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This thread will be focused on the build portion of the car rather than unbuild/rebuild mostly because i did not take any pictures while taking it apart other than those needed for references (sorry!)
The car was originally purchased in late june of 2011 and recieved in july/august of 2011, while having a few goodies and a very clean body the car did not turn out to be as expected.
A compression test was done out of curiosity, the compression tester reported 80 psi in cylinder #4, which explained the blow-by (having never owned a turbocharged vehicle before it was not known what an acceptable level was)
long story short, this was the perpetrator:
Thus the collection of parts began:
Pistons:
I narrowed it down to three different companies:
-supertech
-JE
-CP
Being all around the same price, it came down to the properties of each material and without going into too much detail (yet) i will simply state why i did not choose the other two:
Supertechs:
High zinc content (comparably) which is not too detonation resistant, as in, shock resistant, (detonation was in most likelihood the cause of my broken ringland so understandably i would like to lessen, if not prevent the damage if it occurs again)
JE:
Although there are claims that their retainer rings can jump ship at any time, there is nothing to suggest that this is a direct result of the design and therefore was not included in the decision making process. it was again, the alloy used in construction, 2024 aluminum. 2000 grade alloys can be susceptible to stress corrosion cracking
rather than weigh in the probability of this occurring and conducting research on the topic, I chose to eliminate the problem altogether and went with the CP pistons which are constructed of 6061 aluminum alloy. 6061 is a common aerospace alloy also known by some as the "new" aerospace alloy, replacing the 2024 grade.
Bearings:
Not much time spent on researching bearings, enough people were using ACL bearings and the only common problem to come up was spun bearings due to the builder not properly checking clearances, which i intended to fully do, and did. Additionally, there was news of a bad batch of bearings that made their way out of the factory in which the bearings were warped, the term that describes the way they were warped escapes me but it would be evident if one were to use plastigauge for checking clearances as the plastiguage would have a tapered profile. no such event occured and all clearances were within specifications.
Rods
After a fair amount of forum browsing, it seems that the stock rods are good until approximately 600 rwhp, as I am aiming for about 500 rwhp the stock rods should be sufficient. Therefore, I had the rods magnafluxed and then resized after I installed the ARP rod bolts
I changed the rod bolts due to the fact that a good majority of thrown rods seemed to be on account of the rod bolts rather than the stock rods failing. Also it is a good idea to change out critical fasteners at a point where it is easy. And they were $60, how can you turn that down?
Head Bolts
For the level of power I was looking for, ARP head studs would be more than sufficient.
Headgasket:
COMETIC streetpro 1.2mm . i have used cometic headgaskets in the past and have had no complaints, and so it seems noone else has either.
EDIT for the preceding statement: sorry, 1.2 mm is stock, I'm doing this all from memory
I believe that I may have made an error in my headgasket selection as I have calculated recently that for every 0.1 mm of extra headgasket thickness, the compression ratio will decrease by about 0.3. This is not particularly worrying as the effects can be offset by a greater amount of boost. Even though the upper limit of the power I can create is now lower, I wont be chasing max power until after I open it up again and switch to forged rods.
Timing belt:
As far as the timing belt is concerned I went with the tomei.
Oil Pump
For this build I chose to go with the Reimax gearset. The engine will only see 8000 rpm and the bearing clearances are within factory spec. In my mind, it would be a complete waste of money to buy A higher flowing pump when all I really need is strength.
Also, I do not believe that the RB26 has an oil drainback "issue". if you take a look at the head, you can see that there really isn't any place for the oil to go but back to the crankcase. In addition to that there is this (scroll to the bottom):
RB26 engine building
Thus ends the parts I needed for the rebuild, Parts that I did not change out are as follows:
Engine
-HKS GT2510-5 turbos
-Denso 660 cc injectors
-GReddy suction kit
-Toda Power cam gears
-NISMO twin supermaxx clutch
Handling
-KTS SC dampers
-Dunlop Direzza 245/45R18 tires
-Trial tri-force zelda magnum wheels
Electronics
-HKS F-CON V-PRO
-HKS EVC boost controller
-HKS turbo timer
-Field ETS
The car was originally purchased in late june of 2011 and recieved in july/august of 2011, while having a few goodies and a very clean body the car did not turn out to be as expected.
