Micro's 71 510

[MicroMachinery]

Ok, I should have started this thread a while back, but really, I've been chiseling away at this since before I was a member here. Some background info first.

Ok, all this madness started in April of 08'. I found it under some boxes in a neighborhood of single and double-wide trailers. Asked about it, and the "owner" said it had a seized engine, no keys, and a lost title. I asked what he wanted, and he said $300. I said $150. He said "Sold". I came back the following day with a trailer and hauled it away. The next few months were hell getting this guy to track down the previous owner(his ex-girlfriend), and get her to sign off on the thing. Luckily, I had only paid half of the agreed price, so he was still motivated enough to help me.

I had decided not to touch the thing until I got the title(just in case there was any "funny" business), so when I did get it, it was ON. I had pictures of everything before I cleaned it out; it was packed to the gills with garbage, cigarette butts, and rat farms. The trunk was full of(judging from the expired tags), 8 year old groceries and childrens' school supplies. Luckily, a friend of mine was unemployed at the time, and she had offered to clean it out for $20 :D. I took pictures along the way with her camera, but unfortunately, she deleted the pictures.. it was wild how shat on this thing was. Vacuumed it out, threw in some air fresheners, and let it air out for a few weeks with the windows down.

Next thing I did, was check out the engine. It was an L18, sitting under, no-kidding, about a quarter inch of grime all the way around. No wonder it seized up; this thing was literally SWEATING oil! Pulled the valve cover, and sure enough, no turnin' going on. Went ahead and pulled the engine out, and began disassembling it. As soon as the head came off as well as the cam-sprocket, I was amazed to find that the engine turned over just fine. Curious.. took about 2 seconds to figure out that the cam was what seized in the towers. The engine was just fine! I looked down behind the timing cover, and with a "What the heck..?", I reached in and pulled out what looked like a wooden wedge.. somebody who had been working on this thing had stuck in a wooden wedge to hold the timing chain, and just left it.. novices...

At that point, I had found an L20b, so I wasn't going to go through the trouble of rebuilding the L18. I dropped in the L20b, wired, and fired up my first 510, for the very first time. I don't have video of it, but I have pics of the car cleaned up, and as a runner.

 

Shortly after these pictures were taken, I got very busy and collected a few more Datsuns, one of which was the 71 Wagon that I recently sold. Alot of my time and energies had been going towards my other projects, and I had decided that my little 4-door was destined for more than to just be driven "as-is". More later...

[I'm BLUE]

WOW !!! :blink: :blink: :blink: Nice Score Micro :thumbup: ( matches my yellow 240z ) hahaha !

 

Ok so can I have my wooden wedge back ? ( hahaha ! joking ! that's hilarious :rofl: ) Very cool story , but I have a similiar experience that mad me about :sick: on trying to get the title cleared

 

Micro , I can't believe how clean the outside of that looks especially for the price :blink: , Very Nice Man !!! Congrats :thumbup:

 

Did you paint in between by chance ? :cool:

[MicroMachinery]

Thanks man, it was a rare score, for sure.

And no, actually I'm in the process of sanding all that paint off. It was a pretty poor paint job(if you saw it up close), and it wasn't factory. The factory paint is a much lighter yellow. I'm putting it back to the factory color, so that way it will match the engine bay, door jambs, and interior.

[I'm BLUE]

Thanks man, it was a rare score, for sure.

And no, actually I'm in the process of sanding all that paint off. It was a pretty poor paint job(if you saw it up close), and it wasn't factory. The factory paint is a much lighter yellow. I'm putting it back to the factory color, so that way it will match the engine bay, door jambs, and interior.

 

Nice ! I wasn't sure so that makes sense ;) Yeah , that's a smart way to go since it will match the car door jambs , engine bay , etc... , and look as clean as you like it to be :D , and higher value car too IMHO :thumbup: ( I have to rebuild my door hinges before summer when my z gets some paint , going from 5 yellow shades to 1 :rofl: )

 

Well shooooooot Keep this build thread going , it's under my watch list B)

[JDM510]

nice find!!! and great price cant pass that up!!!!!

[MicroMachinery]

Ok, the continuation of the catching up on my project.

