in the next 2 years all Jeeps will revert to the new way of building cars and will be world class. There's a bit of junk in there at the moment which is a hangover from the "old Jeep"... Value for money, quality, driveability and towability you honestly cannot go wrong with the Grand Cherokee. Tows like a truck (3500kgs) yet drives like a car. Completely unbiased rant over.....

Ha ha, Linglongchanwongs.... I love the brand "Mayrun". Then again they just might not...

I had a Q5 3.0 TDI which fortunately I bought under the corporate plan (free servicing) but they still gave me the invoices for my records, it was $900 for a standard service (ouch!). A lot of the modern diesels (no, that doesn't count Toyotas...) are using fully synthetic oils now. That where a big part of the cost on a Grand Cherokee Diesel service is, in the oil.

Diesel Navaras and PJ/PK Rangers are killing injectors too. At $1000 per injector it ends up being an expensive repair! We've traded in quite a few with dead injectors. If you're looking to buy a second hand one, make sure you start it cold as they quite often don't play up when hot.

Beautiful car and great setup! That is one majorly busted engine! I'm not sure you could blame the enlarged bolt holes or not. The crack runs through one of the holes but whether it originated from the hole or just ran through the path of least resistance which is the hole. Very hard to say. The vast majority of RB's floating around are far less than 1200HP so there may not be a lot of relevant experience on whether they crack at that point regularly. I've only seem RB's crack in the middle of the block and underneath at the sump mounting face. Yours is certainly an impressive effort (but obviously not appreciated!). Good luck with it. Some of the sand racer Patrol guys over there might be able to shed some light on it as they're running similar power to yours.

It doesn't cost a huge amount more to build a 30 as opposed to anything else, it's mainly sourcing the new stuff that's different and the machining that adds up. You end up adding a whole heap of extra stuff as you go. My engine (which is still not finished) would have cost me $15000 I'd reckon. A lot of that has been upgrades that you would do on any performance build though- new dumps, new clutch, all new genuine hoses, new timing belt tensioners, etc, etc. The list is never ending! No disrespect intended but I would learn a bit more about your car first before committing to a 30 build. Spend money on upgrades that can be transferred over to the 30 once you build it (turbo, injectors, fuel pump etc). Once you're used to that power then go the next step. Totally my opinion but it's your money!

As per above I would look at injectors as a possibility. A dribbly injector/s could cause that. Are you running a higher fuel pressure than standard? Could be forcing fuel through the injectors when parked. Does your oil smell really fuelly??

I've got an extended sump and the external pickup. My sump uses the original pickup back into the original position just through the side of the sump rather than through the block. There's really no huge advantage with the external pickup. With an RB30 conversion it's a bit of a pain in the arse extending the standard pickup but can be pretty easily done. The reason I stuck with the external pickup was that the (complete p.o.s in the end) engine I bought had the Tomei pump already modified for external so it was easier to build everything around the oil pump rather than tossing a $1500 part!

There's definitely merit in it if you're tracking your car. On the street (if you have large testes) it can be a lot of fun to hang the arse out before the front grabs but I have little doubt it would make you a lot quicker at the track to have full all wheel drive earlier. That in conjunction with a good torque split controller and you're laughing.

Thanks Mick, I wish it wasn't so long between each update! Family, building a house, building a shed and work seem to get in the way very often! Pulled the oil pump back off last night to work out how to get around my A/C bracket issue. Think I might have a solution with a 90 degree -10 fitting I cut up. Glen (aka Rb30/26 running gear in LX Torana hatch fame) is hopefully going to help with the aluminium welding which is outside of my abilities (and equipment!). These photos may not make sense but I know what I mean! If you look at the last photo I'll be able to cut away the triangular bracing on the A/C bracket. I don't believe there should be great enough side loadings to cause the bracket to flex or break. Time will tell. It would be lovely to make some consistent forward progress at some point rather than 2 steps forward 1 step back! Such are the joys of doing it yourself I spose...

Got the front end on (oil pump, water pump, etc)- I fear I might have a porous weld issue with the changes made to my oil pump unfortunately. Seems to be weeping out of a porous looking section that was welded on to make the pump external pickup. An abortion of a job was done the first time it was done prior to me getting the pump so made life hard for the second modification. I'm tempted to get it modified again anyway to work around the A/C bracket. Call me soft but until this car becomes a full track car I still want my air con! Northern Victorian summers are unrelenting... I sat the head on the other day and turned it over (without cams in) and the pistons don't hit the head which is a good start! It had me worried for a while! I've got some Playdoh so when I get me new head/block dowels I'll bolt the head down and see what sort of clearance I get between the valves and the head. Hopefully it's enough....