the phantom

When I dropped the motor in my R33 conversion, I just left the gearbox mounts and tailshaft position as it was. The angle change didn't really translate to any visible extreme at that end. I probably dropped it more than the 12/15 mm mentioned as well...probably closer to 20/25mm. I did over 75k kilometres with this setup, and had no vibration/tailshaft issues. Unfortunantely I haven't had any experience with the R32 chassis....

Demon, I'll give you 180 for the strut bar, but including delivery to Adelaide? Pete.

Is the front strut bar a genuine Nissan GTR item with the inline tensioning screw or is it aftermarket?

Dont forget the block adaptor plate for the 4WD sump, and the associated block mods...

There is no need to weld up the VCT gallery...just thread it and use a grub screw. The head is littered with metal grub screws everywhere anyway from the factory. I didn't do any welding of the water gallery. I actually trimmed the RB30 head gasket to match the head, and used a die grinder to open up the block side to mach as well as possible. There was probably about 5mm of material available for clamping in this area left, and I figured it's only got about 1 bar of water pressure to hold. Seemed to work fine for me. Has anyone else done this, or does everyone do the welding? I removed the Rb30 oil bypass thing to ensure proper block cleaning, and just made a plug to block it off later. My RB30DET is now officially dead. Following a recent turbo failure, the radiator top tank exploded on a recent hot day. With all the water gone the temp gauge showed normal and I didn't realise anything was wrong until the motor severely overheated and seized. I waited for it to cool and managed to start it and drove it to work. Upon repair and refit of the radiator it never sounded ok with missfires and overheating was indicated by my powerFC hand controller. I'd say its probably a blown head gasket or cracked head leaking water into the chambers as there is no water in the oil. I also didn't see the guage respond to match the temperature the FC was showing...it still showed normal...again!! Something people might want to check for peace of mind. I'll keep everyone posted on what I find. As for the turbo failure, I'm wondering if improper water cooling led to the failure. Perhaps the thermal syphoning of the water was not functioning correctly as a result of the custom lines. This is something discopotato mentioned somewhere that got me thinking. I have to admit, I've taken for granted how good skylines are in having to drive various other cars in the interim. Its not only the power, but the dynamics of handling and steering...hard to beat in my opinion.....

So the engine and everything is there, but no crossmember? Any pics?

Hey scooby...these types of problems need monumental patience to solve....is your car stock or are there fuel/electric/ecu mods? Another stab in the dark if you've run out of options.....fuel pumps in injected cars have a check valve that maintains pressure in the entire fuel system after shutdown for quite a while. Perhaps yours is bleeding away rapidly with time, or perhaps your fuel pump is worn and the leakage causes the fuel pressure to build slowly on start. Does the pump run for the usual few seconds prior to start? Maybe the cold start cycle with its different strategy is enough to disguise any issues in this mode. Is this a consistant repeatable problem or intermittent?

Have you confirmed that the AAC valve is receiving a signal frm the ECU? I wouldn't worry about the .7 ohm difference to spec. When you turn the steering wheel and activate the power steering does the idle jump up? The AC idle speed is NOT controlled by the AAC but by the other valve directly next to it.

Q1: You dont. The cold start idle speed is controlled primarily from a bimetalic, i.e. mechanical bypass device. If its staying on too long it could mean a burned out heating coil, or bad connection, or sludge buildup. It would then only rely on engine heat to activate the bimetallic and stop bypassing extra air. The ambient engine heat is what stops it from bypassing when the engine is warm. hope that helps you with one of your issues at least...

Thanks for the info s13drifter! The 4032's being the higher silicon content than the 2618 is supposed to be able to run tighter but your right...who knows...without building lots of them and then pulling them down. Just a few more questions!!..... I take it you have the chrome rings with your Arias'. What bore hone crosshatch/pattern/machine did you see used with the RB's and what kind of running in did you see done....immediate high load, or gently? Apologies if this is changing the topic.

Hey s13drifter, I thought it was only me left somewhat perplexed with ace_nz's comments Are your Arias' 2618 alloy or 4032 ? What piston/bore clearance was run in the engines you were involved with?