Around spring time last year, I decided that I wasn't into the Canary paint job that the PO had done on my 71. The painting wasn't terrible, from a daily driver standpoint, but it left much to be desired. There was over-spray in many places, and in the door-jambs, there was not even a sad attempt at blending. I'm guessing Maaco got ahold of this poor thing. Anyhow, I decided that since the engine bay, interior, and "some" of the trunk(by some I mean the small percentage that wasn't cruelly spray painted black) were still the factory color, I would return it to that state. From the template on the Dime Quarterly, it looks as though my paint code is "919"(the code# on the sticker in my engine compartment has long-time been faded away).

With that, I started in on the removal of trim, fenders, hood, and decals. I used aircraft stripper on the hood and fenders.. if you ever use this stuff, you'll see just how nasty it is. Bad stuff...

Here's a look at what it did to my fenders.

Now the hood.

 

Those pieces aren't completely done, but as with anything, I got burned out on that portion of the project(I don't think I could ever be a body-guy or work in a paint shop). Like I said, with those pieces and the trim removed, it was now time to start in on the engine bay. I removed as many fasteners and lines as I could. Left only a few items, and began degreasing. Again, I wish I had pictures of how nasty the engine bay was before hand, but my friend deleted all my "before" pictures :angry: . But I DO have shots of what it looks like now. The purple, runny stuff is the rust inhibitor. There was alot of bare metal, and some rust. Had to take care of it before it took care of my car.

 

 

After that, I had slowed way down on this project, as I was dedicating alot of time to my 71 Wagon that I had gotten in June. There was a pretty lengthy recess, and after I sold the Goon, I started back in on my 4-door. I spent some time cleaning out the trunk, and I rust-ridded the tire-well. I think that I'll be able to save it, as it was starting to develop holes. With some fiberglass, however, I think it'll be fine. I'd have pics of that, but my camera crapped out on me, so I've been taking pics with my phone. What I've been doing most recently, is hand-sanding the exterior. This has been taking the longest of all, but I feel happy every time I see that factory yellow start to shine through where the cheap paint job had once covered.

Here's a shot of the driver's side(I haven't started in on the passenger side yet).

 

So, as you may or may not be able to tell, there is some body work needed. Not really much; in fact, I could probably just sand it down, prep it, and paint it and the only person that would be able to tell would be me.. unless of course you were trying to find faults on it. There are some small imperfections, but I'll deal with those soon enough.

Well, that's all I have on the body work for now. I'll post on what I've done so far, and the direction I plan on going with my brakes next.

[sssr20det510]

Looking Good

[MicroMachinery]

Alright. So it's been a while since my last update. I know last time I mentioned that my next post would be regarding my brakes. I lied. This time I'll be sharing about the power plant for my 510.

After alot of research, and going to and fro deciding what avenue I wanted to take, I landed on the KA24DE from an S13. The option of going with an SR20DET gave me more than my share of inner debate, but when it was all said and done, and the dust cleared, it seemed that the KA was more up the alley that I wanted to go(at this point :cool: ).

When I found the KA in Central Oregon, and it was in questionable shape. The head had been removed, and the kid I got it from seemed like the type that wasn't really nice to his cars. He said that it had seized the water pump, and started detonating while he was driving. He explained that he had removed the head and that one of the pistons was cracked, and aside from a new piston, it would need rings. I gathered up all the parts he had as well as the transmission, wiring harness, and other miscellaneous goods that he no longer had use for, and was on my way.

As soon as I got home, I took a good look at the piston that he had accused of cracking, and saw that it was nothing more than carbon that had formed a rigid edge. No cracks.(Again, I apologize about the picture quality. I haven't gotten a new camera, so phone pics are what I have to offer :P )

 

Being suspicious of a neglected engine, I pulled the pan to take a look at the bearings. Wasn't too shocked when I was greeted by these:

 

And with that, I began my complete tear-down of the engine. Long story short, here's what happened that afternoon.

 

So that is where this segment ends. For fear of running too long of a post, I'll end this one and start where I left off.

[MicroMachinery]

Alright. Where I left off last time, was I had just taken the engine apart.

I decided to mock up the engine, just to get a feel of how it was going to fit in the engine bay, and what I would do for mounts(engine and trans), etc. I'm amazed at how naturally this engine fits into the 510 engine bay. Nissan engineers, I could kiss you. This was EASILY a one man job.

 

The block sat in there very well. I used 620 Motor Mounts, as I wasn't comfortable with the lack of contact and stability that "just moving the stock 510 motor mounts down a notch" offered. Just looked, felt, seemed altogether unsafe. The 620 motor mounts fit perfectly, however, I was a bit concerned with the height at which the engine would sit. Would the hood clear..?

