Now, I have never owned a Nissan in my whole life, but I have quite a few friends and ive worked on quite a few RB engined cars, so this is just my unbiased, outside view on them, im gonna keep it basic, like everything, so nobody gets confused.
First off, the RB20DET by Nissan went in a range of cars, from the best of my knowledge and in New Zealand, the most common are, Skylines, Cefiro's and Laurel's you also see a few Silvia's with RB20DETS in them, but they never came with it from factory.
The RB20DET is a 2 litre, twin cam, turbo-charged inline six cylinder motor, produced by Nissan, and has become extremely popular, due to its reliabilty and easy upgrades.
It makes 158 kW (215 PS) @ 3200 rpm, with its short stroke, it can easily make some big rev's, with the standard redline starting at 7000rpm which isnt bad at all.
The sound of an RB20DET screaming at full rev's is something crazy to hear, with a great exhaust it really does sound fantastic.
Now onto what I think of the engines, well lets start with the bad first of all.
The stock turbo I think is pretty weak, you can raise up the boost but its not very good and quite undersized, most people upgrade to an RB25DET turbo which is a good improvement or a aftermarket T3/T4 which is also good, but a bit more costly, I have seen a RB20DET with a T70 turbo once, I cant even imagine the lag on that, ive heard that the lag is still quite horrible on a stock RB25DET with that turbo, so you would have to be crazy to put it on a 20!
The standard exhaust isnt anything great either, its very undersized and really does need to be upgraded, but the WORST part is the standard dump pipe, its not the size thats the main issue but where the stock wastegate opens on the turbo, the exhaust just flies out and into a wall and gets pushed down into the regular exhaust, this is such a bad design flaw.
I can see it causing boost creep (the turbo not being able to redirect enough exhaust, so the boost keeps rising as the turbo keeps getting more exhaust flow through it) when raising the boost, an aftermarket dump pipe is the biggest priority when upgraded the exhaust, even if you just did that and nothing else, it would still be an upgrade of sorts, but a full system is always a great idea with these.
How Nissan should have done it:
The standard intake system is appauling to say the least, lets start with the stock intercooler.
Its very undersized and its called a 'side mount' because it sits not infront of the radiator but behind it and too the side of the engine, it does have a vent to make sure it gets a bit of cold air (im pretty sure) but still, its a terrible design.
The last thing on the intake that sucks is the factory blow off valve, its basic as hell, I mean sure if your gonna be running factory boost and doing very minimal mods, then its ok, but I think its a great idea to get rid of it as soon as you start messing with your boost and expecially if your upgrading the turbo, ive heard standard SR20DET bov's work well, but honestly, I think your better off just getting a good aftermarket one just to be safe.
Now the last big thing, and one the biggest put off's of the RB's is the coilpacks, they sit between the rocker covers and these things are SO unreliable, most people take the cover off so they dont overheat but they still manage too, these are often upgraded to better aftermarket coilpacks or people just say 'to hell with this!' and buy a wasted spark setup from things like commodore and mitsi's and im pretty sure you can get aftermarket ones too, this setup is way more simple and allows you to put the coilpacks miles away from the engine and is much more reliable.
The one other thing I dont really like is the crank driven fan for the radiator, it means that its always going and it seems like a pretty unscientific way to cool the car, this is something most people take off and replace with aftermarket electric fans which will improve power as that big fan must take quite a bit of power away from the motor having to turn it.
Now, since ive got all that out of the way, lets look on the bright side at some of the good things about the RB20DET's.
They have oil squirters that squirt oil onto the bottom of the pistons and the cylinder walls, I think this is a great idea, and I think it provides that bit of extra protection when your thrashing it.
I love that the internals of the car are pretty strong from factory and can handle some high boost without blowing anything, the cast iron block is heavy but strong and these things can handle 14psi on a RB25DET turbo all day long, its not the best ive heard of, the 4AGZE is still the best built (internally) engine of this era in my opinion but the RB20DET's are certainly reliable in this area.
The biggest thing I like about them and I guess for alot of people, is how easy they are to upgrade.
Do a full exhaust system, a turbo upgrade, a full intake system (bov, front mounted intercooler and front facing plenum) maybe upgrade the fuel system a bit, chip the ECU with an aftermarket chip (another benefit the RB20DET's have over the 25DETS is being able to chip the factory ECU) and off you go.
With this sort of setup and decently high boost, you can expect around the 200rwkw range on high octane petrol, I think this is a testiment to how good they are, and its not very expensive to do this, I would say $2000 budget would EASILY have this done, you could do it for alot less if you knew people and bought parts second hand etc
Overall opinion: I think the RB20DET is a good engine with some basic flaws that put people off but once youve ironed out these creese's and upgraded it a bit, then you will have a fantastic engine that puts out fun power with reliability, and its a engine that you could use everyday, without having to worry, if you just want a cheap fun nissan thats easy to upgrade and you can use everyday, a car with a RB20DET is a damn good opition in my opinion.
