here a question how many blocks did you smashing working out what worked? if you would like to email me heaps of photos i would be happy to post them [email removed]

I would be more than happy to do an engine for a customer and also have many new parts for RB30's. I ran a racing program so had many engine spares, and have all of the facilities to build and inspect etc. Obviously many new products are available today as well. More suited though to someone who wanted to pick up where we left off, and have a dedicated race car with an RB engine in it, maybe with a particular class in mind. Maybe even someone that I could mentor and help get their car to be competitive and in the winners circle. Maybe even my old class. I also still have an 11m FRP gooseneck racing trailer that I will be putting on the market soon. I will try and collect some pics to send to you ANK. Thanks.

great i look forward to the email here is another 300 built by johny lang Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

We damaged some parts during racing but not too many. We never cracked a block - ever. Most of our blocks were sleeved before use and we ensured we did not detonate the cylinders. Detonation is one of the worst enemies - and many people don't know it is happening. Especially in a race car where knock sensors are of no use due to so many solidly mounted components. That is one of the reasons we are developing an internal combustion pressure analyser, which shows the pressure in the cylinder recorded using a purpose built data recorder sampling at 80,000 samples per second. We have already obtained good results on a couple of Top Doorslammers. Back to the RB's though, we also had very good oiling systems and also changed the standard block oil gallery arrangements. Oiling and torsional vibration were always the challenge but we solved both. Torsional vibration is an inherent part of an in line six cylinder engine's harmonics, even though it has zero free forces in the first and second order, and zero free moments in the first and second order - unlike any other common engine except the flat six with opposed sets of three cylinders, and the V12 with 60 degree crank angle. Often, people don't know they are experiencing this problem until something breaks or wears badly, like the main bearings, the thrust faces, the crank snout to harmonic balancer connection, or bolts start coming loose everywhere. Sometimes things run perfectly and people will be lucky to get away with their engine running well and at high power levels. But the above problems often surface when you try and run cnsistently at high power levels - and will often manifest themselves under disguise. That's when tracking the problem can be difficult with many people trying to cure the symptoms and not the cause.

You have a wealth of knowledge my friend, I just sat here reading with great interest with what you have written. Hope to see you at the race track soon and hopefully your experience is used to further enhance the RB30 and take it to never forseen levels. Quote: Originally Posted by ANK great i look forward to the email here is another 300 built by johny lang Johny Lang has built some tough cars in his time. Can't wait to see this 300 and the race VL he just built ready to rumble Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

Amen to that! This thread is the reason why I still read CT on a regular basis.

right.. i found where the video used to be hosted however it is no longer there BUT i think i have it on cd at home.. will check tonight.

Quote: Originally Posted by SRP I would be more than happy to do an engine for a customer and also have many new parts for RB30's. I ran a racing program so had many engine spares, and have all of the facilities to build and inspect etc. Obviously many new products are available today as well. More suited though to someone who wanted to pick up where we left off, and have a dedicated race car with an RB engine in it, maybe with a particular class in mind. Maybe even someone that I could mentor and help get their car to be competitive and in the winners circle. Maybe even my old class. I also still have an 11m FRP gooseneck racing trailer that I will be putting on the market soon. I will try and collect some pics to send to you ANK. Thanks. what sort of engine spares do you stock peter for instance aftermarket parts etc.

i would love u to mentor me , like morgo, this is the most exciting stuff i've read on CT in years! thought about writing a book about the rb30? lol think every person on this site and skyline sites would buy it! Some original photos have not been recovered yet.

*waits for srp to come to come online* ps you got a nice little write up in the new zoom mag

amazing thread, really inspired me for some reason lol.

