Thanks Santa (the neverending trials of the 400,000klm, 400kw, RB30, manual swapped Stagea)

[Duncan]

Well it has been a while, but I picked up the car from Hills Motorsport yesterday.

It got dropped off as a standard engine bay with a pretty sick (not sik) motor. It came back like this:

Basically it has an rb30 bottom end, skyline rb25 head, forged rods and pistons, new bearings, seals etc etc.

High mount ebay nugget t3/t4 turbo (go china!)

Front facing plenum

Pretty much everything else as before (powerfc, manual, sydneykid shocks and springs, d2 8spot front brakes).

So far its only being run in so it hasn't been pushed or tuned - but the torque down low is amazing and a real turn around from the normal (slightly disappointing) standard stagea feeling.

Turbo is making 7psi at 2,000 so I'm sure it will come on nice and early as I hoped, the run we did at 10psi had 160awkw which is a little more than the old setup made on 14psi - but the response even off boost is the real difference.

Very happy A+++ would buy again!

[BOZ22N]

WOW go Duncan.

[KiwiRS4T]

Congratulations! Good to hear. I got an RB30 bottom end (not installed as yet) because unforged it will stand more kw than the RB25 unforged and also have more torque all round . I would guess your engine will make around 280 - 300awkw now and have the potential for much more if you choose! [would you mind PM the drive in drive out price to me? I expect mine will be a little less because I am not getting forged rods and pistons and the front facing plenum will have to wait].

[wolverine]

I bet you are a happy camper.

I drove around the yellow thing around today and all I think about is how another 500cc or so would make the car a whole lot nicer to drive in traffic.

How much did you spend on the new motor?

[RBPOWA-(TJ)]

dude.... i just made a mess :S

[sirmiro]

Nice.

What do you estimate the costs to? (If i dare to ask... )

[Duncan]

yeah it is beautiful to drive, especially pulling away from idle. no idea what it will actually end up doing, I was aiming for about 250kw but a focus on torque.

If I ever decide to get silly it has all of the required supporting stuff except injectors and an expensive turbo to go 300+.

Cost was about $10k but that did include some other stuff like a new alarm, clutch, intercooler etc etc.

I was going to keep the standard manifold but there may have been clearance issues to the bonnet, and the china front facing manifolds are dirt cheap these days.

[RBPOWA-(TJ)]

$10k . . . i dont think i could ever part with that cash with out getting reamed by the miss's haha.

in one go though. here and there easy, but in one hit.

would have to spoil her for a month before to soften her up

[pyro-ns]

I'd be pretty happy with that for $10k mate. you've got the goods plus a very clean, professional looking job.

if i may have a small nitpick though ( ), it looks like your heatshield/airbox is covering/including your charged air intercooler pipe. it's something small, but i'd be keeping that on the outside of the airbox

edit:

tj, you've picked the wrong one! i've already pre-approved a $30k supra with mine i'm still working on the 30k engine package though

Edited December 20, 2009 by pyro-ns

[180fan]

Nice, were there any issues getting it in and running, or was it all fairly straightforward?

[RBPOWA-(TJ)]

once we have a house, the women don't care where my spare cash goes josh but for now it would be hell haha

[msports180]

Looks good!

what throttle body did you use on the plenum?

[darrinspencer]

Cost was about $10k but that did include some other stuff like a new alarm, clutch, intercooler etc etc.

I was going to keep the standard manifold but there may have been clearance issues to the bonnet, and the china front facing manifolds are dirt cheap these days.

Pretty good drive in drive out price

Other expense that you have not listed is the sump adaptor to suit the awd sump and rb30 block. These are not cheap

Could you find which one they used and the cost of it?

[Duncan]

I'd be pretty happy with that for $10k mate. you've got the goods plus a very clean, professional looking job.

if i may have a small nitpick though ( ), it looks like your heatshield/airbox is covering/including your charged air intercooler pipe. it's something small, but i'd be keeping that on the outside of the airbox

yeah I am very happy with the price. $10k is a lot of money, but you have to look at how much time and parts there are in this build. I beleive it was very cheap for the work that was done. Good call on the cooler pipe, might see what I can do.

Nice, were there any issues getting it in and running, or was it all fairly straightforward?

nothing but trouble getting it running, but nothing to do with the job the shop did. For instance, once the whole thing had been assembled and put on the dyno the first time they discovered a crack in the block at a welsh plug at the rear of the head. I hadn't asked for it to be xrayed, they took a chance and lost. And then the second time it was put together the f**king alarm control module failed - but of course that is the last thing you think to check.

and of course the R34 GTT PFC is not a direct fit in my car which needed some stuffing around too.

once it was all together it has been fine though, and the run-in tune was quick and easy. Idle control has been a bit of a pain with the new plenum/throttle/cruise control/aac mvoed etc etc but its all good now.

Looks good!

what throttle body did you use on the plenum?

pretty sure it is the standard tb - I am not looking for more than 300kw from this setup and I'm sure the standard one will be enough for that.

Pretty good drive in drive out price

Other expense that you have not listed is the sump adaptor to suit the awd sump and rb30 block. These are not cheap

Could you find which one they used and the cost of it?

yeah they used the pro-engines sump adaptor, about $800 including all fasteners from memory, fit first time without any mods required. also another complexity in a 4wd/rb30 is the oil pick up because the rb30 point is right where the driveshaft goes through the diff. the guys at hills modified it to plug the normal hole and drill into the block at the right place same as a 26 block - very precise work required to get that right. often people just run external oil feeds to the pump, that is probably both cheaper and easier.

[Duncan]

once we have a house, the women don't care where my spare cash goes josh but for now it would be hell haha

lol don't you beleive it! once you have a house you have kids, then it's ALL over.

[Kel]

lucky you have the best wife ever eh Duncan?

(and yes, I have a built in radar which automatically detects any thread you post comments about spending money on cars in)

[Oddy man]

Nice mate!

If you're going Chinese for the intake plenum (the greddy knockoffs) make sure you check for leaks before you drive it away. Look especially hard at the.. stalks? where it comes out of the engine, mine had a pinprick - 1 drop and thanks to the tuners these guys found and fixed it!

Leaks are easy to fix if spotted right away - a cooked engine is not what you want!

But that is bloody tidy, I've just had some work done myself, so I'll put up my build thread when I get a proper camera

[66yostagea]

lol don't you beleive it! once you have a house you have kids, then it's ALL over.

Its not over. You wait till your 66.

[msports180]

lol don't you beleive it! once you have a house you have kids, then it's ALL over.

Child slavery was invented by parents who wanted to still be able to afford such luxurys as motoracing.

[unique1]

nice work Duncan, the 30s do drive alot nicer than 25/26 capacity motors, especially in stop start traffic they just pull away from idle with ease.

You can buy the internal oil pickup with the pro engines sump adaptor kit and it bolts straight on without any hassle.

One thing to mention is when choosing this combo i feel a small turbo is not such a good idea (not aimed at you duncan). I run a 3076r on mine and it suffers from incrediblely shocking fuel economy, due to the car sitting on 0 on the vac/boost gauge at 100kmh on the freeway. Mines making over 20psi at 2900rpm which when on 100kmh on freeway its sitting on 2700rpm or so doesnt leave much until its wanting to get onto boost.

Im going to bolt my t04z on mine and see how it is, then probably get some 2860-5 lowmounts for longterm to keep it looking stock (i run 26 head)