Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hi all,

My car is in pristine condition, engine is running great, but since tracking it for the past few months there has been an oil leak which is getting worse and worse.

Today on track, after the 1st session (hot day Eastern Creek) I stopped in pit lane and damn oil was dripping out from all over the place. There was a massive puddle at the end. It wasn't so bad each session after that, but still, oil is leaking everywhere.

My mechanic cannot fix the problem as he cannot reach it. It's on the other side of the engine (not the turbo side) and he says:

A) It would be a waste of my cash to do an engine rebuild now as my engine is in such great condition.

B) Maybe I should wait until I blow it up!!!!??? LOL. It's a catch 22 as you can see... engine is going hard, car is perfect but there's an oil leak no one can get to without lifting the engine out, which means I should just do a rebuild?

Any advice would be appreciated. I want to make this a bullet proof track car! Any suggestions on price for a rebuild would be ghreat (what budget should I set aside?). I already have new injectors and head gasket ready to go on, new radiator too and HKS 2530 turbos, all ready to go on... so maybe I should just do the rebuild, install turbos and go all out for stronger internals? Pistons? Conrods? Is $10k enough for all this?! Or am I looking at MORE?!

ANy help appreciated. Thanks in advance guys. Loving the GT-R more and more and always knew I'd have to look into a rebuild at some stage. I'm up for the commitment!

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/57268-help-rebuild-rb26-advice-needed/
Share on other sites

Well mechanic says it's on the other side of the turbos. And the engine does not need to come out if you are installing turbos.

I will see if I can just fix the leak without a full rebuild. Report back soon.

you can replace the turbos without lifting the engine, but it is very fiddly and may drive the mechanic mad, so it is prefferable to just lift the engine and replace them

so if i were u i would just have the engine lifted while getting the tubos changed, and get the oil leak fixed at the same time.

forget about rebuilding if its a simple oil leak, what for!???

plus u need to change the turbos(lift engine) anyway so even better.

it all depends on how long u want the engine to last... eventually its going to blow. how long determines many factors

as a question... couldnt u just hoist the car up and get to the leak from below?

btw ive just paid for my engine build which is a 25/30 combo - $5400 inc labour - includes new pistons, linished and treated rods, complete head work with all new valve springs, guides etc

LOL, not to sure what the fuss is about.

If you have a leak, it must be fixed!

Just get it fixed or your motor will fail due to oil starvation, especially if its leaking as bad as you say it is.

I don't know why you would rebuild it for the sake of it, unless you were planning on some major mods or power increase. (Or you are loaded with cash, in which case it shouldnt worry you getting a oil leak fixed)

Is the oil leak on the same side of the engine as the turbos or the opposite side?

anyway, whichever the case...your mechanic is an idiot. I can get to anything on those engines without removing anything. It's just a matter of having the right tools.

There really isn't many possibilities for oil leaks on the turbo side except for return lines and feed lines. That's assuming is't engine oil.

If it's on the other side then it'll probably be the oil pressure sender leaking or the oil filter not on correctly(tight). Those couple of things asside from the sump are really the only places that oil can come from the side. Front and back are a different story. PM me for more details or if you want some solutions.

There should be no problem fixing the leak?

I don't see why the mechanic is unable to reach the leak? The engine should not need to be hoisted either.

Source where it's coming from and fix it asap, otherwise you do a lot of damage in the process of doing trackdays while it slowly leaks.

