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I just bought a 32 Skyline and i Want to do a 25 conversion. But in the mean time i want to know what sought of power i can get out of the 20 whilst staying fairly reliable. I have a computer, injectors and a few other bits and pieces to put on it but i dont want to blow it up because i cant afford a new engine atm. I've heard rb20's arent a very good engine any other oppinions would be good??? Thanks. :banana:

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I just bought a 32 Skyline and i Want to do a 25 conversion. But in the mean time i want to know what sought of power i can get out of the 20 whilst staying fairly reliable. I have a computer, injectors and a few other bits and pieces to put on it but i dont want to blow it up because i cant afford a new engine atm. I've heard rb20's arent a very good engine any other oppinions would be good??? Thanks. :banana:

They're ok engines, just not blessed with good torque figures out the box.

The max power you can really squeeze out of one without any internal work is about 400hp. After that you need to go forged plus swap the box for a 25 one, or you'll chew it to bits.

Edited by Mark_McQ
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they are getting a bit old now but if your lucky and previous owners did proper maintenance you can do the zorst and boost thing and spank em pretty hard before they break. The lack of torque is just more of an incentive to revs the guts out.

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The thing to consider with gtst power ups is all the extra expenses you face when going over 200rwkw. Once your car is putting out this level of power you start to realize the other limitations of the car and chassis, suspension, brake and tyre upgrades dont come that cheap (also trying to get your speedo to work with a 25box is a challenge). My rb30 only does 200rwkw with a small internal gate turbo at 15psi, of course it has great response and torque but i do miss the old RB20 lagmaster and its rev happy nature. The best thing about the new engine is knowing its 100% reliable at these power levels, with my old RB20 setup i always knew something would break sooner or later.

It turned out to be a track day in darwin at 35 ambient temps and some overboosting that killed my RB20.

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You're asking for a flaming by saying the rb20 is not a good engine...

THe rb20 purists here are brutal...lolz...

Mine was 18 years old and made 237rwkw @ 19psi and has humbled a few bigger engines in its day with its power and reliability...its not the best engine around but i would still consider it a good engine...

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My rb30 only does 200rwkw with a small internal gate turbo at 15psi, of course it has great response and torque but i do miss the old RB20 lagmaster and its rev happy nature.

Get a larger turbo on the rb30 and they rev like buggery.

Mine went from peak power at 4400rpm and shifting up at 5-5.5k with the stock turbo and a vg30det turbo to making its peak power at 6000rpm and shifting up at around 7000rpm with the GT30 .82.

I definitely would not recommend a smaller turbo than the gt30 .82 on the rb30's.

Hey... My stock 200,000+km old stock suspension held 268rwkw fine. Was just a bit unnerving when coming off the throttle in third gear thats all. :)

The biggest problem I had was the subframe moving around and rear hicas tierods that were shagged.

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