What To Do?

[murrayis]

Well....

As a few of you are aware on the past 26 months I have been building a stroked rb20 making it 2438cc. On the 10th of january this year it was all set to be put on the dyno and the run in tune done, 45 minutes into the tune 5psi dialed in second full pull to the limit of 6500rpm whole heap of oil smoke poured out of the breathers and a bad tick developed on the down rev.

We stopped the tune straight away and pulled the car off the dyno and took it back home and pulled the engine down to find 2 bearings and literaly destroyed themselfs...The Cause.... Still unknown..

Here I am now... Stuck with the choice... Should I spend $2000 to fix it and try again or should I part it off and cut my losses and just buy a 25 or 26 and be done with it and settle down?

Of course my minds leaning towards selling it all because it has been such a effort tracking down all the parts from Japan and the USA nad I dont know if I could do it again to repair it, I have spent the last 2 + years revolving around this build everything has been about it, and I always told myself if something went wrong that would be it I would stop there!

Tough times ahead with money etc. and having to purchase a house in the next 12 months are just clouding my head and I'm not sure what I should do, So I thought I would come on SAU where I have spent much of my time reading and askign questions to see what you would do if you were in the same boat?

If I did part out the engine I would be selling things like the following:

6Boost rb20/25 T4 Split Manifold

RB20 Forward Facing Intake

Ported rb20 Head

Tomei 272 9.25mm IN & EX

Tomei Lifters

Tomei Shims

Tomei Valve Springs

TOMEI Head gasket 83mm 1.5mm

Spitfire Rb20 Coilpacks

Garrett T04Z .86 Rear 3500k's

BMI 80mm Throttle Body

Synapse 50mm Wastegate

Turbosmart 50mm BOV

HKS Tripple Plate Clutch

Sard RB26 Fuel Fail & Braided lines

Sard 650cc Injectors

Sard FPR

Nissan RB26 Oil pump

N1 Water pump

83mm ROSS pistons & rings

Eagle rb26 Rods 21mm bush

HKS Oil cooler

52mm Alloy Radiator & thermos

HKS Cam Gears

New Gates Timing Belt

Ross Balancer

Rb24 Block

Then just drop in a RB26DETT and be done with it and be able to drive the car again.

But If I chose not to part it off and replace the damaged items and hope it didnt do it again would be able to be hopefully a reliable 350kw unique setup.

So what would you do?

Cameron.

[joeyjoejoejuniorshabadoo]

get it looked at by a GOOD engineer and find out what happened... THEN build again

[paulr33]

sell everything and buy a std rb26

[joeyjoejoejuniorshabadoo]

you dont think that's just as much of a risk?

also he want's 350rwkw... that's danger territory for a virgin 26

[murrayis]

Rb26 will be 300kw max, 350 - 400kw was for the rb24 with all the goods.

[joeyjoejoejuniorshabadoo]

you can pull a lil more than that from a std 26... but its getting close to the edge...

[murrayis]

300kw was my "if its over than i'm happy" number and I am at the point where I want somethign that is goign to be reliable if I change jobs and loose the company car and have to drive it daily.

[(OO)Firty Free(OO)]

If it were me and i had spent all that coin whats another 2k into the equation, i would chuck some new bearings in and double check all your clearances. I remember when i was building my clevo the block prep alone cost 2K (line hone, balance, bearing clearances etc) Build it then pull it down just to double check everything before winding 25psi into it.

[nIsMo86]

+1^^^

If i had gone to all that trouble of building up an RB24, plus spending the money, i'd stick with it and finish the job. I'd regret it if i left it unfinished.

Sounds like it'll be a beast. Good luck with whatever you choose!

[Jdfnq]

Re-build..... if it's only $2k to do it, then just do it...

Would take you an age to sell all the parts....

[murrayis]

hmm I have been thinking alot of this in the last few weeks... I do want to finish it it just plays on mine mind what caused it... the only thing we know of that was wrong was the timing belt tightened itself up to the point I couldnt twist it by hand I know this cause the camshaft to dig in but could it have caused the crank to twist that little bit to dig into the bearings... I just don't know..

I have been looking for a r33 GTR crank for a few weeks even looked at new items from Nissan who told me they would have to get one from Japan and couldnt give me a price until it got here... which sounded very unusual.

Keep the comments coming they are all helping me decide what path to go down.

The engine builder has been calling me a pussy all night for even considering abandoning the project this far into it...

To give you an idea of the damage:

This isnt a thrust bearing:

Edited February 8, 2009 by murrayis