First off, the RB20DET by Nissan went in a range of cars, from the best of my knowledge and in New Zealand, the most common are, Skylines, Cefiro's and Laurel's you also see a few Silvia's with RB20DETS in them, but they never came with it from factory.
The RB20DET is a 2 litre, twin cam, turbo-charged inline six cylinder motor, produced by Nissan, and has become extremely popular, due to its reliabilty and easy upgrades.
It makes 158 kW (215 PS) @ 3200 rpm, with its short stroke, it can easily make some big rev's, with the standard redline starting at 7000rpm which isnt bad at all.
The sound of an RB20DET screaming at full rev's is something crazy to hear, with a great exhaust it really does sound fantastic.
Now onto what I think of the engines, well lets start with the bad first of all.
The stock turbo I think is pretty weak, you can raise up the boost but its not very good and quite undersized, most people upgrade to an RB25DET turbo which is a good improvement or a aftermarket T3/T4 which is also good, but a bit more costly, I have seen a RB20DET with a T70 turbo once, I cant even imagine the lag on that, ive heard that the lag is still quite horrible on a stock RB25DET with that turbo, so you would have to be crazy to put it on a 20!
The standard exhaust isnt anything great either, its very undersized and really does need to be upgraded, but the WORST part is the standard dump pipe, its not the size thats the main issue but where the stock wastegate opens on the turbo, the exhaust just flies out and into a wall and gets pushed down into the regular exhaust, this is such a bad design flaw.
I can see it causing boost creep (the turbo not being able to redirect enough exhaust, so the boost keeps rising as the turbo keeps getting more exhaust flow through it) when raising the boost, an aftermarket dump pipe is the biggest priority when upgraded the exhaust, even if you just did that and nothing else, it would still be an upgrade of sorts, but a full system is always a great idea with these.
How Nissan should have done it:
The standard intake system is appauling to say the least, lets start with the stock intercooler.
Its very undersized and its called a 'side mount' because it sits not infront of the radiator but behind it and too the side of the engine, it does have a vent to make sure it gets a bit of cold air (im pretty sure) but still, its a terrible design.
The last thing on the intake that sucks is the factory blow off valve, its basic as hell, I mean sure if your gonna be running factory boost and doing very minimal mods, then its ok, but I think its a great idea to get rid of it as soon as you start messing with your boost and expecially if your upgrading the turbo, ive heard standard SR20DET bov's work well, but honestly, I think your better off just getting a good aftermarket one just to be safe.
Now the last big thing, and one the biggest put off's of the RB's is the coilpacks, they sit between the rocker covers and these things are SO unreliable, most people take the cover off so they dont overheat but they still manage too, these are often upgraded to better aftermarket coilpacks or people just say 'to hell with this!' and buy a wasted spark setup from things like commodore and mitsi's and im pretty sure you can get aftermarket ones too, this setup is way more simple and allows you to put the coilpacks miles away from the engine and is much more reliable.
The one other thing I dont really like is the crank driven fan for the radiator, it means that its always going and it seems like a pretty unscientific way to cool the car, this is something most people take off and replace with aftermarket electric fans which will improve power as that big fan must take quite a bit of power away from the motor having to turn it.
Now, since ive got all that out of the way, lets look on the bright side at some of the good things about the RB20DET's.
They have oil squirters that squirt oil onto the bottom of the pistons and the cylinder walls, I think this is a great idea, and I think it provides that bit of extra protection when your thrashing it.
I love that the internals of the car are pretty strong from factory and can handle some high boost without blowing anything, the cast iron block is heavy but strong and these things can handle 14psi on a RB25DET turbo all day long, its not the best ive heard of, the 4AGZE is still the best built (internally) engine of this era in my opinion but the RB20DET's are certainly reliable in this area.
The biggest thing I like about them and I guess for alot of people, is how easy they are to upgrade.
Do a full exhaust system, a turbo upgrade, a full intake system (bov, front mounted intercooler and front facing plenum) maybe upgrade the fuel system a bit, chip the ECU with an aftermarket chip (another benefit the RB20DET's have over the 25DETS is being able to chip the factory ECU) and off you go.
With this sort of setup and decently high boost, you can expect around the 200rwkw range on high octane petrol, I think this is a testiment to how good they are, and its not very expensive to do this, I would say $2000 budget would EASILY have this done, you could do it for alot less if you knew people and bought parts second hand etc
Overall opinion: I think the RB20DET is a good engine with some basic flaws that put people off but once youve ironed out these creese's and upgraded it a bit, then you will have a fantastic engine that puts out fun power with reliability, and its a engine that you could use everyday, without having to worry, if you just want a cheap fun nissan thats easy to upgrade and you can use everyday, a car with a RB20DET is a damn good opition in my opinion.
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