Jump to content
SAU Community

So Who Has A Rebuilt Motor That Didn't Last?  

167 members have voted

You do not have permission to vote in this poll, or see the poll results. Please sign in or register to vote in this poll.

Recommended Posts

my starts up tomorrow.. :(

also, the fuel would also help with how long it lasts yeh?

like e85 would be better insurance than 98..

like if the tuner isnt as good than e85 will help allow for their lack of tuning skill.

would be interesting to see what fuels ppl are using on there stuffed engines?

im going e85 to keep it safe :(

The motor that was in the car when i bought it had done 3000kms on it and failed within a month doing no hard driving at all.

My current motor has done 20000km's, ~15 track days, 2 drag days and over 100 dyno pulls (Built by Dan @ ERD in July of '08). Running on BP Ultimate / Shell Vpower all its life. No fancy fuels here.

Shit happens thats out of anybody's control (faulty parts), but in the end if your builder/mechanic knows there stuff, and you don't cut corners, you can get a lot of life out of them.

  • 3 months later...

First engine lasted 12,000km on a standard rebuild, running approx 300RWKW, dropped a ring in sixth

Got a Built engine now so fingers crossed holding 400 +RWKW when shes up and goin

Mine lasted 200ks at the most... Had a built 26/30. Did a few power runs on the dyno up to 24psi and 8000rpm. Made 475rwkw.

I didnt have a oil temp guage so tuner asked me to feel how hot the oil cooler was and it was cold...

Oil cooler lines were hooked up wrong by the previous mechanic so oil wasnt passing thru the system. results are a bent crank.

  • 2 weeks later...
also consider most motors are putting out twice or even 3 times their stock output and being driven very hard at the track etc... also it seems anybody can open a workshop and claim to be a import specialist etc...

This ^^^ Even though RB was built for power and longevity, you can't expect 200kkm+ from a engine you've doubled the power from, simply won't happen. Driving at track and such isn't such a problem, it is driving in the engines danger zone that is the problem. ie, doing 100kkm at 2500rpm average vs 100kkm at 5000rpm average isn't so much of a problem as too much boost/pressure, lack of cooling, etc.

Anyway, it is always better to buy something properly built for your power rather than building up to it (ie N1 from the get-go), so in that regard rebuilding a RB with stock stuff if you plan to do more than 20% more power is just stupid; stick forgies in, have it balanced properly, port n polished etc, and you WILL get an engine that can last 200kkm from double the power.

After watching an engine rebuild "howto" video it was interesting to see that it's not nearly as simple as getting the right parts and putting it all together and making sure it seems to be turning smoothly. once all the prep work has finished just about every stage of assembly is done twice. first time is often done with plastigauge to check clearances and then once you're happy it goes together for real. however, often in checking a later stage you have to disassemble back to an earlier stage to check the part.. so really it's like 5 engine assemblies (or more) to get a complete engine back together.

like others have said it's a miracle that so many go together and DO work perfectly. miss just one tensioning step and that bolt is going to let go and ruin your day. engine builder's warranty on a new build is extremely important.

if the shop cant do the whole job from start to finish its hard for them to give warranty

how do they know the person tuning the car knows what they are doing?

how do they know the person who owns the car isnt going to play with it and blow it up?

i know of someone who had a big $$$$ EJ25 built and was making near on 400kw all day every day

till the owner decided it was smart to replace all the hoses with silicone ones

his fancy new silicone hose to the FPR came off one day and well the rest is history

if the shop cant do the whole job from start to finish its hard for them to give warranty

how do they know the person tuning the car knows what they are doing?

how do they know the person who owns the car isnt going to play with it and blow it up?

i know of someone who had a big $$$$ EJ25 built and was making near on 400kw all day every day

till the owner decided it was smart to replace all the hoses with silicone ones

his fancy new silicone hose to the FPR came off one day and well the rest is history

That's exactly right. That is why when I give warranty it is under the condition that I run it in and it get's tuned where I say.

When you take out all variables except the owner, it makes it fairly easy. But regardless of how an engine fails, the cause can usually be determined before the new engine is ready to go back together. That way, if the owner has stuffed something up, it can be diagnosed correctly so it doesn't happen again.

i have a RB26 built and so far it has about 26,000kms on it running fine no noise and makes good power still running stock computer and turbos so far but very happy i use it for daily driving most of the time and i hope it lasts as long as my other RB25 did :)

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Yeah, hard to find and a pain in the ass to change with the transverse engine. I’ve worked on a GTiR before and it’s not a job I’d ever want to do again. theres a company in South Africa that makes RS3 gearbox adaptors for the AWD SR20 including gearbox mounts, so I could modernise it and go a dual clutch with paddles. For now tho, it ticks all the boxes. Super cheap, can throw the kids and their junk in the back, and SR20 that I can turbo cheaply, a CVT that’s not a dog’s breakfast like the V35, and has 80% interchangeable parts with stuff I can source from the wreckers cheaply…. But it’s still unique. I love the wagon back of the Autech version. It’s cheap enough that I can buy another stock manual FWD Primera with SR20VE, swap the gearbox to the N15 pulsar short gear ratio box, swap out the brakes to the R32 ones I pulled off my 32, register it on club plates and take it racing. $1300 shipping from NZ. Heaps of parts and aftermarket builders for transverse SR20’s in NZ.
    • Hard to say, just pop the rocker covers off and have a look if you think it's cammed. You probably need to replace the valve cover gasket/half moons anyways.
    • From my youth: GTi-R clutch change is a massive pain. The gearboxes are fragile? But the car is super cool and I want one 😢 
    • Remember this is 1988 tech.
    • Driveline vibration is resolved. I ended up loosening all my engine mount and trans mount bolts, giving it a good shake then retightening everything and it's gone... Let's just say I was surprised that fixed it.  I've been happily driving it around again but unfortunately put zero time into my direct port/constant pressure WMI setup. I'm on vacation next week, so I'll try and finalize it then.  On a different note, I spent all week fuel/ignition mapping 2x 216L V16 engines. Turbo's were burning glycol and we swapped them out for larger units. We also had planned emissions testing on site, so I figured I'd be there the same week to use their instrumentation and massage any emissions issues out if needed. This was a first for me. Fuel management is similar in certain ways to automotive (i.e air density as load variable) but very different in others. It's all PLC based and AFR's are controlled by air and not fuel. They use a control valve between the turbo and air manifold to control pressure which in turn controls AFR's. Due to this, target AFR tables supplied by the OEM are in pressures and not mass which really through me off. They use air pressure vs fuel pressure tables. I also relied on an O2 concentration sensor the emissions team had in the exhaust. Ignition timing was also all over the place and we were losing a fair bit of power. They're now happily sitting at 16-40BTDC depending on load. We were making about 1600kw at 900rpm at 90% load. Engines were running a lot smoother as well.    
×
×
  • Create New...