Quote: Originally Posted by AFG-WPN amazing thread, really inspired me for some reason lol. I have enjoyed the conversations. Haven't particularly joined any of these type of threads before as haven't been really that bothered, but it has been good. I'll try and answer some of these questions as best i can. Someone said that we weren't particularly that forthcoming with information during our racing days. That is a fair comment as we put in a lot of effort (and money etc) into learning what we did, and we were in the thick of racing competition. We weren't trying to be secretive, and never gave anyone incorrect information. We just didn't volunteer lots of information when we didn't need to. That is all part of staying competitive in a highly competitive environment. Particularly when you are racing what is the 'odd one out' type of engine ie a japanese turbo engine in a US V8 dominated environment. Re Zoom magazine article, I am looking forward to reading that. That is a very informative magazine. Re engine spares, I have lots of stuff. But as I said, it would suit someone wanting to pick up where I left off. I beleive the RB30 engine platform has much potential still. I know other in-line engines have been chosen for really high power outputs, and the VQ has been eyed as the next generation of Nissan high performance product. What amazed me is the performance that could be achieved with an in-line six and with a two valve head (in RB30 form). The 2 valve head arrangement is not really the limitation on turbo engine performance, with all other things being equal. The BMW F1 Megatron engine made 1250HP or so, at 1.5 litre capacity, with 4 tiny inlet ports that were much more restrictive than the RB intake. The real limitation is engine rpm, which can be achieved at a higher limit with 4V than 2V. We maxed out at 10,200rpm in 2V format using roller rocker head gear and solid lifter camshaft/lifters since 1988. Each set of 6 roller rockers cost us $3000 to have made on a CNC back then. That was $6000 for a full set, with one spare back rocker and one spare front rocker. that was a lot of money back in those days. Now, with CNC equipment everywhere, it's all no big deal. As I mentioned earlier, one of the main things to cure is torsional vibration. at one stage, we had so much torsional vibration that it was causing thrust mearing issues. We even made a needle roller thrust bearing onto the front of the crank, inside the oil pump housing and replacing the oil pump gears. That was to complement the standard thrust bearing arrangements and was totally adjustabl;e, such that the neddle roller thrust could be made to take the load first, last or at the same time as the bearing thrust. Remember the engine was dry sumped. However, that didn't cure the cause, only the symptoms. The real cure was found in the harmonic balancer type. We used one from a John Deere tractor (small viscous fluid damper). Now, there are a number of torsional vibration dampening 'balancers' that do the same job and are available in the aftermarket. Someone else asked about the block cracking. With good preparation, lots of effort in deburring and making sure the engine is always sealed by painting with a glyptol type paint, that RB30 block will take some punichment. It is deep skirted as you know, with lots of stiffening cast bracing. the block can actually be braced further with an external 'cradle' tying together the key stress points. the other point to keep in mind is how the block is mounted in the car. In our race car, we solidly mounted the engine to the chassis (ours was dual rail to the front of the car) using the standard engine mounting location. The reason for this is that by mounting a longitudinal engine by using motor plates at the front and back, the engine will have to take the full torsional load of the engine and the chassis from front to back - with the moment applied to the full length of the block. Hence there will be the greatest strain and for engines that are not designed for large strain (unlike some of the racing cosworth engines) then you will have greater bore distortion in the central cylinders and often compression leakage or worse- cracking. Mind you, lots of people use front motor plates, but they will get more distortion. If the engine type, block and cylinder sealing system can handle it, then you won't notice or have any problems. But watch out for the symptoms like greater central cyclinder leakdown/egt variances or lower cylinder pressures if this is being monitored. I'll tell you more about exhaust gas temperatures some other day, but suffice to say, that when everything is running well in the engine, the egt's should all be the same from front to back of the engine. some people are happy with a few hundred degrees variation (deg F). I can tell you that when our engine was running at its peak, all six EGT's would plot up as one single thick line and you coudn't tell which was which. for most people that have run egt data recording, they thought we were joking until we showed them the data. Anyway, enough chatter for now. Cheers. Peter

great reading peter. instead of beating around the bush i will just ask im sure im not the only person wanting to know this who is reading. if one were to say purchase a complete turn key engine from you and as you mentioned take off from where you guys left off then what sort of dollar set back are we talking about here for a complete turn key engine package to your specifications also interested to know would you go with current efi and twin cam technology or would you stick with the old single cam and mechanical injection type setup which you obviously know a great deal about and had great success with. one other question i know you have mentioned a great deal about block strength and preparation but were you guys running a resin/grout filled engine block or did you guys run a normal water filled block as from what i know half the quickest rbs currently racing use water and the other half use grout filled.

