RB25DET Rebuild Diary Day 3

First of all, i did not write this. I came across someone named Larry Chen on the net from the car team group-junkies who just recently did a "minor" maintenance on his datsun 240z(260, 280, not entirely sure)with the rb25det engine. All credits goes to him. I am backing up his maintenance diary here, just in case, like all the good tutorials out there goes down.

Stuffs covered in this post:

• Crank angle sensor removal


• Timing chain cover removal

Day 3, Cam Cover Removal and few others.
I said in Day 2 that I would post this photo, it's a photo of the bolts from the intake manifold. I stabbed the bolts through a thin piece of cardboard and labeled them in a way that I could understand where they go back. You don't have to do it this way, but do it in a way that you can remember easily where things to back.

I should have taken this photo in day 2, but this is the other side of the intake manifold, the runners actually look really clean which surprised me.

Measuring the inside diameter of the stock throttle body, I came up with 2 7/16". Multiplying that out by 25.4 to convert it to mm makes this inside diameter a 60mm throttle body. Correct me if i'm wrong on the diameter

A general shot of the area I'm going to work on today.

First the Crank Angle Sensor [CAS]. Three 10mm bolts or a decent Philips head screwdriver should work it out. There is some mild corrosion on the sensor which is just surface. I cleaned this up a bit with a wire brush.

Another angle of the bottom bolt.

If you don't have one of these by now, it's a R33 service manual that covers all of the R33 models. The ECR33, the BNR33 and others. I downloaded if via PDF file and printed all the pages out and dropped them into a binder.

Okay, these three bolts are the top most 8mm bolts on the top timing cover. They sit about midway below the CAS and to the sides. Okay, this is important, the left and right bolts have a grommet on them while the middle one that goes below the two cam gears does not. Sometimes they can crack or fall off, so if you want to spend the few extra cents to replace them, go for it.
Refer to page EN-53 in your R33 Service Manual.

On the top of the timing cover these two long bolts will need to be removed. They do require a 5mm hex key or hex driver socket.

This is also another 8mm bolt, the grommet fell off but I will probably add one here.

On the bottom timing cover, the bolt that is on the left [underneath the water pump] has a 8mm bolt without a grommet. The reason why it doesn't have a grommet is because if you look closely on the timing cover, the dang grommet is still sitting there. Don't make the same mistake I did and overlook this. All timing cover bolts should have a grommet.

The bolt on the other side of the bottom timing cover does have a grommet because it isn't stuck to the cover.

I wanted to hold off taking the CAS until all the timing belt cover were off. Here you can mark the CAS where the bolts were positioned, you can kind of still see the blue from the marker but mark it however so you know where the CAS should go.If it feels a little stuck, lightly wedge a small flat head screwdriver in on the sides and twist, it should pop right out with ease.

This is what a normal CAS should look like when removed.

After the CAS is removed, you can remove the top timing cover.

Put the timing cover in a safe place so you don't step on it or anything. I plan to go powdercoat it, but can't decide on a color yet.

Same thing with the bottom cover, it should be able to removed after all the bolts are off, again store this in a safe place so no one crushes it.

Voila! It's now off. The timing belt seems to be in good shape, but cheap insurance rules go here too. Spend the few bucks to replace the timing belt from Nissan or if you must have the GReddy or Power Enterprise one, feel free.

Timing Belt Part Numbers
GReddy #13524500
Nissan #13028-20P25 [Which should have super ceded part # 13028-20P10]

The arm bracket of the P/S pump. You could remove these two 12mm bolts, but I just wanted to crack them loose in case I wanted to remove them.

You can start to see the shape of the OEM water pump underneath. This will be changed out later with a factory N1 pump.

Same with this bad boy, the OEM oil pump. Still good I'm sure, but I have to make room for my N1 pump somehow, plus more wrenching!

Okay, motor mounts. One problem I quickly noticed was that the thickness of the stock mount on the bottom is thicker than the Brad's mounts on top. A few washers should solve this problem using the stock bolts.

Since the bracket is a tad bit thinner, this motor mount is a bit loosey goosey in there. These mounts will also be powdercoated black to protect itself from the surface rust.

This plug to the right of the mount on underneath the intake is actually for the ground. The new mounts don't really allow for the bolt to go in, so I will shave down the motor mount, or notch it to allow for the ground bolt to go in.

This picture shows the mount in relation to the sump area of the oil pan. For those of you who don't own a S30Z, this might not be a problem. But for me, I will use the RB20 o-ring, oil pickup, and pan out of the 200ZR.

Nissan Part Numbers
11110-20P00 RB20DET Oil Pan (Rear Sump)
15050-20P03 RB20DET Oil Pickup
15059-V5001 RB20DET Oil Pickup O-Ring

Just another photo to remind me of how many oil pan bolts there actually are.

Okay, part of the A/C bracket. Two of the bolts are behind the oil pickup tube.

Another view of one of the tough bolts to get to.

Since I was taking photos of the bracket, I just wanted to take a picture of the stock turbo, since I never really had the chance to take a close peak at it.

The driver side motor mount, it will be removed tomorrow.

The second tough bolt to remove on the P/S bracket.

By removing the two 10mm bolts holding in the oil pickup tube, it will allow you to move it out of the way to remove the P/S bracket.

Just undo the first clamp with a 8mm socket to twist the oil pickup tube out of the way.

Now that it's moved out of the way, I can break the three 14mm bolts loose with a breaker bar and a 14mm socket.

I just tucked the tube underneath the bolt for the A/C bracket while I removed the P/S Bracket.
When reinstalling the oil return tube, torque the bolts to [6.3-8.3]Nm {Newton Meters} or [0.64-0.85 kgm] {Kilogram meters}.

Note: Since the Skyline as we know was never offered in the United States, all of the torque specs will be in NM or KG/M and not in Foot-Lbs as we would like. Luckily my torque wrench has ft/lbs and N/M.

Note: Page EN-130 in the R33 Service Manual.
Stay tuned for day 4!