RB Stroker Kit Reliability & Quality

[2_Liter_Turbo]

RB Stroker Kit Reliability & Quality

I've been searching for hours, and I probably still missed some good info, but I can't find exactly what I'm looking for.

So I have a new bare N1 block. I want to do a 2.8 kit for my BNR32. I don't want to get into an RB26 Stroker vs RD28 or RB30 argument here, lol, I have my reasons for going the route I am, and would rather focus on the info I am after. 

I mainly want to hear from people who have ran any stroker kit such as Nitto, Spool, JUN, Tomei, HKS, Etc (with mileage & power numbers if possible) their experiences in terms of driveability, power delivery (obviously dependent on turbos as well), and most importantly, reliability over time. I've been leaning towards Nitto, because I want to keep as long as a connecting rod as possible (I think the Spool 2.8 kit also has the factory length rod as well vs a shorter rod like the Tomei kit for example), for things such as increased dwell, decreased piston speed and side loading. 

I've read that Nitto (and Spool) outsource some of the parts (the crank itself I believe) to China, which isn't necessarily a deal breaker, but it does leave me a little hesitant. With that said, I know the majority of "Japanese Brands" also outsource their manufacturing (primarily to Taiwan in my experience). It all really comes down to quality control, which is why I'd like to hear from owners of said stroker kits and engine builders who've installed various brands on their experiences.

[LaurelPWR]

I've also wondered about the quality of crank shafts in the popular stroker kits as you can go on alibaba and buy one from China for thousands less then through a vendor like nitto or spool etc. and if theirs also come from China well I've seen plenty of high hp cars successfully running them [emoji848][emoji848]

[r32-25t]

I've seen a tomei making 475kw or 635 aussies hp at the wheels (will be more soon) and hasn't show any issues at all. 

driving it, I love the way it drives down low and I never realized what I difference .2 of a liter could make

 

can anyone confirm if the spool has the factory rod length?

[2_Liter_Turbo]

8 hours ago, LaurelPWR said:

I've also wondered about the quality of crank shafts in the popular stroker kits as you can go on alibaba and buy one from China for thousands less then through a vendor like nitto or spool etc. and if theirs also come from China well I've seen plenty of high hp cars successfully running them

I would suspect the ones coming from Alibaba would be free of Nitto's/Spool's quality control (so possibly the rejected ones), so I'd steer clear of those! The factory's will do anything they can to make back what they can on rejected parts.

[2_Liter_Turbo]

6 hours ago, r32-25t said:

I've seen a tomei making 475kw or 635 aussies hp at the wheels (will be more soon) and hasn't show any issues at all. 

driving it, I love the way it drives down low and I never realized what I difference .2 of a liter could make

 

can anyone confirm if the spool has the factory rod length?

Is this your own car by chance? If so, how long/many miles have you had it?

[duz10s]

Evidence suggests that Nitto are the preferred option for most big HP cars, in saying that I know Rigoli have a few big HP cars running spool and a friend of mine is building a 3.2 spool stroker as we speak so will be interesting to see how that comes up.

 

The HKS stroker kits would have to have some special benefits given the price over say Nitto.

[r32-25t]

8 hours ago, 2_Liter_Turbo said:

Is this your own car by chance? If so, how long/many miles have you had it?

It's actually a good mates car and I couldn't tell how many kms it's done but has been a few and it get driven hard when ever it does get driven 

[2_Liter_Turbo]

34 minutes ago, r32-25t said:

It's actually a good mates car and I couldn't tell how many kms it's done but has been a few and it get driven hard when ever it does get driven 

Awesome, that's good to hear!

[GD51LA]

you need to know your eventual goal first, if you want to be a competitive drag racer one day, then build 26/30-34, if you want to stay street the revier 2.8 is the way to go

obviously can't beat the jap quality if you have the coin, otherwise the
nitto/brian crower quality is also good

[GD51LA]

by the way my mate just bought a stroker sr20 crank from china and after picking it up from being tuned the bottom end shit itself, after the inspection the crank was to blame

[2_Liter_Turbo]

3 hours ago, GD51LA said:

by the way my mate just bought a stroker sr20 crank from china and after picking it up from being tuned the bottom end shit itself, after the inspection the crank was to blame

Know by chance which brand it was? I'd expect to hear BC, knowing their reputation for poor quality SR stuff (I've been doing SRs since '05, so I have more experience with them, RBs I'm new to, lol).

[2_Liter_Turbo]

3 hours ago, GD51LA said:

you need to know your eventual goal first, if you want to be a competitive drag racer one day, then build 26/30-34, if you want to stay street the revier 2.8 is the way to go

obviously can't beat the jap quality if you have the coin, otherwise the
nitto/brian crower quality is also good

Goals are for a high powered super fun street car. I may go to the drag strip once in awhile, but I am not after any records or competition. I road race my S14, so I have enough "race car" to keep me happy, ha ha. I just want a fun street car again. I am thinking of doing a single Borg Warner EFR 8374. But maybe an EFR 9174. I'd like to find what sort of powerbands people are getting with those on RB's before finally deciding.

Edited March 26, 2017 by 2_Liter_Turbo

[LaurelPWR]

by the way my mate just bought a stroker sr20 crank from china and after picking it up from being tuned the bottom end shit itself, after the inspection the crank was to blame

This is the info I wanted to hear! First hand experience with China stroker crank... Cheers mate

[Sick_R31]

17 hours ago, 2_Liter_Turbo said:

Goals are for a high powered super fun street car. I may go to the drag strip once in awhile, but I am not after any records or competition. I road race my S14, so I have enough "race car" to keep me happy, ha ha. I just want a fun street car again. I am thinking of doing a single Borg Warner EFR 8374. But maybe an EFR 9174. I'd like to find what sort of powerbands people are getting with those on RB's before finally deciding.

Talk to Full-race about a Borg Warner EFR, go see them in person if they aren't too far away from you.

[2_Liter_Turbo]

6 hours ago, Sick_R31 said:

Talk to Full-race about a Borg Warner EFR, go see them in person if they aren't too far away from you.

I intend to! I already have their EFR 7163 kit for my SR that I picked up in person  They are about 25 minutes from my house, ha ha!

[2_Liter_Turbo]

Had another question, figured I'd add to my existing thread rather than start a new one!

Does anyone have pictures of how far the piston comes down in relation to the cylinder walls? I want to see if how much (if any) of the skirt gets exposed from the sleeve before going back up the cylinder.

After stroker kits obviously, not the factory setups. 

[hattori hanzo]

Have been running a HKS 2.8 Step 2 (6466 turbo on E85) at 740whp since feb 2015. 

First year copped very frequent motorsport use (2 events a month) 

It has been parked up since as I now live overseas so doesn't give you too much to run off.  

 

 

[GDZ32]

My car is running a HKS Step2 Stroker since 2009. It's been making 400wkw on 98Ron since it was built. No issues at all

[2_Liter_Turbo]

Very nice! That's respectable!