RB26 vs 2JZ | and WHY the RB26 is MORE ICONIC - ICONIC ENGINES #16
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Published 2021-11-28
The engine I'm talking about is Nissan's RB26 engine. A collection of two letters and two numbers known by virtually every petrol-head on planet earth. Now in today's video we will as always cover the history, specifications and tuning of our engine of choice but in this video we will also be doing something we don't usually do in iconic engines and that is comparing two different engines throughout the video.
Of course you can probably guess what we will be comparing the RB26 with.....yes of course the 2jz from Toyota. Now I haven't read up on the rb26 engine in a pretty long time so when I googled it before making this video to refresh my knowledge on a few things I was very surprised to see that the internet nowadays seems to think that the 2JZ is the better engine and the reason for this seems to be all the 1000hp builds and the 2jzs ability to better cope with obscene power. Now I understand that quarter mile racing is the most popular form of motorsport in United states and probably also in Australia and I understand that these two countries sort of dominate the English speaking internet so I it seems that which matters most in quarter mile racing has somehow trickled down into the shared pool of petrolhead opinions and tainted our minds. Now I love drag racing as much as the next guy and definitely do not intend to diminish the achievements of the 2jz. But there is SO MUCH MORE to an engine than it's ability to not fall apart under ridiculous amounts of boost. Saying engine A is better than engine B because it can survive 1000hp longer is like saying CAR A is better than CAR B because it doesn't overheat as fast when idling at 5000 rpm in the middle of the desert.
So today I'm going to try and enlighten you and explain why as a man of culture you should prefer the RB over the 2JZ.
So the official full engine code of our engine is RB26DETT. 26 is obviously the displacement. 2.6 liters. D is DOHC or dual overhead camshaft, E is electronic fuel injection and the two Ts represent the twin turbos fitted to the engine. So what does RB stand for? Some will tell you it's response and balance or even rhythm and balance. In reality it stands for nothing. It's just two letters designating an engine series like SR, VG, JZ or anything else. But despite this I like to think that RB stands for race bred – because it would really be fitting.
To learn where the RB26 comes from we have to look back at the Japanese Touring Car Championship or JTCC. Now throughout its life the Japanese touring car championship would be held under numerous different regulations, including FIA's Group A regulation and would be known under various different names, but it was always Japan's premiere touring car championship, the cream of the crop for touring car racing in Japan, a place where manufacturers could demonstrate the capabilities of their cars and earn the reputation needed to boost sales. Basically the JTCC, later JGTC and finally Super GT was to Japan and much of Asia what DTM was to Germany and Europe.
Now the 1987 and 1988 seasons of the JTCC were both won by a Ford Sierra RS500 Cosworth and even though Nissan succeeded in winning the 1989 season with the Skyline GTS-R they had realized well before that their car is becoming less and less competitive. It had roughly the same weight but was down on power compared to the Sierra. So well before 1989 Nissan started to work on a car that had one goal: To obliterate the competition in the Japanese touring car championship.
Naganori Ito was appointed as the Chief engineer and Kozo Watanabe as the chief experiment engineer for this project. Now the R32 project was a bit of a personal vendetta for chief engineer Ito. The previous generation of the Skyline, the R31, was seen as a failure from long-time skyline owners, enthusiasts and car critics in Japan and Ito bore the brunt of this criticism. Interestingly enough Ito only had to put his name on the R31 project because he was suddenly assigned to it and asked to finish it due to the fact that the original chief engineer Shinichiro Sakurai had fallen ill.
So to clear his name he insisted to be allowed to lead the R32 project from the very beginning.
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#d4a #iconicengines #rb26
00:00 Men of culture
01:53 History
10:34 Specs
15:07 Tuning
23:11 Cringe
All Comments (21)
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RB26 plug and play: www.aemelectronics.com/products/programmable-engin… Support d4a: driving-4-answers-shop.fourthwall.com/
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"Epic Rap Battles of History!!!!! RB26 vs 2JZZZZZ!" lol. Thanks for your perspective on that and again much appreciate all the effort going into this <3
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Warning: replacing the super obvious yellow marked hose will void your warranty and generate more power. Reminds me of the wine, erm grape juice concentrate bricks, sold in the US during prohibition. They displayed the warning: After dissolving the brick in a gallon of water, do not place the liquid in a jug away in the cupboard for twenty days, because then it would turn into wine.
