Rb26 - How Not To Kill It

[waldoforce]

I thought stock internals can only handle at most around high 300 wkws, around 500whp?

I you do it right, a healthy RB26 with stock internals will handle a lot more than 500whp. I have been able to do 600plus whp on a AEM standalone, upgrade fuel system, turbo and a set of Tomie cams. RB26s are great motors. You must just learn how to keep them alive. In short, good fueling and oiling are the keys.

[writeoff]

You have been given all the right advice here. I would listen to Beer Baron's post for what to do without removing the engine.

As someone who HAS blown an R32 GTR RB26, and personally know 4 other people who have done the same, ALL of us did it above 8000rpm! The best advice I can offer (and many have stated it already) is don't go above 7200rpm. Simple really. I wish I had been advised of this 2 years ago. Learn from other peoples' mistakes.

[R31Nismoid]

I thought stock internals can only handle at most around high 300 wkws, around 500whp?

Pretty much yeah. Your on borrowed time if you go for anything more.

You can get a low KM RB26 and keep it alive for 2-3 years, plenty of people have done it. But end of the day it will die just like every single other one has.

Ive seen over 500rwkw out of a near enough stock bottom end RB26 so it doesnt mean much until its been doing it for 3-5 years in my book.

There were a good number of 350rwkw RB26's circuit raced for about 2-3 years and then they started to die

Even then, if it fails after 3-5 years doesnt mean you'll get a wrecker motor and be able to do it again.

[JiN_MaN]

Thanks guys for all your help, Car will be here soon, ill make up my mind then what will happen with it. Either keep it and do the mods beer baron has said (Ive already got all of them but the Power FC ready to go on) or car will be sold when it arrives and R32 GTS-T to fill the gap. All the advice has been much appreciated and might just have said a few people a lot of money.

Keep the chat going, always good to hear people opinions.

Edited November 20, 2008 by JiN_MaN

[r33_racer]

regular oil change, oil doesnt have to be the best in the world but if you change it after every race meeting it will definetely help it survive.

keep revs in check as stated, revs kill engines quicker then well tuned excessive horsepower.

make sure the tune is spot on, detonation will destroy pistons/rings and bearings.

Keep temperatures in check, rb's in circuit/hillclimbs situations run hot both oil and water - invest in a good radiator/heat exchanger setup and monitor water and oil temps(both in and out) constantly and record what is normal running temps. Noticeable differences will help you pick up on any upcoming problems, especially the oil temps!

Alot of those things relate to eachother, one can cause another to pop up.

If you can keep those things under control along with the other ideas mentioned the car should last for quite sometime assuming the motor is in good condition and not on its way out already.

[JiN_MaN]

Just to update this, it arrived and im currently doing some small things on it to get it working 100% and safe.

Compression test came up 158-163? (it was 2 months ago) across each cylinder.

[N1GTR]

Love the silver R32GTR's, look tough as!

So you're going to keep it now?

That compression is fine

[JiN_MaN]

Love the silver R32GTR's, look tough as!

So you're going to keep it now?

That compression is fine

At the end of the day if it goes bang I will have done everything I can to protect the motor, might as well put in the time and have some fun. So yep it will be kept and some more improvements done and then tracked. CANT WAIT!

Edited March 9, 2009 by JiN_MaN

[N1GTR]

Good to hear

[JiN_MaN]

I will tell you how to keep it alive. listen to me.

- fit a good oil cooler (greddy is a good option, get the brake duct mounted kit, not the radiator mounted one) Done, isnt a Greddy but is good quality and braided lines.

- keep the revs under 7,500 max, 7,200 is even better and wont cost you much time at your power level (this is really important, revs kills Old RB26s and there is no need to be doing 8,000rpm)

Power FC has an inbuilt rev limiter doesnt it?

- fit a power FC and get it tuned properly with the AFR on the conservative side (12:1 or so), with a little extra fuel in around the rev limiter and above 7,000 just for a little extra safety up top.

- keep a good eye on the knock readings

- get an EBC to give good, reliable, stable boost control, and keep it fairly conservative, 1 bar/15psi is ok for your stock engine and N1 turbos. Trust Profec B are good and cheap, and easy to fit and tune. Done

- get your injectors cleaned and tested and make sure your fuel pump is ok, 32 GTR pumps do often fail when old, if you can just replace it with a nsimo pump before your tune, good piece of mind done

- Use good oil and change it a lot. Motul Chrono 300V is the way to go here. full synthetic ester. expensive but cheaper than rebuilding your engine Doing monday

- buy a proper aftermarket oil pressure gauge with adjustable warning and if possible recording feature (so you can do a few laps with it recording, go to the pits and play back to see if pressure is dropping in corners - oil surge. preferably get an oil temp gauge too. high oil temps is also not a friend of your GTR engines long life. defi gauges are great for this and easy and neat to install and they make it easy to add more gauges in the future if needed. Bought oil temp/pressure, water temp, boost and trying to find fuel pressure.

- fit a good catch tank, vented to atmosphere, 3l in size is a good idea

- fit some mines cam cover baffles (easy to fit and cheap)

- i'm not a big fan of overfilling your engine with oil, i can make things worse, you don't want the crank basically submerged in oil. Overfill a little maybe a few hundred ml but 1 litre is too much in my eyes and not necessary

put some redline lightweight shockproof in the gearbox, and the appropriate redline oil in the diffs. yeah it's a little expensive but it won't need to be changed again for a long time. do the attessa fluid bleed too and replace the attesa fluid with the stuff from nissan.

yes, enlarging oil returns, fitting external oil drain, fitting oil feed restrictor, fitting crank collar, fitting enlarged and baffled sump, getting megabuck oil pump and super-duper balancer are all top ideas. but none can be done with the engine in the car, and most require the head off too (which means new head gasket at a few hundred). so in my eyes none are worth doing on a stock engine. your stock second hand engine is worth about $4K complete. those mods alone would cost way more than that. so I would only be doing all that stuff on a built motor (and I did on my built motor).

with the above mods my engine ran (and still does) happily for around 3 years with plenty of track days and running 276rwkw without missing a beat. these things are good sense, and more preventative maintenance.

plus all this stuff wont break the bank, and can be done piece by pice. also, all of these bits will be usefull no matter what you ultimately do with the car, and none will be really made obsolete even if you do more upgrades and big engine etc down the track.

Im working through the list slowly, Just incase you think your advice doesnt actually sink in, It does.

Edited April 12, 2009 by JiN_MaN