Purchased in mid-2003 from a friend, this maroon executive is the subject of an ongoing budget-based project. Being a frugal uni student with not a lot of money to play around with, I picked it up for a good price and immediately set about fixing all the little problems with it. Gearbox troubles, vibrating tailshafts and the like were gradually fixed by myself until the car was just the way i liked it. Running much smoother with the addition of a stage II shift kit and a set of lowered king springs, the car is much nicer to drive now! All modifications and maintenance have been performed by myself (including the shift kit and suspension) to keep costs down. The mandatory extractors and 2.5 inch exhaust have taken the place of the standard exhaust system, giving an unreal note to the RB30.
As the time of writing this article, a custom drive pulley to drive an SC-14 toyota supercharger was being fabricated, along with a custom-ground Tighe cam to increase low-mid range response. Along with the (expected) 6 pounds of boost, cam change and 5 speed manual conversion, I hope to achieve 120-130 rwkw. All this on a total budget of just over $1000! If the blower setup works well I am considering selling mounting kits to suit the supercharger. More pics and details will be put up as soon as I have the forced induction side of things taken care of!
And no, mags didn't ever enter into my budget...... my philosophy is "If it doesn't make the car go faster or handle better, i'm not going to do it." This decision may be based as much upon monetary constraints as it is upon loathing of ricers.
Some original photos have not been recovered yet.
you've done it all!?!?! why didn't you tell me! i could be boosting now! right now! okay i'll come pay your sorry ass this friday and pick it all up. you want a carton for the pulley or what? cam was like 150+ or something. let me know how much exactly.....
oi and andy, i can't get the goddam pinstripe off, it's stuck on like nothing i've ever seen before.... is there a trick to it? stupid original paintwork.....
hehe, the best part is that i can't afford decent stuff for my car, but it will still beat your hunk of crap when it's finished. hell, my exhaust is currently held on with 6 zip ties at the rear, only because i couldn't afford 7, or even 8!
UPDATE: the engine bay now looks like this:
and the blower setup is working very well indeed. for more info on the engine bay gear, have a read of this (http://www.calaisturbo.com.au/showthread.php?t=24194) thread.
XCTMNT: yes the car sits on King Lows, not superlows. i know because i put them in myself. the pics are taken from below the midline of the car so it looks very high. in real life it is a lot lower.
Some original photos have not been recovered yet.
Thanks neno, project twin compressors is in its early stages at the moment, the car will soon have a 3 inch exhaust, next step is some programmable engine management and a decent front mount. At the time of writing this, i have finally fixed my belt problems with the addition of an idler pulley to the top part of the blower drive belt. It significantly dampens out the belt shake and feeds cleanly onto the blower now.
From here it's engine rebuild time, with turbo pistons in a fresh block, a custom plenum along with some GTR injectors will be fitted. With fuel delivery taken care of, the serious part of the forced induction can take place. At the moment looking at a To4E or a T70 turbocharger with a 1.00 (large) exhaust housing or something similar.
Mounted on a standard VLT exhaust manifold (high-mount custom if i can afford it) the large turbocharger will feed straight into the blower, the intake charge then being fed into the front mount for a bit of cooling. If i can keep boost pressure above exhaust back pressure by 3-4 psi i will be happy, looking to achieve 200-250rwkw with little or no lag. Final peak power output is irrelevant though, the car must be streetable for me to be happy with it.
The only object now is money.
still tossing up whether or not to grab a block and have it rebuilt with turbo internals and slowly do up the other parts of the car or just buy a VLT with lots of mods and add the blower. the first option i would prefer, just to learn more about the car and know that it was all done properly, but the second option is going to be a lot cheaper in the long run.
decisions, decisions......
buying a heavily modded VLT may be the way to go, i can just sell the turbo off and buy something larger (thinking a T-70 or TO4-E with a 1.22 exhaust housing or something, a bit of trial and error will come into exhaust housing choice i think) if it comes to that.
the great thing about a twin charged setup is that exhaust back pressure is lower than boost pressure pretty much all the time, because the turbo is only pushing say 12 psi into the blower, which is then turning that into 16 psi. low load on the turbo = less back pressure, and if the intake charge pressure is greater than exhaust back pressure, you stay well away from pinging due to exhaust gas entrapment in the cylinder.
there's 3-4 psi of boost available right off idle, and this extra exhaust gas spins the turbo up very early, hence very little lag.
i'll have a bit more of a think about it but i may end up selling my current car, buying a dunger runaround and saving a further 6-7 grand over time. then i can pay 12-13g's for a beast VLT and fit the huffer. a bit of a retune would be needed, but the end result would be fun i think.....