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I've always felt like the RB was more refined while the 2jZ was more brute force. All in all, I don't get the competition. They're both amazing legendary engines.
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So in conclusion, use the engine designed for your purposes. If you want an engine designed specifically for racing, use the engine designed for that. If you want the engine designed to survive anything (ie high horsepower) then use that. It really is a lesson to take into the wider world, in my opinion. Far too many people want to simplify things down to "x is better" or "you must do y" when there's always benefits and drawbacks for specific applications.
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A really thoroughly researched comparison on these two engines, down here in Australia we absolutely love both of these engines, the RB in both drag racing and touring cars being very successful and the 2J predominantly in drag racing. We have a great after market support base for both engines, yet recently we are falling in love with our own locally designed in line 6 cylinder twin cam turbo engine, the Barra! We are seeing crazy numbers coming out of Barra engines on the dyno, thanks for the great video mate...
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I am glad you mentioned the block castings and bore thickness because the 2jz is absolutely beautiful in that regard. In fact, aside from the stock head ports, the casting is all around better and boasts better head cooling and oil flow. You mentioned the shortcomings of the r32 oil pump, but you neglected to mention that the rb head fails to sufficiently drain the oil out of the head requiring you to port the drain holes and add larger head studs. Often times, people will "fix" the rb's oiling issues with an aftermarket oil pump, often increasing oil pressure and making the head draining issue worse. Even with the stock pump high rpm for extended periods of time can be catastrophic. Also, I find it a bit unfair to even compare it to the Supra, the Skyline chassis is hands down better in every single way. I really like the rb, particularly the rb30, and I love its sound, but to me the 2jz just seems like the "nicer" of the two. But of course if I am going to choose between a Skyline and a Supra I am going to take the Skyline.
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i think most of us can agree that the R32 was really ahead of its time, its really a work of art and its been my fav car ever since i saw it when i was younger
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Actually... I’m fairly certain the “B” part in “RB” stands for the German word for benzene (“benzin”), which ultimately denoted that the engine is petrol powered.... since there is an “RD” engine too which has a D for “Diesel”. Nissan did the same thing to denote the difference with their Patrol motors... e.g. “TB42” for the petrols and “TD42” for the diesel variants. Both of the engine blocks for the RB/RD and the TB/TD are the same block with minor alterations depending on what fuel type it was going to be used for.
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Of course the RB vs 2J battle will go on till people forget both engines ever existed. When I decided on swapping the 13B out of my FC Rx-7 for an inline 6 the reasons you mentioned lead me to an RB26 as the engine of choice. Nothing against 2J's, I looked at 1J's too since they're unarguably great engines, I just didn't need that much strength for a street application. Always loved higher reving engines and the sound of an RB26 just can't be beat.
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The sheer amount of acronyms I learned in this video is more than the acronyms I learned in my whole life Love the info & humor of this channel <3
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As a Aussie the Skyline holds a special place in our motorsport history but I still luv the 2J and Barras. Great Viddy mate!
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It’s been long time accepted that rb stands for ‘ruined bearings’ because of its oiling issues. As a jz and rb owner, jz is overall better built, has less overall issues.
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Nice Video! For your next versus video I would love to see a comparison between the RB25 and the 1JZ. I think this one would be more interesting because they are both 2.5L single turbo monsters. Plus in a way they are more affordable step down versions of these ones.
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Count Dracula! He knows the BLOOD of engines.
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Your presentation does not bore me at all! Simple and no music background, I love it!
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Going to watch right now. Always like your videos. Would love Mercedes vs BMW 6cylinder evolution, not per se which one “better”. Cheers from Belgium.
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Love the way you explain these engines. Would love a video about the 2UR-GSE and it's tuning potential
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I have very stupid question. Where are you from? You have the clearest English I've ever heard and as non-native speaker I really appreciate it in your awesome educative vids. It makes it very easy to understand.
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Learn so much from this guy ! Makes it easy to learn
