My Rb swap - incase you're interested

[HS30-H]

Originally posted by Carl Beck

Hi Guys

Not so much a "correction" as simply some additional info.

The origins of the "RB" Series engines, would seem to be rooted in the Prince Motors Ltd. R380 Racing Engine of 1966, and the following Nissan R380-II of 1967. (Prince Motors was merged into Nissan in Aug. of 1966).

Both the "L" series and "S" then the following RB series would seem to have been in development at the same time. I think it is safe to say that Nissan MotorSports continued the advancement of the RB series well past the end of the production life of the "L" series.

The first production engine, based on the Racing engine was the Nissan S20 engine it was used in the 1969 Fairlady Z 432 & Skyline GT-R. It sported a duel overhead cam, alum. cross flow head with hemispherical combustion chambers and 4 valves per cylinder.

Carl Beck

Clearwater, FL USA

http://ZHome.com

Hi Carl,

The Prince R380 used the "GR8" engine, which was related to the Prince 'G' series OHC engines in spirit if not actual DNA.

The Nissan R380 and R380-II used a development of this engine, but with the Nissan name on the cam covers instead of Prince.

The GR8 was a pure race engine, with two distributor drives on the ends of the camshafts. The Nissan S20 twin cam engine was a development of the GR8, but was different in a great number of respects. The distributor drive arrangement, oil pump arrangement, block mountings and take-offs were all quite different to the GR8. Essentially it was a completely new engine based on the ideas and experiences of the GR8.

Nissan's advertising made much mileage of the link between the GR8 engine of the Prince and Nissan R380 series race cars, and the S20 engine of the first Skyline GT-R. When the Fairlady Z 432 and 432R debuted, Nissan's advertising described it as "A Fairlady Z with the engine of the Skyline GT-R". However, the S20 was quite a different engine to the GR8..........

The RB series came after a big gap. You can see the similarity to the S20 in many respects, but the RB is actually much simpler than the S20 internally. Once you start looking at the way the S20 is put together, you realise just how expensive it must have been to make and assemble each individual engine.

Nissan have never really actively encouraged any thought of a DIRECT descendancy from the S20 for the RB series, although the family connection is there.

Alan T.

[Carl Beck]

Originally posted by HS30-H

Hi Carl,

......snipped...

The Nissan R380 and R380-II used a development of this engine, but with the Nissan name on the cam covers instead of Prince.

......snipped...

Nissan have never really actively encouraged any thought of a DIRECT descendancy from the S20 for the RB series, although the family connection is there.

......snipped...

Alan T.

Hi Alan:

Thanks for the addition.... agreed that engine development within Prince and then within Prince/Nissan was an evolutionary process. Off-hand, I would have thought that the later RB's with variable valve timing and digital engine management systems would have been more complex.

While we are on the subject .. do you recall who Nissan bought the engines from, for the R380-I? It seems that the engine for the 380-II wasn't out of development in time.

I belive that the R380-1, was the engine they won the JGP with. I recall reading the story somewhere, but can't lay my hands on it right now. AIR it was one of the famous racing shops in California..

regards,

Carl

[HS30-H]

Hi Carl,

I'll trade you the variable cam timing of later ( very much later ) RB's for the wet cylinder liners and cross-bolted mains of the S20.

If you ever get a look inside an S20, or ever need to gather up all the nuts, bolts, studs and shims that hold one together, you'll know what I mean when I say the S20 was more complex internally than the RB. :classic:

You're getting your Nissan race car nomenclature mixed up ( or was it a 'plant' to test me? ). The stop-gap fitting of the American V8 was on the R381 ( not the R380-I ) and it was the R381-II that got the V12 'GRX' engine first.

I believe the name that's on the tip of your tongue but you can't quite recall was........

Dean Moon.

Please Carl, for once in your life, tell me that I am 'right'...... :cheeky:

[Carl Beck]

Hi Alan:

That's it... you are right. Dean Moon . It was the Chevy Engine in the R-381 as you correctly pointed out.

Funny, Nissan puts Chevy engines in their race cars and GM put's RB's in their sedans.. go figure.

regards,

Carl

[Ben]

Originally posted by Datto-Zed

RedStage: Nice! I'm quite a fan of the Ceffy.....and RB20's. You have to just love the way they scream out to the 7800 rev limit (with a larger turbo that is). Mind you, the lack of torque sorta sucks when your used to driving something torque like the z car.

I _wish_ my FJ20ET had a rev-limit, 8000rpm comes up mighty fast you know....

I recently got hold of the HPI Volume 8 DVD, which has some serious 8 & 9 second GT-R's featured at a JDDA drag championship round. Along with the odd GS30 pushing out 1000HP (and some 11-second DR30's )! I'll encode a few of the passes & post them on my webby in the near future.

[RedStage]

FJ20's

Buddy of mine no matter how hard you try will not move away from the DR30 and the FJ20DET.

I miss Japan.....

I'd even settle for a good CA18DET right now.

[Ben]

Ok, it's a slight hijack, but Walkingpig won't mind (I hope :classic: ).

see: http://www.versadev.com/ben/HPI Volume 8/ for a sample of the potential that the FJ & RB series are capable of.