rd28T rebuilt

[zjuul]

hi everyone,

I have bought this week a used rd28t engine. the plan is to rebuilt the whole thing and tune it up to get the most out of it (I want to get as close as possible to the 200bhp). than will I replace my stock engine whit this one. the most of you wil think wtf just put an td42 in it and start with that, well, the td42 is never imported in belgium so there are only rd28t's here.

what do I want to do?
- the first thing that I will do is take the thing appart and renew it inside.
- I want to get a better look to the cooling system en try to solve the problem as much as possible, cause that is the biggest problem with this engines. the mechanical water pump will get out and the thermostat as wel. I want to make it full electrical with a pump that turns on when the engine is hot and that keeps pumping a few more minutes after shut down the engine.
- I want also to change the turbo system and maybe thinking of biturbo.
- put a water to air intercooler on it.
- ...

are there guys on the forum that did a rebuilt on a rd28t and can give me some tips or tricks to do the job?
I also looking for a alternative for the head gasket, is there any possibility to put a stronger one in it than the stock one? what can I do with it so it wont blow out annymore so easy? a full steel gasket?

thanks already
grts out of belgium
zjuul

[threedogs]

Someone just did a re build and were very impressed with the final result.
went better than new, Davis-Craig sell electric water pumps and may be worth looking at.
Why not get a copper head gasket laser cut, just a thought

[zjuul]

yeah, I was also thinking of a copper one. but how can you be sure that it is 100% flat?

[threedogs]

If its annealed it should be OK

[Wine_maker]

hi everyone,

I have bought this week a used rd28t engine. the plan is to rebuilt the whole thing and tune it up to get the most out of it (I want to get as close as possible to the 200bhp). than will I replace my stock engine whit this one. the most of you wil think wtf just put an td42 in it and start with that, well, the td42 is never imported in belgium so there are only rd28t's here.

what do I want to do?
- the first thing that I will do is take the thing appart and renew it inside.
- I want to get a better look to the cooling system en try to solve the problem as much as possible, cause that is the biggest problem with this engines. the mechanical water pump will get out and the thermostat as wel. I want to make it full electrical with a pump that turns on when the engine is hot and that keeps pumping a few more minutes after shut down the engine.
- I want also to change the turbo system and maybe thinking of biturbo.
- put a water to air intercooler on it.
- ...

are there guys on the forum that did a rebuilt on a rd28t and can give me some tips or tricks to do the job?
I also looking for a alternative for the head gasket, is there any possibility to put a stronger one in it than the stock one? what can I do with it so it wont blow out annymore so easy? a full steel gasket?

thanks already
grts out of belgium
zjuul

Mate! You try to build the most interesting RD28T! I want to see how it will be in process!
Good luck with it!

[zjuul]

thank you for the comment wine_maker! I'm bussy now with my school exames but afther it I will start to take the thing appart

grtz zjuul

[LaurelTurboDiesel]

You need a bigger plunger in the fuel pump to make 200hp the stock one is only 9mm. A big gt28 will get you enough air and is almost a direct bolt on

[zjuul]

Hello guys,
It’s been a while since I have posted something but I first finished the bumper project on my patrol. Now this week I started to take the head of the engine block, because the whole block didn’t cost me much I wasn’t really expecting much of it… I thought that the head would be cracked and things like that, but it was a surprise when I took the head off! The head gasket was indeed blown but it was blown between the cylinders, there were no oil and water channels leaking so I bought a very cheap and good engine!
The first thing that I did was stripping down the cylinder head, after I take the whole thing apart I started whit cleaning up. And now it looks brand new! The next thing that I will do is porting the intake and exhaust channels inside the head and polish them to get a better flow and polish the valves also. Then the head will be tested and flatted and put back together. I also think to reshape the camshaft to get another profile but I’m not sure about that… I also want to place a copper head gasket because I want to install another turbo, I have a garret gt2056v vnt turbo to install. I also take a closer look to the cooling system and saw that there is a large freezeplug on the back side of the head that came out in the cooling circuit around the 6th cylinder. I was thinking to let a part water that came out of the radiator enter the engine at that place to get a better cooling at the back of the engine… what do you guys think?
When the head is done I also want to hone the cylinders, machine the pistons to increase the weight difference, replace the compression rings and place new bearings. Also the intake manifold will changed to make a bolt on water/air intercooler on it and I also want to build a custom stainless exhaust manifold… also the pump will get an upgrade…

Some pictures off the progress:


what's the intake valve? stupid EGR system!




What do you guys think? Please give your comment and ideas!
Grts Zjuul

[rkinsey]

This is very timely for me as I will be starting my RD28T rebuild shortly (with the help of a few of the boys on this forum)

In regards to the cooling system, I have been researching this very issue. What I am going to do is after rebuilding the motor, I will replace the water pump with an OEM one but thanks TD, I will look at an electric one as well. The radiator will be a larger capacity aluminium one similar to one of these - http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/190900983...ht_1562wt_1360

However, I wont be putting coolant and water in it, I will be using Evans coolant - http://www.evanscoolants.com.au/ check out the technical specs here - http://www.evanscoolants.com.au/technical

I saw this on a TV show called Restoring Dreams. Its an Ausie business that restores mainly old Fords (XY, XT and the like) and they are also working with Rare Spares to produce after market parts fo rolder cars. Anyway, basically this Evans stuff has no water in it, has a higher boil point and therefore doesnt vaporise under preasure like water based coolants giving a beter heat transfer ratio through the radiator.

I have spoken to the manager at Evans and he says that it will certainly help to keep the RD28T, TD42 and ZD30's all cool under load.

What did you clean the head and block with? Looks sweet!

[zjuul]

hello rkinsey,
nice to hear that you are looking to do a familiar job 

I would use an electric pump that just start pumping the coolant around when the engine is warm. The problem on an rd28t is that de thermostat is placed between the radiator and the inlet of the block. So when the engine gets hot, de thermostat opens, there runs cold water trough and he closes again… this happens during the time that al the coolant have a temperature around 80°C.. With an electric pump you can leave the thermostat and only start pumping the coolant when the right temperature is reached... You also can depending on the coolant temperature change the flowrate of the pump and let the pump work after the engine is shut down. I was also thinking about using a special sort of coolant, but I forgot the name of it... A mechanic that I know uses this coolant on all the cars that he gets with cooling problems (he works on Ferrari and lots of circuit cars) and in 9 of the 10 times the problem is solved.
I only cleaned the head already, I first started with put it in degreaser that they use is a degrease unit so al the oil dissolve. Then I have used a degreasing detergent and let that affect for a few minutes. After that I steamed it with a pressure washer and hot water. That give a very nice result.

Grts Zjuul