Project RBZ - RB26 Swapped 240Z

Garaculas

Club Member
Gave everything a rub down with some scotchbrite, clean down with some panel wipes and a coat of primer yesterday. Hopefully now she can sit for a couple of months whilst the house is finished without rusting away!

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Garaculas

Club Member
Crikey that looks familiar. You should have a lower brace put along the sill too... Trust me :D

Interesting, you mean straight from the main hoop to the front below the door bars? I did think of this at the time but i thought the new chassis rails and new floors would help out with that regard and avoid having more weight put in?
 

IbanezDan51

Well-Known Forum User
Interesting, you mean straight from the main hoop to the front below the door bars? I did think of this at the time but i thought the new chassis rails and new floors would help out with that regard and avoid having more weight put in?

Yes exactly this, heres a picture of my old one:

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And how it helped:

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Garaculas

Club Member
Yes exactly this, heres a picture of my old one

Christ on a bike, glad you're ok as that looks like one hell of a hit! Sideways into a tree or post of some sort?

Really difficult to build the cage to protect for every eventuality but appreciate that an extra bar there may be a good idea. The plan is to send the car back to the fabricator for the RHD bulkhead work sometime early next year so will definitely have the chat with him regarding this to see if we have the space :thumbs:
 

IbanezDan51

Well-Known Forum User
Christ on a bike, glad you're ok as that looks like one hell of a hit! Sideways into a tree or post of some sort?

Really difficult to build the cage to protect for every eventuality but appreciate that an extra bar there may be a good idea. The plan is to send the car back to the fabricator for the RHD bulkhead work sometime early next year so will definitely have the chat with him regarding this to see if we have the space :thumbs:

indeed a lamppost. I had fiberglass doors with no support bars in them so if you’re using steel ones that have a crossbeam in they’ll be a lot better than what I was using anyway.
Dan
 

Ian

Club Member
Its your crash Dan that keeps making me think I should add a cage. Its amazing how far the impact went considering the cage you had in place, also no doubt you would no longer be with us if it wasn't for that cage.

For sure if I had a full cage, I would make sure the door bars are substantial, not much extra weight for the benefit.
 

Garaculas

Club Member
Its your crash Dan that keeps making me think I should add a cage. Its amazing how far the impact went considering the cage you had in place, also no doubt you would no longer be with us if it wasn't for that cage.

For sure if I had a full cage, I would make sure the door bars are substantial, not much extra weight for the benefit.

It’s definitely these kinds of photos which made me get the cage in the first place and already glad I've done it.

Had a chat with Huxley and he said he’s happy to add some sill bars when the car is back with him sometime next year so definitely something to add to the list. We can also gusset them in for a bit of extra strength :thumbs:
 

uk66fastback

Club Member
Not talking specifically about your car Garaculas, but how far do you go in terms of safety and what 'might' happen before you think sod this, I'll just get in me modern daily and be as safe as houses?
 

Garaculas

Club Member
Not talking specifically about your car Garaculas, but how far do you go in terms of safety and what 'might' happen before you think sod this, I'll just get in me modern daily and be as safe as houses?

A very good conversation topic! I’ve got a modern daily for the commute/family duties etc so when and how this is used means I can judge it a little differently.

I think for me the dream has always been a classic looking Z with modern underpinnings that I can take on track days and out at the weekend. If I follow that dream through to conclusion I’m going to end up with something which has all aspects of the engineering brought 50 years into the future except for the crash safety.

Now I know you can’t make a modification for each potential crash scenario, and it will still be a very long way from a modern car, but doing my best to do something will at least give me peace of mind and hopefully make somewhat of a difference if I ever do need it :)
 

Jay.

Club Member
Lost a friend to a similar crash last year in a rb powered Z - he lost control and ended up hitting a tree sideways - so I completely agree with making the car safer at the relatively low cost of some additional weight


Think the cage looks great as it is, but totally agree with a little more side protection - won't take much to get sideways in that build ;)
 

Garaculas

Club Member
A couple of little updates for the car recently after finally finding some time to get in the garage. Started to build up the rear disc brake conversion from DJR with the new wheels.

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There’s also some news about the long term wheels for the car but I’ll post that when they arrive in a couple of weeks time :)

The main thing I’ve wanted to do recently is strip down and inspect the RB. These engines are getting very hard to find and fetch a pretty penny so I wanted to be sure it was in good condition before slapping it into the car. I started by removing the ancillaries first and checked everything as I went. Glad that I did as I quickly discovered this.

