The Castrol Syntec Top Shop Challenge has become a classic game of teams and magazine staff scrambling to see who is building what type of engine and how much power they plan to make. We're not the type to beat around the bush, so we'll come out and let them, as well as our readers, know we're building our RB26DETT engine to eclipse the 1,000-plus horsepower marker without breaking a sweat.
Sure, it's been done before. The RB26DETT motors have been known to hit the 600hp marker with simple bolt-on goodies but for competition purposes and looking to score big in the "Power Under The Curve" category, SP Engineering and Turbo magazine devised a plan to build a solid motor that can deliver some reputable numbers while withstanding more than a few simple passes on the engine dyno. As we begin part one of our engine build, SP Engineering will be focusing on the RB26 cylinder head port and prepping process. The common misconception is that porting requires the ports to be as big and round as possible. Yes, producing good airflow through the cylinder head and out of the exhaust port is essential in producing big power. However, over-porting will cause an irregularity in velocity and air speed, causing the car to become sluggish at bottom to midrange power, which makes the car nearly impossible to drive on the street. Hirofumi Kondo, chief mechanic of SP Engineering takes us through the steps in building the SP Engineering/ Turbo magazine RB26DETT, destined to dominate the Castrol Syntec Top Shop Challenge. In our next issue, we'll cover the bottom end buildup and what it takes to deliver 1,000-plus horsepower.
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