Excuse my ignorance...What is the deal with theses rb engines that i keep hearing about. I'm not familiar with these models, but it seems that everyone is getting really good performance out of them. Can anybody explain..?

i'll try to shed a bit of light on the topic!

the most common rbs are the rb20det, rb25det, rb30et & the rb26dett

they come from the skyline r32, r33, VL commodore and the skyline GTR (they all have the same engine) respectively. But are also found in quite a number of other cars.

they're an extremely well built engine, lots will argue they're one of the best in the world to come out of japan. All easily taken to very high power figures on stock internals. They are all an inline six, dual overhead cam turbo engine. the rb26 being a twin turbo.

There are also a couple different versions of most of these engines. The different engine variants are usually marked out by a different colored rocker cover, especially with the early rb20det.

Differences between them are mainly to do with the intake, computer and turbo.

at any rate the engines love to be modified and fit under the bonnet of a zed quite nicely. And as they're all of nissan manufacture more purist zed fans dont mind the conversion.

If u want some power figures, etc I can hunt up a site I know of if you want?

and sadly, getting these engines in America might be a bit tricky as I'm not sure how they go for smog regulations and the skylines were never sold at dealers over there.

Hope that helps!

A good web site would be great. I appreciate your help...Now do how many hp or torque does each put out. Keep in mind that I have no idea what whp vs hp is ,so how much real power is each putting out?

a good generic resource site that i use is www.skylinesdownunder.com .. obviously australian based, but it has a decent resource base and a good forum!

check out their links, as there will be plenty of good ones in there.. but thats as good a place as any to start your searching!

and dont let me discourage you by saying they're hard to come by in America, there are quite a few RB powered Zs lurking across the USA!

these power/torque figures are what they make in their original engine.. i'll use the latest model of each.. and yeah.. its in kw not hp..

RB20det - 160kw @ 6400rpm & 263nm @ 3200rpm

RB25det - 187kw @ 6400rpm & 295 @ 4800rpm

RB26dett - 206kw @ 6800rpm & 368nm @ 4400rpm

these specs may be a bit off.. but thats what i've got!

all of these engines are very hardy, and the rb20det can be pushed to 200rwkw without touching the factory ecu or internals

RB30ET - 150kw @ 5600rpm & 296nm @ 3200rpm (SOHC from VL Commodore)

The rb26dett can reach 600hp (flywheel) with out touching the internals, 400hp (ish) just from changing the exhaust and ecu.

The RB20DET runs at 10psi standard where as the others run at 7psi standard

there are parts avaliable from other cars that allow for a direct bolt up conversion for Z's (RB26DETT requires one modification)