Tman7878's Rb26dett 240sx

[frankiman]

sweet trailer, that thing is balling !

[tman7878]

Thanks guys! Also forgot to mention that I'm getting a canopy made for the structure it came with so that it can sort of act as an enclosed trailer!


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

[tman7878]

Back At It!

It has been far too long since I've updated this thread or made any huge progress on my car!

So, since I'm starting fresh here's the plan!

Right now the engine is sitting in the shop waiting to be finished before going back in the car.
Here is whats going onL

Where we left off the new turbo parts had come in and it was time to pull the engine! Just so that you guys can get an idea of what it takes to pull an rb26 out of a 240...here's a time lapse!

This summer I got an engineering internship in Estevan, SK. Next step was to load everything into the trailer. The car, engine, and tool box fit like a glove!

The trailer:


New equalizer hitch


What needed to be packed.



Took until 3am but we got the car all loaded up!



Next morning it was time to load the engine





Now time for all the parts!











Now tools




Empty Garage


I need to get back to work. I'll post another update later today!

[tman7878]

Once the car made it to Estevan we got it unloaded and started getting into it.

The first thing that needed sorting was I needed to order lines (water feed and return, oil feed) for the turbos.

I talked to RightDrive and short of me sending them my hardlines they couldn't do too much for me. The reson I went there first is my Bride seats are going to be shipped from there sometime soon. Next I went to the guys at Lightspeed because worst came to worst I could get them my lines. I shipped them my lines but after a week of waiting for them to pick up the hard lines I sent them to be picked up from the post office I got impatient and told them that when they do get around to picking them up just to send them back. I decided although kind of pricey, I would make them up myself instead of ordering ebay lines. In hind sight it would have probably been far easier to order ebay lines.

I found all my fitting sizes and line sizes and ordered the bulk of the fittings from Summit. Here's what showed up.




Due to some tight fitment I needed to order some other fittings but all in all 95% of the fittings would work. I also took this opportunity to order oil restrictors and to order lines for the blow-by system.

Coolant return fitment


Then I moved on to getting the other parts of the turbo's ready. First I tried to pull the intakes. Got 3/4 of the allen key bolts out nicely, the third one is pretty severly rounded and is gonna need to be replaced. Here's what it looks like:



I then ordered new oil drain gaskets.

Now on to pulling the manifolds.


Nuts came off nicely


Pretty black in the manifolds, I haven't had a lot of oppurtunities to get into engine building much and hope this isn't unusual considering it is the exhaust side!


The Head outlets have quite a bit of build up as well. Can someone please let me know if this is an issue or can it be expected from years of abuse?





Finally a happy ending, mocking up the new manifolds!

[leeaspin]

That trailer is a beautiful speciman

[tman7878]

That trailer is a beautiful speciman

Thanks, considering it was only about 4500 all in with new paint, tarp, tires, and suspension I'm thinking it was a better route than an actualy inclosed trailer.

[Bruizer]

If its any advice worth using, sell the wraps and get ceramic coatings. It can be had for as cheap as $700 and won't ever catch I fire like wraps do should you ever have a leak.

The exhaust being caked on is ok, mine was worse than that and only had 1,200 km with all new parts. You're ok there.

That must be an easy $400 worth of AN hoses, why diet you stay with the hard lines (which are better than the AN other than looks).

Excellent build so far. Too bad it's taken so long I know the feeling

[tman7878]

If its any advice worth using, sell the wraps and get ceramic coatings. It can be had for as cheap as $700 and won't ever catch I fire like wraps do should you ever have a leak.

The exhaust being caked on is ok, mine was worse than that and only had 1,200 km with all new parts. You're ok there.

That must be an easy $400 worth of AN hoses, why diet you stay with the hard lines (which are better than the AN other than looks).

Excellent build so far. Too bad it's taken so long I know the feeling

I was actually planning on using to wraps on my down pipe.

Yeah I looked into some builds and it seems okay. Thanks for confirming.

The hardlines cracked when I took them off and the hoses are gonna cost a total of about 350. This will make the lines easy to service though and like you said it'll look good!

Thanks, Plan is to have the engine in the car next thursday!

[Bruizer]

Ah had you posted in the wtb solid hoses I would have sent you mine... My Turbo kit is totally different so I couldn't reuse them.

[tman7878]

Ah had you posted in the wtb solid hoses I would have sent you mine... My Turbo kit is totally different so I couldn't reuse them.

Oh too bad, well if I still can't get them to work I might still buy them from you.

[tman7878]

Finally got all the fittings I need to finish the turbos, only waiting on the gaskets for the oil return and then I'm good to put the turbos together.

Here is a picture of the work area for the summer



In the mean time I got busy transferring all the hardware to the new turbos, things are starting to shape up.

New vs. Old




Finished mounting up the new manifolds




New Fittings arrived and Now I'm finally able to start getting things all ready to go.


Installed the water feed



Started figuring out the lengths I needed to make the steel braided water lines and how everything was going to fit together.



It was tight to say the least!




Clearance for water feed



Turbo #2




First line done


Got the front turbo water lines done!


If all goes well should have the engine in by the end of next week!

PS:

Here is the difference between $2 and $10 fittings. Both work but there is definitely a huge difference in quality and the way they seal the hose is much different.

[tman7878]

Thread Revival!

