proengines

You don't need to rebalance everything, just make sure the pistons are all the same weight as each other once you're done. You can bump a little off the locating pin on the oil squirter to move it where you need it. It won't hurt to put a small notch at the bottom of the skirt to clear the squirter, just make sure it's machined cleanly and the edges chamfered. Don't cut into the rib, the squirter will line up under the rib if you bolt it into the standard location, that's why you need to twist it around a little. It's also worth checking the pin offset in the piston to make sure you put the pistons in the right way, don't rely blindly on an arrow on the top of it to guide you, the arrow doesn't necessarily point to the front. Many Mahle pistons have an arrow or a squiggle that points to the flywheel, not the front, others have the arrow pointing to the front. They're nice pistons and I've used them in quite a few engines but for most engines you can't go past a set of Wiseco's.

I should have posted this 2 weeks ago. A couple of minutes after typing the post above, 16 plates arrived from the laser cutter. They will be machined Monday and back in stock. I'll take some video of the CNC process, it's pretty cool to watch if anyone is interested.

Hi all, I've had quite a few people after kits. We're currently out of stock until at least the first week of June. smorcr, I doubt anyone will give you the cad files to have one cut. Being in NZ, why don't you get one from RIPS?

You have a better chance of the Spool rods holding together than Scats or Eagles or most other rods up to twice the cost. If you're reving very high, I'd fit some L19 bolts, they are hard to source though.

Are you able to change the date? if they were two weeks later I'd take them.

Lee, we don't sell the pickups as a separate part, only as part of the full kit. We might do them in the future but currently have trouble keeping enough done to go with the kits. For a one of job it's probably simpler to run an external pickup.

I fitted an ASR sump to one of our commodore cup engines yesterday and they are a work of art. Just make sure you pull out the screen and wash it out properly as there will still be some metal dust and shavings from the fabrication. All the parts are laser cut and well finished and the welding is perfect. This sump was $1300 but you can see the dollars in it. I can't imagine something less intricate costing anywhere near that. though. I have a mate currently making an RB30 one for me, I'll snap some photos when it's done. We're going to have the pans and baffles laser cut and cnc bent once we have the prototype done.

drill & tap the block to take the 12mm RB26 bolts or studs.

Lee, Neither. It's not a "simple fab job" that's for sure, I had a customer from England point me to your thread on the UK forum. You need to get a block, fit the plate, fit a sump with the bottom removed and fabricate a pickup that will fit in the space left. You will need at least one very tight radius mandrel bend coming from the flange and still have a way to get a bolt under it to be able to mount the pickup to the block and be able to tighten the bolt. Would probably be easy to do if you didn't want to retain the same ID on the pickup pipe but that's not a good option. Just as an indication, it takes longer to make our pickup than it does to machine the plate and sort and pack the fasteners. Cheers, Greg P.S. Are you the Lee from the UK that was emailing me a while back asking for the CAD file for our crank collars?

The Tomei 2.8 kit into a 26 block is pretty much a bolt in job, you can get them with 86.5mm pistons as well, no need to go for a big bore. I did one late last year and there are no hassles doing it, just need to check and make sure there is enough clearance between the rods & bottom of the bore etc.. They supply spacers for the oil squirters and really good instructions if you read Japanese. It's still worth checking the balance on the Tomei kit though.

Camtech uses Kelford billets for the RB's anyway but grind them here. I've used 3 sets of Camtech cams in the last month and they are top quality. Your stimulus money will easily cover a pair and you don't need to worry about getting slugged with import duty/gst on top of what you pay for them before they leave NZ. Performance Springs valve springs are excellent, no need to look any further.

A horse walks in and sits down at the bar. The Bartender looks at the horse and says "Why the long face?". The horse replies "I just found out I have cancer".

Hey Julian, I've been putting the word out, it's bound to turn up somewhere. If I hear something you can keep the $500, I'd just like to see the asshole that did this get caught. I've been robbed twice here, the insurance covered it but it's a really shitty feeling to know someone has come in and gone through your stuff. PS have some gaskets here for Justins engine that I forgot to give you the other week.

I took that second slightly out of focus photo comparing the 4 gear sets, that is a regular non turbo VL gear set. They wont fit a 33 or later crank or one fitted with a normal collar as the longer drive wont fit through the pump housing. I have made custom collars to suit them, they just need the drive area narrowed. Mostly I make those collars for the guys with the RD28 diesel engines, they are really hard on pump drives and the pump housing is different so you can't run a 25/26 pump on them. If you want to run a VL pump, unless the drive is perfect I'd still fit a collar to it. I'm making a collar for an RD28 this afternoon, I'll take some photos to show the difference. I've never seen one of the vl pumps with broken gears but they are lower volume than a g-rotor pump. The turbo pump is slightly bigger than the NA one. They also run very low pressure at idle, from memory around 100kpa though it rises very quickly once the revs rise.