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Not the end of the world, as the plan was never to keep the stock turbos anyway, but alarm bells start ringing that did anything else get sucked in further or what else could be hiding in this used engine..
 
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Garaculas

Club Member
After that previous discovery I was determined to get it fully apart for peace of mind so the strip down continued. One of the good things to check on these is that you’ve got a long nose crankshaft. Despite popular belief not all R33s have them so it’s always worth checking!

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The long flat’s at the engine side of the last shot are the engagement between the oil pump and the crankshaft so we’re definitely long nose!

The tear down continued to getting the cylinder head off to check the pistons and the cylinders.


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Some slight change in the colouring of the valves from front to back but this is to be expected in a straight 6 engine and nothing to be concerned about. The good news is nothing looks to have been sucked into or further through the engine!

The last bit to check is the crank.. I’ve heard nothing but bad things about regrinding crankshafts in high revving performance engines so wanted to make sure this one was AOK before continuing. A replacement might take a very long time to source and cause more ballache further down the road.

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Thankfully more good news that everything looks good, no pickup on any of the bearings and everything looks lubricated and happy! You can see the oil pump engagement a bit clearer in that last photo too.

Once the crank was out I covered it over on the bench and popped everything else back together for the time being.

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Whilst the crank is out I'm going to give it a bit more of a thorough going over just to make sure all is well before popping it back in for safe keeping.

I’m really glad I took the time to this and I love getting to know an engine this thoroughly, good to see the clever engineering that goes in and the peace of mind that we’re good to proceed.

Some of the final checks i could do before rebuild is hardness testing and cylinder wall thickness testing between the bores of the block. Maybe we’ll do this when it’s at the engine builders but with the kind of power we’ll be running, and the fact we don’t have the added strain of the AWD setup, we should be OK.

Now the engine is this far apart it’s rather tempting to get fully forged internals and make it bullet proof for many years to come.. There’s a number of things I’m looking to improve/update/refresh during the rebuild anyway so whilst we’re at it, might as well do it all. Only get to build your dream car once :)
 
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Garaculas

Club Member
Started work this weekend on the rear of the car prepping for the new custom fuel tank. I’ve decided to remove the spare wheel well and have a larger custom fuel tank made to better utilise the space and make a proper job of organising the rear end.

I thought I was done with drilling out spot welds after the two roof skins but apparently not.. Gave the spot welded surface a grind back with a wire wheel and then started drilling out the spot welds.

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The ones at the rear of the car were a right pain as you can’t fit the drill in so had to get a bit inventive but thankfully she came out in one piece.

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Overall really happy it came out cleanly and one piece, planning to put it up for sale shortly and hopefully someone out there can make use of the panel!

Next job is going to be cleaning up the mounting surface on the car and then start to mock up where everything is going to be going. Plan is to buy the surge tank and exhaust back box to get them mocked up into position. Once they are in i can make a fuel tank out of wood that the tank company can then re-create in aluminium. Then once it’s all sorted I can make a new panel out of wood to complete the boot floor and then have my fabricator make it out of steel, might even get him to put the Z logo in it whilst he’s at it :)

The plan for the tank is to keep the factory filler neck and allow a larger tank with better access for the surge tank and fuel pumps etc.
 

Robbie J

Club Member
After that previous discovery I was determined to get it fully apart for peace of mind so the strip down continued. One of the good things to check on these is that you’ve got a long nose crankshaft. Despite popular belief not all R33s have them so it’s always worth checking!

View attachment 43623

View attachment 43624

The long flat’s at the engine side of the last shot are the engagement between the oil pump and the crankshaft so we’re definitely long nose!

The tear down continued to getting the cylinder head off to check the pistons and the cylinders.


View attachment 43625

View attachment 43626

Some slight change in the colouring of the valves from front to back but this is to be expected in a straight 6 engine and nothing to be concerned about. The good news is nothing looks to have been sucked into or further through the engine!

The last bit to check is the crank.. I’ve heard nothing but bad things about regrinding crankshafts in high revving performance engines so wanted to make sure this one was AOK before continuing. A replacement might take a very long time to source and cause more ballache further down the road.

View attachment 43627

View attachment 43628

View attachment 43629

View attachment 43630

Thankfully more good news that everything looks good, no pickup on any of the bearings and everything looks lubricated and happy! You can see the oil pump engagement a bit clearer in that last photo too.

Once the crank was out I covered it over on the bench and popped everything else back together for the time being.

View attachment 43631

Whilst the crank is out I'm going to give it a bit more of a thorough going over just to make sure all is well before popping it back in for safe keeping.