Back At It!

So its been a few months since I've updated. I've been really busy with work and school. All my free time from that has been to devoted to my car. I left off with the turbos about to be installed. So lets jump back into it!

Here are the turbos will all the lines ready to be bolted up.



It was all starting to shape up which was very promising!

Bolted up with the lines connected. I have to say that this was one of the coolest things I'd ever seen and probably the best this engine has looked up to this point.



It was quite a relief to finally after all this work see everything coming together. The summer was winding to a close, with it my summer internship position in southern Saskatchewan was about to end. This meant packing everything up and bringing it back to Alberta. As moving the engine and car separately was a huge pain, I was determined to get the engine in before it was time to head home.

I had a 2 week span to get the engine in. My days consisted of work often 6-6 then car work 7-12 or 1. Not a lot of sleep went on... however great progress was made! So now it was time to toss the motor back in. Luckily its getting easier and easier the more times I do it, and having a forklift to do it with helped too. This process has been described in detail quite a bit in this thread so I'll just show you some pictures of the process!

Before



Downpipe On!


Car hoisted up







Chained up to the engine.



Here is the clearances on each side.




And then 5 hours after we started the engine is in!



Now that the engine was in its was time to bolt, attach, clip and fill everything! After a few hours of work here's what we ended up with.




With everything ready to go it was time to try to fire it up.

Click Here!

and go for a quick little test drive!

Click Here!

The tune was pretty rough and the engine was running super rich but let me tell you there was nothing more satisfying than driving the car onto the trailer at the end of the summer!

I packed things up and was headed on the long haul back to Edmonton!

Meanwhile..... Back in Edmonton!
A nice little package had arrived for me from Daryl @ RightDrive. Thanks Daryl.
Sorry about the bad photo quality, I haven't had a chance to take some good pictures of the seats yet.





Thats all for now, I will try to finish updating the thread by the end of the week. Next update will include new issues, fixes, work and will conclude with Dyno Results! Stay Tuned!

[tman7878]

Thread Revival Part 2.

Dyno Time

With the engine running and the car somewhat drivable it was now time to finally get a proper tune and see if all this hard work had paid off. The dyno appointment was booked for early september and I had a few weeks to prepare.

I started the prep with a fluid swap, Engine oil, tranny fluid, and diff fluid.



Next was to swap out the engine bay fuel pressure gauge with the sensor so that I can monitor fuel pressure from the driver's seat.




Finally I decided to do a compression test because it would be a waste to show up to a dyno with poor compression. This had been passed a few times in this build and should have been done long ago.

Upon removing the valve cover and coil packs I noticed that there was some very unwanted corrosion around the spark plugs.





This would need to be cleaned eventually, but for the time being I just did a basic wipe and got rid of all the loose grit/grime.

Next pulling the plugs we saw they were fouled which isn't a huge surprise considering how rich the vehicle was running.



Just for good measure I would pick up a set for the dyno.

Now it was test time



Results were acceptable



Now with all this done there were a few issues to address. The threadsealer I used on the coolant fitting to the block and the turbos didn't seem to be doing its job.

Also there was a small leak coming from the oil filter relocator sandwich plate. Not a major issue because it was a very minor leak. I didn't know how strict the pre-dyno inspection would be so I assumed it would need to be fixed.

The PS rack was slightly leaking but it turned out to be simply a loose fitting.

Also I would need to have a boost solenoid installed in the car before the dyno.

This was going to prove to be quite the task however since school was starting and I was no longer going to have time to work on the car I decided it would be best to take it to the guys at Lightspeed and let them get the car dyno ready.

Lightspeed fixed the coolant leak and oil leak within a week or two of me dropping it off and soon enough I was headed to red deer to go participate in the dyno session.

Upon arrival in red deer I was a little disappointed to hear that the boost solenoid had not been installed like I asked. Therefore a manual boost controller was thrown in just so that the day wasn't a complete failure.



So after getting the car set up on the dyno we started to just put a base tune on the car. We soon noticed that the car would benefit from some copper spark plugs so we tossed some in.



Running at about 13.5PSI here's what we got:



These results were pretty disappointing to be completely honest but at least they could be explained.

First of all, its a completely stock head that hasn't been touched in 20 years. This engine in begging for some head work but I wanted a baseline before doing too much with it.

Second, thats a pretty big intercooler up in front and the piping isn't small either, this was causing a bit of extra turbo lag which was hurting us seeing as we were only revving to 7000rpm.

Finally there is a massive restriction in the downpipe because it is a LHD vehicle cause a pretty big air restriction. It sucks but its something you just have to live with to stay twin and swap.



Also this build is now nicknamed the DRAGON LADY because she sure likes to breath fire!

Here's a little video I tossed together of the event.

Thats all for now, I'll finish updating the thread tomorrow. This will include a revisit to the dyno, a boost increase, and a game plan for what comes next! Stay Tuned!

[charlie99]

You could always build your own down pipe and come around on the frame side of the steering shaft. Currently doing that to my swap.

[tman7878]

You could always build your own down pipe and come around on the frame side of the steering shaft. Currently doing that to my swap.

Thats not a bad idea, only downfall would be the sharp 90 s turn it throws the in the downpipe so I'm not entirely sure that would be too much better. I'll have to ask my flow dynamics prof about that. Do you have any pics of what you've done?