Nissan RB20 in commodore

donz01, May 19, 9:52am
Can someone let me know if these motors have a timing belt or chain

howz_that, May 19, 9:54am
belt

donz01, May 19, 10:14am
Cheers for that. Looking at a couple tomorrow.

horsepower7, May 19, 10:14am
good engines!

40wav, May 19, 10:25am
Thought the Commys had the 3 litre in, did they have a 2 litre too!I had a station wagon with the 3 litre in, bloody thing was bullet proof. Really good fun.

bubbles244, May 19, 10:41am
the NZ new ones had the rb20e, however they are the base product of the range, there are ATV's out there with more horse power then an Rb20e.

you want an Rb30 if you can get your hands on one as this particular block you can bolt the 2.5 litre twin cam head to with minor modifications, the largest modification being getting a welder to tig weld shut the oil feed gallery to the hydraulic lifters inside the head. a dozen tui on a friday afternoon should see this done in 5 minutes.

another good tip but not nessasary is to get the head machined down a little to raise compression. this has done wonders to the RB30 as a N/A engine and willgive the ford falcon xr6 a run for its money.

Don't do this if you intend to turbo charge the engine.

Also the Rb30 powered VL commodore has the same diff ratio as the V8 VL commodore, the Rb20e will top out at 170ish due to the diff ratio where as the V8 diff is good for 240 250kph in a track environment.

you will need to upgrade the clutch (if its manual).

our targa VL employs this setup

Everything else is off the shelf parts like the timing belt

The second issue is to change the timing belt for that of a twin cam 1800 cc mazda diesel engine as it is the right length and correct teeth spacing on the belt.

The ECU and AFM from the twin cam head will run fine on the bigger block. If you can not source the correct AFM nissan's interchangability of parts means you can use the AFM and electronic sensors/ parts from the likes of a 1994 front wheel drive cefiro or 1994 ish 3L FWD maxima etc for the N/A setup. Turbo charged stick with the skyline sensors.

donz01, May 19, 10:41am
I have had both 2 and 3 litre sedans. My son wants one and has mind set on a 2 litre and 5 speed. No problems with insurance and cheap enough for a schoolboy to run with his weekend job. I wont let him have a 3 litre one. In saying that i dont even know how to tell the difference between the 2 of them other than the 3 litre goes really well when you put your foot down.

bubbles244, May 19, 10:46am
the difference is the engine with head on of an RB20e will sit below the radiator.

The Rb30 is a taller block with a longer stroke and the rocker cover sits above the level of the radiator

this was an issue with the first run of RB30 powered VL's as it airlocked the water jacket and risked cracking the single cam head.

IF using a twin cam head it does not have the same issue as the head design is different.

P.S. you can however put a twin cam 2.0de(twin cam) head on a Rb20e(single cam) block but not a 2,0 twin cam head on a 3L block

donz01, May 19, 10:50am
He is after reliability not speed so it does not matter how fast it goes as long as he can afford to run it.

kevymtnz, May 19, 10:57am

martin11, May 20, 1:01am
Did not holden put there own head on the block ! If I am right it used to crack them

bubbles244, May 20, 2:15am
.

No they cracked because the cross flow radiator was lower then the water gallery's in the head, any loss in fluid resulted in an airlocked head, this is why only the RB30 suffered from this not the Rb20.

The rocker cover was made in aussie, the rest is all nissan.