With my 200ZR and I was wondering what my options are for doing up the engine… Should I; a) rebuild the RB20 engine and work the **** out of it? Or b) Buy an awesome RB26DET and just go with that? If I go with an RB26DET what am I looking at price wise (remembering I live in Australia). What do you people think is the best option for my car?

 

Is the engine toasted???

 

Nah not really, I’ve taken it to a few mechanics and they say it’s in good working order (apart from the gearbox *sigh*).

 

If the gear box is bad then you might want to consider an Rb25DET. That way you get a little more displacement and you can use the Rb25 trans. With the RB26 you'd have to buy the motor (mucho dinero $$$) and then find another trans anyways since your's is bad and the RB26 is AWD only. Plus with the RB25, most of the parts are the same as the RB20 so you'll already have some replacement parts on hand.

And the best part is you can keep the RB20 valve cover and timing cover and everyone will still think you're sporting the RB20

 

then don't f*ck with it.

you f*ck with it, you break it.

And since you're asking, YOU really shouldn't f*ck with it.

 

Another option is the RB30, which is fairly common down there and dropping your RB20 head and intake/exhaust/turbo system onto that. Then you'll be up to 3 liters so the VG guys will leave you alone

 

LOL, yeah maybe... I might just crank the **** out of the RB20... Still don’t know yet I'm seeing an engineer soon and going to have a chat about what’s best, road legal, and what'll give me the best HP for a reasonable price...

 

I never understood the purpose of such a low displacement 6 cyl. YOU, like az bum said, shouldn't do ANYTHING other than pay for parts and labor. Unless you have someone around that is willing to help you and teach you.

All RB motors are expensive. There is simply no way around it.

Cheaper options would be a VG30 or an Small block chevy engine.

 

RB20 has a weak bottom end, go for the RB25/26 prices are coming down, try yahoo auctions jp for cheaper deals or take a vacation to tokyo/hit up the junk yards for parts and ship them in your checked baggage and you can have like 77lbs max in each bag depending on carrier. Lots of crashed R33/R34 skylines you can buy parts from.. OR go to Tokyo, take pictures of the parts you want and spend time in the clubs. Go home broke and you have memories of cheap parts and pictures to prove it!

 

RB motors are only expensive in the states. Austrailia and Japan have them sitting around all over the place. (or so I understand)

 

yeah, i'd imagine that it is just like a 5.0 or a lt1 motor here in the states?

 

::buzzer sound::: Wrong. The RB26 can be used in RWD form. from the trans "blue-prints" I've seen, there are different ways to go about it, removing the mechanical end of the equation, or removing the electronic part (the power bias that came in all GTR's equipped with the RB26DETT) So, if you can get ahold of an RB and tranny... I'd say you should deffinetely do it, then get your hands on some of the tech info for the trans, if I find any on the net, I'll surely send.

 

If you bothered to READ the post, you'd understand he was giving one of the options for making the RB26DETT RWD.The single most common way to make the RB26 RWD is to grab the RB25 transmission. It bolts right on.