Best Spending.

[Chi3f]

Firstly im an outsider I have a vk commodore however i joined the forum because i have an rb30e engine in it.

I bought the car as somewhat of a project car. I have always liked the rb series engines so i wanted to try doing one up. When i got the car i noticed a ticking in it when it went up around 3500+ revs which will most likely be a valve or valve spring problem. I didnt care because i knew it owuldnt be long before i started replacing internals and the like anyway. As you guys have the rb engines, you probably have a fairly good idea of them. So heres the qquestion:

How long do the blocks last? Iv done 150,000. Would it still be safe to do do a bore? (proabbly around 80 thou.) Im being carefull about turboing it... knowing of internal problems. How much does a nice rb26 or 30 turbo or twin turbo go for? What else will i need? (comp, inlet, cooler.....) Does it need a new head for a turbo.?

Has anyone tried stroking one of these? how did it turn out? how much did it cost?

Im not on a tight budget but i still wanna spend wisely.

[342Four]

if i remember rightly the max that a rb30 can be overbored safely is about 20 thou

this is because of the inconsistencies with the water galleries around the bore

the rb30 blocks can last for ages - ive heard of one that was cracked open at 400,000kms and it still had the factory hone marks on the bore walls (never been opened up before) - so it shows you the strength

(our '89 r31 had nearly 300,000 when we traded it in - we had gone thru one head, but the block was going as strong as the day it was made)

if ur keen go a turbo hybrid engine - whack a rb25 or best yet a rb26 head on the rb30 block (as they fit - some with minor modification) and run a decent sized turbo with mild boost on stock internals (high comp turbo mmmmmmm ) this will give you lotsa turque, but not really high power figures - but hey its cool, pulls really hard

if u need a hand look around for members cubes, R31Nismoid, fatz, to name a few - they should help a bit (thats if i got the names right )

hope this helps

[Chi3f]

Ok... time to get really excited...

Original plans were to do the full montey to this engine, full internals + sroked out + nice turbo setup etc etc but i was expecting that to happen over the next 2 - 3 years. Due to unforseen increases in my budget ( i just inherited $15-20,000) I think the project will be up and running very soon but i got thinking. With an rb30 where will i start running into that 'wall' doesnt matter what i do, it just doesnt increase the power much? Should i be looking at an engine with more potential as im more likely to reach it now.

[TurboX]

I would be looking at that "ticking" at 3000RPM closely.

Thats what my just rebuilt RB20DET was doing because two of the bigends were stuffed.

Get it early and you may save your crank, had to chuck mine as scored so bad.

Hope its just a lifter, BUT........

[BADR33]

it should just be lifters. rb30es go forever. the lifters do get noiser over time though.

single cam is stupid on a rb. swap a rb25de head on to your rb30e block. then youll be happyer

my best bet for you to spend your $$ on. would be to build an rb30det. its pretty common these days. but that make alot of power for quite cheep. plus it would also mean your engine block will still match up to your chassie numbers

r

ead the rb30det sticky in the forced induction area. that should give you a few ideas

[HRthirtyone]

dont spend more than $500 on a vk commodore with a vl engine in it.

my 2c, and although you may love the car, you WILL regret doing it in the future..... (but hey, if i had 20gs what i would do with it would be considered a waste by someone else) Also, once you have spent the money on it, and done everything to the old vk that you possibly can do, maybe even been defected a few times, then you want to sell and upgrade, you will struggle finding someone to buy it for more than $5000 if that.

In reality, a $1500 car with $15,000 of work more often than not, doesnt compare to a $16500 car.

Edited July 5, 2006 by HRthirtyone

[someonestolecc]

He can always work the engine, ditch the VK and buy an engineless r32, 33, 34, a31.

Then rb25/30 in any of those would be nice, especially the r32