RB Engine Rebuilds

[Alak]

I decided to start this thread for input.

I'm going to start transitioning into rebuilding piston engines, and I happen to have an abundance of RB25 Cores. I'm curious to what one would pay for various levels of rebuild. And what sorts of upgrades are common. I do this entirely as a hobby, and not as a 'for profit' business. There would be a warranty, as with any work I do I stand by it.

[Alak]

Background to myself is I am a professional Heavy Equipment Technician. I build and maintain very large, very expensive engines for the sorts of companies who only give you one crack at it. For the last 10 years as a hobby I have been building rotary engines with great success, for all sorts of applications. I've even done the primary assembly on a Ferrari 348 Engine (Im a Ferrari guy at heart). I've delved into diesel performance but, honestly, there isn't much magic to that.

I spend my springtime doing troubleshooting and tuneups for Nissan and Mazda guys, and on rare occasion repairs (more so on the rotary side of things).

[Special_K]

cool, I'm not in the market for a rebuild but seems there is a need for people who know how do them properly. If you can do a rotary with success then a rb26 shouldn't be too hard. Do you do your own machining and flow testing?

[Black BNR32]

http://www.lewisengines.com.au/rb-nissan/

http://www.hioctanedirect.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=560

http://www.ripsracing.com/catalog/Bare-Long-Motors-39/index.html

for an rb26 head build, I paid:
600 for setting valve clearances and assembly
125 for disassembly and cleaning
648 for a 5 angle cut

and a bunch more for parts and porting

[Alak]

I have a guy who does my machine work, hes very good. He's worked with me on a couple diesel projects in the past, including a 3512C Cat engine. He was very surprised when I showed up with 12 Cylinder heads. He did the heads on the Ferrari 348 engine I did, and the guy who I worked with (the owner) assembling the engine has had 5000 trouble free miles so far. He will be back in a few years for a 'Engine out' service I imagine. I usually do the primary dis-assembly, cleaning and inspections. And then go from there.


My goal is to take the two RB25 engine cores I have, and rebuild one to a more or less stock configuration. Call it a stage 1. I would likely upgrade the head, maybe some mild cams. The bottom end would likely be OEM but I am uncertain until I take it apart. Im more concerned about a balanced setup over throwing in the 'best' parts. Its important that it is balanced and tuned properly. I've seen MANY engines fail, both piston and rotary, from lousy setup, tuning and improper parts selection for the application. I would like build a complete running engine including an aftermarket ECM and the works, dyno'd and tuned and ready to go. The customer would then drop it in and go.

That's the idea anyways, but we will see.