A compression test was done out of curiosity, the compression tester reported 80 psi in cylinder #4, which explained the blow-by (having never owned a turbocharged vehicle before it was not known what an acceptable level was)
long story short, this was the perpetrator:
Thus the collection of parts began:
Pistons:
I narrowed it down to three different companies:
-supertech
-JE
-CP
Being all around the same price, it came down to the properties of each material and without going into too much detail (yet) i will simply state why i did not choose the other two:
Supertechs:
High zinc content (comparably) which is not too detonation resistant, as in, shock resistant, (detonation was in most likelihood the cause of my broken ringland so understandably i would like to lessen, if not prevent the damage if it occurs again)
JE:
Although there are claims that their retainer rings can jump ship at any time, there is nothing to suggest that this is a direct result of the design and therefore was not included in the decision making process. it was again, the alloy used in construction, 2024 aluminum. 2000 grade alloys can be susceptible to stress corrosion cracking
rather than weigh in the probability of this occurring and conducting research on the topic, I chose to eliminate the problem altogether and went with the CP pistons which are constructed of 6061 aluminum alloy. 6061 is a common aerospace alloy also known by some as the "new" aerospace alloy, replacing the 2024 grade.
Bearings:
Not much time spent on researching bearings, enough people were using ACL bearings and the only common problem to come up was spun bearings due to the builder not properly checking clearances, which i intended to fully do, and did. Additionally, there was news of a bad batch of bearings that made their way out of the factory in which the bearings were warped, the term that describes the way they were warped escapes me but it would be evident if one were to use plastigauge for checking clearances as the plastiguage would have a tapered profile. no such event occured and all clearances were within specifications.
Rods
After a fair amount of forum browsing, it seems that the stock rods are good until approximately 600 rwhp, as I am aiming for about 500 rwhp the stock rods should be sufficient. Therefore, I had the rods magnafluxed and then resized after I installed the ARP rod bolts
I changed the rod bolts due to the fact that a good majority of thrown rods seemed to be on account of the rod bolts rather than the stock rods failing. Also it is a good idea to change out critical fasteners at a point where it is easy. And they were $60, how can you turn that down?
Head Bolts
For the level of power I was looking for, ARP head studs would be more than sufficient.
Headgasket:
COMETIC streetpro 1.2mm . i have used cometic headgaskets in the past and have had no complaints, and so it seems noone else has either.
EDIT for the preceding statement: sorry, 1.2 mm is stock, I'm doing this all from memory
I believe that I may have made an error in my headgasket selection as I have calculated recently that for every 0.1 mm of extra headgasket thickness, the compression ratio will decrease by about 0.3. This is not particularly worrying as the effects can be offset by a greater amount of boost. Even though the upper limit of the power I can create is now lower, I wont be chasing max power until after I open it up again and switch to forged rods.
Timing belt:
As far as the timing belt is concerned I went with the tomei.
Oil Pump
For this build I chose to go with the Reimax gearset. The engine will only see 8000 rpm and the bearing clearances are within factory spec. In my mind, it would be a complete waste of money to buy A higher flowing pump when all I really need is strength.
Also, I do not believe that the RB26 has an oil drainback "issue". if you take a look at the head, you can see that there really isn't any place for the oil to go but back to the crankcase. In addition to that there is this (scroll to the bottom):
RB26 engine building
Thus ends the parts I needed for the rebuild, Parts that I did not change out are as follows:
Engine
-HKS GT2510-5 turbos
-Denso 660 cc injectors
-GReddy suction kit
-Toda Power cam gears
-NISMO twin supermaxx clutch
Handling
-KTS SC dampers
-Dunlop Direzza 245/45R18 tires
-Trial tri-force zelda magnum wheels
Electronics
-HKS F-CON V-PRO
-HKS EVC boost controller
-HKS turbo timer
-Field ETS
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