Quote: Originally Posted by GMHBT1 great reading peter. instead of beating around the bush i will just ask im sure im not the only person wanting to know this who is reading. if one were to say purchase a complete turn key engine from you and as you mentioned take off from where you guys left off then what sort of dollar set back are we talking about here for a complete turn key engine package to your specifications also interested to know would you go with current efi and twin cam technology or would you stick with the old single cam and mechanical injection type setup which you obviously know a great deal about and had great success with. one other question i know you have mentioned a great deal about block strength and preparation but were you guys running a resin/grout filled engine block or did you guys run a normal water filled block as from what i know half the quickest rbs currently racing use water and the other half use grout filled. My last post for tonight/this morning. We never used grout and wanted to run water to achieve good cylinder water circulation and cooling. The RB block is quite supported along its length because of the high positioning of the floor of the water gallery between cylinders. But that's not to say that partial grout filling won't help if you have a particular problem you are trying to solve. Re type of engines, it depends on what people need. If they want to race in ANDRA Super Stock DD gas classes, then you would have a mechanical fuel injected engine run on methanol for maximum advantage. An updated version of the engine i raced would be so far under the current index as to render the car in the top positions from the start. even the 2001 engine would do that in my view. But why stop there! There are plenty of classes for efi competition and if that is what you wanted to race, then you would have efi. It certainly has many advantages. the mechanical injection system is only for those running methanol and for class racing where everyone else has to have it. the reason for that is few can actually get it to work properly, and if you can, that is where you get the advantage over others. As to cost, well that of course depends on what someone wants and you can't quote it until you do. What I have is a full set of engines, spares, parts etc for 2 valve engine competition drag racing - even a race trailer as I said before. Mechanical injection on methanol setup is fully there. For 4V efi, well you would use the relevant new components and custom design and build (and source) to suit whatever was the objective. I haven't actively tried to sell anything to date, but do want to sell my trailer and will be advertising it soon. As I said before, if someone wanted to go racing and have some help in getting there, and wanted to do it with an RB, well then I have lots of parts and a bit of experience and knowledge that would be relevant in this area. Again, this is more of an idea at the moment rather than anything else. It is nice to see so many passionate people for the RB series of engines and all wanting to excel in their performances. It reminds me of my somewhat younger days when I had the time to spend 24/7 thinking, planning and doing racing. Now it would be more appropriate to help someone else pursue their objectives.

i dont know if its just your writing style or what but reading this makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. you have put a lot of **** to bed for me and saved me and others countless tens of thousands of dollars in a few short posts. in all honesty, we should be the ones supporting you to get back into racing not the other way round.

Quote: Originally Posted by GMHBT1 2rismo mate i have been checking my local newsagency daily and that mag isnt out yet whats the go. It came out on shelves a week ago. If your local doesn't have it by now try somewhere else, mate. This is the best thread on CT.

Quote: Originally Posted by 2rismo It came out on shelves a week ago. If your local doesn't have it by now try somewhere else, mate. This is the best thread on CT. whats your email sweet heart i have some photos for you

Quote: Originally Posted by ANK whats your email sweet heart i have some photos for you [email removed]

good to hear a side of the story in regards to r&d of the car!! top effort on the car!

Quote: Originally Posted by ipg i dont know if its just your writing style or what but reading this makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. you have put a lot of **** to bed for me and saved me and others countless tens of thousands of dollars in a few short posts. in all honesty, we should be the ones supporting you to get back into racing not the other way round. Well, I have volunteered some key pieces of information learned over many years of experience, research, trial and error and whatever other system of learning you can think of. I haven't ever put this in writing in such a way, or to magazines over the years. There is much much more of this information of course. I am glad that at least a few people have found it useful. Or at least a reasonable read up until now. I know that when I was younger (not that you ever stop learning, but as you get older, you do it in different ways) I use to search around for information and the conflicting advice and opinions were always bewildering. Sometimes, it causes you to even challenge advice that is coming from people you have come to know and respect. Often, straying from that source was a mistake - learned the hard way. In the early days of the domestic turbo racing era, few people actually had command of the knowledge that is needed to provide good advice and make good choices. I can see that now but couldn't then. I learned most from using my own engineering background and calculating things from first principles - using physics, thermodynamics and fluid flow theory. Then, it was like a revelation that the translation of that calculated theory into practical application (ie on race day) was perfect. I mean absolutely perfect. So that is when you could start to design your own control systems - fuel systems, boost, launch control, applying the power to varying track conditions etc - and then you could test it while racing to validate the response. We also had probably the best data logging equipment in Australia at the time in terms of the number of sensors - 16 egts's, 5 pressures, 6 rpms's, 2 heated element lambdas, 4 fuel flowmeters, 4 positions, 6 strain guages, and a few special ones. So we always knew when things were really working or not, and why. The why is the hardest part. We struggled with the why quite a few times, but eventually the data was talking to us. We just couldn't see the message. That is one of the hardest parts of interpreting information from data recording devices. I often say to people that if you look at the date and think about what it is showing you carefully, more often than not the answer is there. Re the reading material again, I must say that the company that I was going to be working with for a new race car project (before it was bought-out) had actually suggested that there would be great demand for such knowledge, and we were going to run a site based on providing advice to customers on how to apply the products they made. It was a good idea. I think I would have been made to be very busy - as well as trying to race. Cheers. Good reading.