Project RB S14

[qu0vad1s]

I know I know, it ain't a R-chassis... BUT it does have a RB engine in it Thought i'd share it with you guys cause it's been a long and painful swap

It all started up October 31st 2005. I had been searching for one in decent shape for a while and I finally found my S14. A Canadian 95 with 232 000km on the clock. I knew I wanted to swap it to something else or turbo it so I didn't cared about the millage on the car.


Long story short, after a couple basic mods (Brakes/Suspension/struts/Short shifter) I got this deal on a RB20DET engine from a guy from here, Wrick was his nickname... dunno if he's still around (That was in August 2007). He asked 300$ for an almost complete engine (Complete bloc with 2 manifolds and the turbo + a couple things) so I decided i'd swap that engine in my car. This is where the fun began (And this is very sarcastic as it's been hell on earth )



So I began to search for parts as I made my first mistake --> Trying to get everything to swap the engine in the car. I had a whole lot of things missing (I had an engine and a transmission only). So my friend Ebay helped me out. Flywheel, Wiring harness, crank pulley, MAF, Brackets, Starter motor, etc etc etc.

After a full winter looking for parts, I had everything (At least i thought i had) to begin swapping the engine. I had been removing a couple things around the engine before the end of the winter (See the snow), because i was so tired to see the car in the driveway without being able to work on it.



I also had been working on the RB to prep it to get it in the car (Timing belt, pulleys, water pump and oil seals)


So on April 27th 2008, the old KA had ran exactly 270002KM, was still running pretty darn good, 175psi on each and everyone of the 4 cylinders. But it was time to have him retired for good to enter the turbo world






Do i look happy or what?



Well, my joy wasn't going to last long...

I decided while the engine was out that it was time to clean up the chassis a bit and see for rust damage. --> Second error, don't look for rust, you'll find some and you prolly don'T want to see it.





In the meantime, while I was tired of finding rust on the car, I got to work on the engine. My first badluck or lack of talent then happened. The crankshaft sprocket that runs the timing belt was stuck in place, probably because it had been sitting in the shed for winter. I had tried everything I could but I just couldn't get it out to get the oil pump out. I decided to take the grinder and cut it out. This is what happened :



So, Had to get the crankshaft out to get that filled. While i'm at it, why don't change the main and rod bearings. Of course RB bearings are so easy to find around here, it took a couple weeks for me to get them. We're now in July 2008.




So i continued work on the rust issues and prepping for the engine bay. The car basically sat like this in the driveway :




Once I had my parts, I reassembled the engine and got my buddies gathered to get the engine in. The day that the install was supposed to happen, I got to work to get the clutch and transmission installed... guess what... wrong clutch (that i''d bought with the Transmission... clutch was from a RB20DE from a R34... same as KA clutch). Another set back, lack of funds to buy the clutch with the house and kid... took another 2-3 weeks to get the clutch.

Once I had it, we installed it in there, got busy on all the other stuff (ie wiring).




I got to try to start the engine one night, the starter had power, but not enough to get the crank to turn.... got worried a bit... too tight on the cams? Starter motor dead? Something wrong with the engine (Remember here it's been over 2 years since it had been running). Got to troubleshoot it.... not the cams, not the starter, unable to turn it by hand... F***, need to get the engine out and reopen it...

So one night, got the buddies, got the lift, got the engine and trans out, put the engine on the stand, opened the oil pan and loosen the crank main journal... still unable to turn it over... got the rods loosen one by one... got to #5... woot woot we have movement!!!

With that movement, a tool that was sitting on the main journal fell in the engine... damaging an oil jet that sprays oil on the underside of the piston... AAARRGGHH more badluck for me... Did you ever wondered how much a single oil jet costs at the dealership? 50$! Lucky me, I had a guy i knew who had blown an RB and had a spare bloc with the jets, so I bought him the 6 of them.

After that, got the engine reassembled, got it back in the engine bay, got the wires back in and got there :



We have movement! But have you heard the weird sound? It doesn't sound right eh? the next morning, took compression.... 160-160-155-160-0-160

<insert hundreds of swears here>

I had been turning the engine without the timing belt.... with the cams on. So I did some basic troubleshooting to see if it was the piston rings... nope. Only answer left : Bent valves!! We're mid-August here... the project came to a halt has I had wasted a sh*t load of time and money on that car without having results. I parked it there and waited for winter to come. I haven't touched it until 2 weeks ago...

Got tired of seeing it in the driveway again... i knew i would have to get the head off sometime, and i want to burn rubber in May this year so I got my winter coat on and got busy. Lucky for me, the same buddy who had the bloc had also a head laying around. I got it for free so I can use the valves in it to rebuild my head.








Then I got to have my head rebuilt...






Old HG


TADAAAAAAAAAA




Cams got back on...





Peek-a-boooh! I see you!











Cluster recalibrated for the 2 more cyl's

** Note that I've stored it oct 31st 2007 with 270 000km on the clock, so it ran 1.5km since then....




Anyhow, since then i finally got it running perfectly last Sunday and i've been driving it to work for the last week....




Can't tell you how happy I am right now. I'll post some decent videos soon.

Hope you enjoyed reading about my swap, and sorry about the long thread

[sexonwheels]

Wicked post

And don't worry about the length, the longer the better, as long it has pictures......wow that was naughty, I feel like a pervert.

[m_melen]

Thanks for putting this up man, I'm considering this swap next year depending on how the Quebec RHD issue ends up. It's not surprising that you couldn't get the crank timing gear off, there's endless posts on this site of people being unable to get them off (including me). I ended up cutting the oil pump off by drilling it, then taking the crank with the sprocket attached to a shop where they heated it and zip gunned it off!