I’m really glad I took the time to this and I love getting to know an engine this thoroughly, good to see the clever engineering that goes in and the peace of mind that we’re good to proceed.

Some of the final checks i could do before rebuild is hardness testing and cylinder wall thickness testing between the bores of the block. Maybe we’ll do this when it’s at the engine builders but with the kind of power we’ll be running, and the fact we don’t have the added strain of the AWD setup, we should be OK.

Now the engine is this far apart it’s rather tempting to get fully forged internals and make it bullet proof for many years to come.. There’s a number of things I’m looking to improve/update/refresh during the rebuild anyway so whilst we’re at it, might as well do it all. Only get to build your dream car once :)

How much power are you going for again? the stock engine is good for a lot and they are broken with bad ignition components, too much boost and maps. Unless you are dragging it getting the other stuff sorted is worth it. New bottom end shells oil pump etc I'm expecting you are doing
 

Garaculas

Club Member
How much power are you going for again? the stock engine is good for a lot and they are broken with bad ignition components, too much boost and maps. Unless you are dragging it getting the other stuff sorted is worth it. New bottom end shells oil pump etc I'm expecting you are doing

I think we’ll be looking at 400hp low boost and maybe 550hp high boost? Probably would be fine on standard internals but whilst I’m going to the effort of everything else it’s a relatively small cost to forge it for that peace of mind. The current plan for the engine rebuild consists of:
  • Prep the block (strip, clean, paint, hone)
  • Prep the head (strip, clean, new valve stem seals)
  • Clean & rebuild the factory throttle bodies
  • CP Forged Pistons (standard size)
  • Manley Forged H-Beam Rods (standard size)
  • ACL bearings all round
  • ATI Super Damper harmonic balancer/crank pulley
  • Excedy twin plate clutch
  • Balance complete rotating assembly
  • Nitto oil pump
  • N1 water pump
  • Nitto Head Oil restrictor
  • Nitto Head drain kit
  • ARP Head studs
  • Uprated valve springs and retainers
  • Complete new gasket and seal set
  • Tomei Type B Poncams
  • Tomei adjustable cam pulleys
  • Single turbo exhaust manifold (6boost, Walton motorsport etc)
  • Garrett turbo (G30-660/G30-770)
  • Turbosmart External wastegate
  • 1000cc injectors (deatschwerks, injector dynamics etc)
  • R35 GTR coil pack conversion
  • Cam & Crank angle sensor upgrade (PRP, NZ etc)
  • New sensors all round
  • Haltech Elite 2500 ECU with terminated harness
It’s a bit overkill for the power I’m looking at but the aim is to be able to enjoy it without the looming threat of a big rebuild. Also hoping that, with the cams/pulleys/head work, we can tune out some of the low down torque and move the power higher into the Rev range to aid traction, won’t need loads of torque in the little RWD Z :)
 

Robbie J

Club Member
I think we’ll be looking at 400hp low boost and maybe 550hp high boost? Probably would be fine on standard internals but whilst I’m going to the effort of everything else it’s a relatively small cost to forge it for that peace of mind. The current plan for the engine rebuild consists of:
  • Prep the block (strip, clean, paint, hone)
  • Prep the head (strip, clean, new valve stem seals)
  • Clean & rebuild the factory throttle bodies
  • CP Forged Pistons (standard size)
  • Manley Forged H-Beam Rods (standard size)
  • ACL bearings all round
  • ATI Super Damper harmonic balancer/crank pulley
  • Excedy twin plate clutch
  • Balance complete rotating assembly
  • Nitto oil pump
  • N1 water pump
  • Nitto Head Oil restrictor
  • Nitto Head drain kit
  • ARP Head studs
  • Uprated valve springs and retainers
  • Complete new gasket and seal set
  • Tomei Type B Poncams
  • Tomei adjustable cam pulleys
  • Single turbo exhaust manifold (6boost, Walton motorsport etc)
  • Garrett turbo (G30-660/G30-770)
  • Turbosmart External wastegate
  • 1000cc injectors (deatschwerks, injector dynamics etc)
  • R35 GTR coil pack conversion
  • Cam & Crank angle sensor upgrade (PRP, NZ etc)
  • New sensors all round
  • Haltech Elite 2500 ECU with terminated harness
It’s a bit overkill for the power I’m looking at but the aim is to be able to enjoy it without the looming threat of a big rebuild. Also hoping that, with the cams/pulleys/head work, we can tune out some of the low down torque and move the power higher into the Rev range to aid traction, won’t need loads of torque in the little RWD Z :)

Who is doing the mapping and electrics?
 
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