HKS cams that I have seen are ground on their own billets which have HKS cast into them. No HKS RB cams that I have seen have the head bolt scallops in them like a standard cam or a Tomei cam, they are full round between the lobes.

Look at WRX's, there are good cars around for a 10k. Keep an eye on the trading post/carsales etc.. we bought an MY98 WRX for 10 grand, 160,000km, all dealer services, 6 months rego etc.. It's a really nice little car, has a few little carpark dings to fix but that's it. Plus they go and handle better than most other 4 cylinder imports do standard and do about 9l/100.

Up to 264 advertised duration around 9ish mm lift. That's for the off the shelf Japanese ones anyway.

You only need to "adjust" it to get the upper and lower thrust faces level with each other, not to take up extra clearance by using one thrust face of the upper bearing and the opposite thrust face of the lower. If it has too much clearance you need o/s thrust bearings. If the caps/girdle etc are set up in the right place and countersunk fasteners used it shouldn't be any more of a problem than in many other engines where the caps are doweled to the block, VQ35 for instance. BTW, to answer a question a page back about the lower bellhousing bolt holes, I have sumps welded up and re-drill the bottom bolt holes. It's a bit fiddly but not a massive problem. I'll take some photos of the next one.

The things we do Have you organised anti-depressants from your doctor for when you have to start driving it? Pressure pack it white and stick some GTR badges on it, you won't notice the difference..

Agreed, sorry about that.

Shane, I thought about fitting an o-ring but a 3mm cutter in steel leads to dead tools and would almost double the machine time, on aluminium it would be an awful lot easier. I'd still use silicone instead, it just doesn't leak. As for the pickups, lots of close radius mandrel bends and a custom laser cut flange plate and screen (well over $100 in parts), plus a 10mm head M8 front bolt, a really good welder (not me) a jig we have set up using a 26 block and a sump with the bottom removed to check clearance and more time than it should take. The pickup runs really close but clears everything and is the same id as standard. We've been going to have them cnc bent but to make it worthwhile need to get a large batch done.

I may not be super brainy Shane but I'd stick to a good silicone. It conforms to any shape and will take up quite a big gap if it dries properly first. I don't like gaskets unless you have to use them, just look at the old jag engines, everything machined beautifully, gaskets on everything and leak like a sieve. For your one piece jobbie, why not machine it to take a rubber o-ring seal? you can buy it by the roll, fit it into the groove and glue the ends so it's a one piece seal. Saying that, all the oem stuff now is silicone because it just doesn't leak, I'd actually stick to that. (no pun intended ) I use silicone on the sump of the commodore cup engines I do and they dont leak, even without using the rubber end seals. P.S. Rob, I just had a look at the thread on gtr.co.uk about the RB33. Very nice setup with the caps and plate. I like the cardboard censorship of the oil pickup on the adapter. I actually fitted one of yours a few years ago, nice simple setup with the pickup which has worked fine on the engine it's on. I didn't copy it as you can see in the photos above We spent ages to get a workable bolt on one and it took some creative thinking to have it clear the axle tube, saying that, it works really well. I've gotta say, also very impressed with your exhaust manifolds!

If anyone wants to know anything about our kits ask away. I've sold over 20 of them and no-one has complained or sent one back. I've sent them to the US, UK, Estonia, Saudi Arabia, even Tasmania. They are a straight bolt up after grinding 7 notches in the block sump rail to the supplied templates. The have a silicone relief the same as the original sump does where they mate up to the block. The plate is 10mm laser cut steel. The bolt holes , threads and the silicone relief are fully CNC machined. We can supply the internal pickup but don't have to, I'd actually prefer not to as it saves a lot of work and the pickups are made to order so they slow down shipping. We do the full kit for $900 including the plate, high tensile fasteners, cutting templates, turbo oil return, pickup and full instructions. The kit without the pickup is $700 for those who want to make their own or run an external pickup. This still includes everything else. If someone wanted a bare plate I'd do one for $550. I've usually got 5 or so in stock (apart from the pickups which are made when they are ordered). It's probably better if someone who has used one describes what the kit is like to fit, that way it's not an infomercial by me.

Hey Michele, who sells/services the gps tracking units? My WRX has one from the previous owner and it's probably well worth getting it activated.

Yeah, what would the manufacturer know about piston clearances? I run pistons at nominal size, that is, if they are made to suit an 86.5 bore, I run an 86.5 bore. For something with nitrous or really high boost I may run .0005" more. One area worth a look though is ring gaps, damage can be huge if they are too tight. I don't use Venolia pistons though as I just can't cope with the huge clearances they run and the noise when they're cold.