PM me if you like

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Well, after the full circus this week (new gearbag, 14 psi actuator on, injectors and AFM upgraded, and.....turbo repair) the diagnosis on the wastegate is in. It was broken. It was broken in a really strange way. The weld that holds the lever arm onto the wastegate flapper shaft broke. Broke completely, but broke in such a way that it could go back together in the "correct" position, or it could rearrange itself somewhere else along the fracture plane and sit with the flapper not parallel to the lever. So, who knows how and when exactly what happened? No-one will ever know. Was it broken like this the first time it spat the circlip and wedged itself deep into the dump? Or was it only broken when I tried to pry it back into place? (I didn't try that hard, but who knows?). Or did it break first? Or did it break between the first and second event of wierdness? Meh. It doesn't matter now. It is welded back together. And it is now held closed by a 14 psi actuator, so...the car has been tuned with the supporting mods (and the order of operations there is that the supporting mods and dyno needed to be able to be done first before adding boost, because it was pinging on <<14 psi with the new turbo with only a 6 psi actuator). And then tuned up a bit, and with the boost controller turned off throughout that process. So it was only running WG pressure and so only hit about 15-16 psi. The turbo is still ever so slightly lazier than might be preferred - like it is still a bit on the big side for the engine. I haven't tested it on the road properly in any way - just driven it around in traffic for a half hour or so. But it is like chalk and cheese compared to what it was. Between dyno numbers and driving feedback: It makes 100 kW at 3k rpm, which is OK, could be better. That's stock 2JZ territory, or RB20 with G series 550. It actually starts building boost from 2k, which is certainly better than it did recently (with all the WG flapper bullshit). Although it's hard to remember what it was like prior to all that - it certainly seems much, much better. And that makes sense, given the WG was probably starting to blow open at anything above about 3 psi anyway (with the 6 psi actuator). It doesn't really get to "full boost" (say 16 psi) until >>4k rpm. I am hopeful that this is a feature of the lack of boost controller keeping boost pressure off the actuator, because it was turned off for the dyno and off for the drives afterward. There's more to be found here, I'm sure. It made 230 rwkW at not a lot more than 6k and held it to over 7k, so there seems to be plenty of potential to get it up to 250-260rwkW with 18 psi or so, which would be a decent effort, considering the stock sized turbo inlet pipework and AFM, and the return flow cooler. According to Tao, those things should definitely put a bit of a limit on it by that sort of number. I must stress that I have not opened the throttle 100% on the road yet - well, at least not 100% and allowed it to wind all the way up. It'll have to wait until some reasonable opportunity. I'm quite looking forward to that - it feels massively better than it has in a loooong time. It's back to its old self, plus about 20% extra powers over the best it ever did before. I'm going to get the boost controller set up to maximise spool and settle at no more than ~17 psi (for now) and then go back on the dyno to see what we can squeeze out of it. There is other interesting news too. I put together a replacement tube to fit the R35 AFM in the stock location. This is the first time the tuner has worked with one, because anyone else he has tuned for has gone from Z32 territory to aftermarket ECU. No-one has ever wanted to stay Nistuned and do what I've done. Anyway, his feedback is that the R35 AFM is super super super responsive. Tiny little changes in throttle position or load turn up immediately as a cell change on the maps. Way, way more responsive than any of the old skool AFMs. Makes it quite diffifult to tune as you have to stay right on top of that so you don't wander off the cell you wanted to tune. But it certainly seems to help with real world throttle response. That's hard to separate from all the other things that changed, but the "pedal feel" is certainly crisp.
    • I'm a bit confused by this post, so I'll address the bit I understand lol.  Use an air compressor and blow away the guide coat sanding residue. All the better if you have a moisture trap for your compressor. You'd want to do this a few times as you sand the area, you wouldn't for example sand the entire area till you think its perfect and then 'confirm' that is it by blowing away the guide coat residue.  Sand the area, blow away the guide coat residue, inspect the panel, back to sanding... rinse and repeat. 
    • The detail level is about right for the money they charge for the full kit... AU$21.00 each issue, 110 issues for a total of $2,300 (I mentioned $2.2K in the first post when the exchange rate was better). $20/week is doable... 馃槓
    • If planning on joining us for the day(s) please indicate by filling in this form. https://forms.gle/Ma8Nn4DzYVA8uDHg7
    • You put the driver's seat on the wrong side! Incredible detail on all of this. It looks like you could learn a lot about the car just from assembling the kit.
  • Create New...