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Thread: How much power can a rb30 take?

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    cohn's Avatar
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    Default How much power can a rb30 take?

    I'm getting my rb30 rebuilt, balanced and blue printed with hypertech liqiud fordged pistons, and new head and cradle studs with a metal sheet head gasket.
    I was wondering what the maximum rpm is recomended for the rb30's how much power can they take before it pops?
    What can a standard non turbo oil pump feed up to with a turbo? i have already up the pressure int eh oil pump, is it worth it to get a new high flow n1 pump?
    Also considering shot peened and polished rods or H-beams. Are they worth the extra money if i want about 400 - 500 rwhp?

    Any information would be much appreciated.

    Thankyou.
    Colin.
    Soon to be back on the road, Turbo VG.

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    how much power it will 'handle' really mostly depends on your tune. - if you get a bit of pinging on stock pistons, they're much more likely to break than forged items.

    Up until you're getting detonation, there's not that much power handling difference....

    Essentially, you go with forged pistons for reliability in case you DO get a bit of pinging on 25psi @ 6000rpm

    Apparently many people have pulled 500hp figures with the stock rods, just shotpeened and fitted with aftermarket ARP bolts (from what I hear there needs to be a bit of machining done to fit these?!)

    but consider that after resizing, balancing, shotpeening, rod bolts etc, you are probably about 100 bux off a set of forged H-beams that will take a pounding

    balancing is a given in a performance application. Make sure you get everything balanced together (along with harmonic balancer and flex plate)

    Rumour has it that the RB30 suffers from a 'non balance related harmonics issue' at 7500 - 7750 rpm or so (if held there for a bit) - but there's no real need to rev it this high anyway.

    As for the oil pump, I've decided to go with a genuine vl turbo one for my motor. The N1/gtr ones are made to supply enough oil volume to lube an extra cam and an extra turbo, I thought this might cause issues... the other thing is that the N1/GTR pumps will require you to machine/replace the oil pump drive collar on your crank - from what I understand the pumps are slightly different in terms of their drive, and fitting an N1/GTR pump with a non-modified rb30 crank can cause sheering of the drive gear at high rpm ( = disaster).

    I spoke to the guys at JPC, they said they fit the stock (new/rebuilt) rb30et pumps to all their cars. - they sell for about 550-580 dorra, depending on where you go.

    There's a fair few people that are running 300rwkw (not hp) or thereabouts on pretty basic setups (stock exhaust manifold, 35/40 internally gated, stock intake manifold, forged slugs, shotpeened rods, cam, o-ringed block or MLS gasket, head studs)

    Check out what some of the boys on calaisturbo.com.au have achieved power wise, some of which are pretty basic or even ex-N/A high comp setups !

    also keep in mind that for the price of building one kickass motor, you can probably afford to go through 10 stock motors, if you're handy with a hoist
    Last edited by VN_Luke; 15-11-2007 at 11:20 PM.

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    ive seen a few bog stock n/a high comp setups make 180rwkw lol
    wrecking VL COMMODORE 5 speed
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    Thanks for that luke, that has helped me abit.
    I'm getting a new flex plate and harmonic balancer anyways so they should be sweet.

    I see your making a bit more progress with yours, shouldn't be long now and it's looking good.
    Soon to be back on the road, Turbo VG.

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    Quote Originally Posted by VLDavo View Post
    ive seen a few bog stock n/a high comp setups make 180rwkw lol
    you can make more then that, i wouldnt go much over 250rwkw on a stock n/a bottom end tho

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dose Pipe View Post
    you can make more then that, i wouldnt go much over 250rwkw on a stock n/a bottom end tho
    lol yea but they dont seem to last long
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    'o' ring the deck if you're running high boost.

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