Price of the Arias' was around $1320 delivered to your door from Rocket Industries. The spec sheet does not mention dome volume, but I can measure that. Compression Height is stated as 32.512 mm (1.280"), and the lack of a star stamped under the pin boss indicates that they are 2618 non silicon alloy as opposed to 4032 high silicon alloy. The compression ratio is not mentioned on the spec sheet however the sales man indicated that they are supposed to achieve around 8.5:1. I'd be happy with that, although I'll see what is in it during mock up.

Some photos of my Arias pistons. The last photo in particular highlights what mark99 was on about regarding the general reduced ringland area diameter, and the tapered upper ring land...

I'll do it tonight....

Hey mark99, Interesting how you bring that up. The first thing I noticed with my Arias' was the obvious difference in skirt diameter to ring land diameter. It is so obvious that you can see it with the naked eye along a straight edge.

will do, Joel

Hey Joel, The spec sheet I got with my Arias forgies also specifies .004", but regardless of intended use. Interestingly it also says that with "Pro-Coating" you can reduce this to .002", which is within the factory spec (upper end) of an RB26DETT. I have yet to assertain what this is but I assume its the typical oil attracting skirt coating and a ceramic crown coating. All of this can be done for a few hundered bucks in Melbourne. I guess if you can deflect as much heat as possible from the crown, and/or use piston squirters less expansion wil occur allowing a tighter clearance. It would be interesting to put a piston in an oven to 2-300 degrees and see exactly how much they expand with a micrometer, although I have no idea what the typical skirt running temperature would be. I doubt it would be much higher than this or else the oil would carbonise pretty quickly. As for the new engine build....I want to push the envelope a bit higher...aftermarket rods/pistons/rb26 head etc. to the tune of about 600bhp. I'm hesitant to push my standard internal 75000 km RB30DET to such levels without at least a freshen up, even though it still seems ok, but I want rock solid reliability, without the threat of meltdown all the time. I'm also currently implementing something very time consuming in design and construction.....RB30DETS. Working on it seperately still allows me to drive the Skyline everyday.

discopotato03....unfortunately time isn't readily available and since I preffer to do all the work myself it will probably be somewhere within Q2 next year before the new engine is ready I dont want to throw a nice brand new turbo on an old engine even though its tempting. Clint32...1.06 rear housing, ~250rwKW, 1 bar

Hey Joel, Do you know what piston clearance was machined into your setup? I've finally had my first mechanical malody on the RB30DET. I was expecting the engine to grenade but its turned out to be the turbo. The rear shaft support bearing looks like it completely disintergrated and either blew out the exhaust or fell into the oil return into the sump. With only the front bearing the whole shaft assembly wobbled itself to destruction with both wheels rubbing and grinding themselves on their respective housings...the result...great clouds of smoke remeniscent of the old formula 1 turbo days. Needless to say I quickly turned around and shut it down. As an aside...I have previously stated that the turbo was an SB8005A. Well in taking a closer look and knowing more now than 3 years ago, it is actually an SB8006, part # 70177-14 (the engraved cover helps ! ) That means it had the 82mm GT40 series compressor wheel, not the TO4S as previously thought, mated to a GT30 60mm turbine. In consideration to the Garrett performance catalogue, this appears to be a GT30R with the larger GT35R compressor wheel, even though the core part numbers are still different. This makes me less worried about using the proper GT35R with its larger turbine in the new build.

So at high inlet flows how does it not become a restiction? I wonder if it becomes a case of turbulent/laminar flow that effectively then 'misses' the slots.

Most would have seen certain turbos with slots machined around the inlet to the compressor. Anyone have any ideas on how these combat surge????

I bought an oil pump adaptor about 6 months ago from greenline for $AU210, delivered in about 10 days. Send an email to them if you cant see it anywhere, they can definitely get it. ...and yes the S1 blocks DONT have the mounting point for the tensioner.

Does the Stagea 4WD auto have an ATTESSA clutch pack based transfer case like the Skylines or is it constant AWD?

Hey, I'll take a copy of everything you have...is this still available?

yeah fair enough, but when you already have various boxes lying around is it still a worthwhile proposition to convert boxes from 4WD to RWD? Do you need customisations or just component swaps?