Answer?.. yes. The hood clears.

Here's how the engine looked with the intake/exhaust manifolds installed. Still clears everything beautifully.

 

Next thing I did was debate the idea of cutting and swapping the front crossmember to make way for the front sump oil pan on the KA... for about 3 seconds. The thought of this makes my skin crawl. The idea of cutting and flipping a 40 year old piece of NLA Datsun goodness seems barbaric, but that's just me. What you do behind closed shop-doors is your own business.

It was an easy decision to fabricate my own pan. The actual process, however, has proven to be tedious, at best. Here are some shots of my rough draft pan:

 

While being a crude shadow of things yet to come, I feel that it is a good representative sketch of how the final pan will look. The Sump hangs slightly below the crossmember, and without having to relocate the dipstick, I have calculated it to comfortably hold 1.6 Gallons of Oil.. close to 7qts.. just right for my purposes. After the construction of the pan is completed, I will tackle the oil pickup tube.

[MicroMachinery]

I've been trying to figure out what I want to do for my suspension. I'm pretty much set on coilovers in the front to go with my 280zx struts. As far as the back goes, I went ahead and got the front coil springs from an 86' Dodge D50 pickup. They aren't exactly the same dimensions, but they are close enough.

The stock spring is on the left(taller, narrower), the D50 on the right(shorter, wider).

 

These pictures are of the rear at stock height.

 

 

Here are some shots of the rear with the D50 springs in. At this point, I believe that I had already cut 1 coil off.

(At this point, I'd also like to note that the 2 D50 springs came in different heights. What I did was put them both on the ground, count the coils, and cut a coil off the shorter spring, and cut enough to balance the taller spring. I had the exact measurements written down, but I have misplaced the sheet. I believe the taller spring to be 3/4" taller, but I can't remember exactly)

 

 

Still a little high for my tastes, so I took off another 1/2 coil. This is where it dropped me to.

 

 

That's OK for now. I think I'll end up taking another 1/4-1/2 a coil off in the end.

[sssr20det510]

make sure you drive it b4 cutting more, I cut mine than lowered it it was still too high so i cut anouther 1/2 a coil and now its way too low

[JDM510]

yeah deff drive it first becuz i only took 1 coil off and my car sits lower in the rear... or you have smaller wheels??? idk but 1 coil was pretty much perfect for the red coil... dose your car lean????

[MicroMachinery]

make sure you drive it b4 cutting more, I cut mine than lowered it it was still too high so i cut anouther 1/2 a coil and now its way too low

 

Oh yeah, most definitely. Give the springs some time to settle. It's just about where I want it as is.

[MicroMachinery]

yeah deff drive it first becuz i only took 1 coil off and my car sits lower in the rear... or you have smaller wheels??? idk but 1 coil was pretty much perfect for the red coil... dose your car lean????

 

Not as it is. The D50 coils weren't the same height. I believe the taller one was 3/4" or something like that higher. I measured them out before I started cutting, and now they're equal heights. I had it all written down, but I'm pleading the whole, "the dog ate my homework" excuse. :blush:

By the way, I dig the way your car sits. That's about the stance I want to achieve when mine's all said and done. Your runnin' 15's? Mine are 14x7 up front and 14x8.5 in the back.

[JDM510]

mmm that makes sence i did not really pay attention befor i cut and i just made sure to cut the same out of each <---- dumb ass... but yeah my car leans and it pisses me off its only 1/4 inch and when a pass. gets in my car its pretty much level but yeah....

 

 

yeah i have 15s... are all 4 of your wheels the same off set?? what off set are they? im looking for a set of 2 "real jdm" like yours 14 inch that match my knock offs i want to run the 15's in the rear and like a 14x6 or 7 with a +10 or +15 in the front thinking i can get the car where i want ride height and tire size wise... but idk yet i dont think ive seen it yet soo dont know if it will even look good

[MicroMachinery]

I believe they're 0 Offset. There's no stamp on the backside that says, and I was told when I bought them they are 0.
The ones I have are SSR Colins, which different than yours. At a quick glance they look alike, but they certainly aren't the same. So if you do happen to stumble upon 2 like mine, you may be disappointed that they don't match yours.

Here's a look at one of mine...


^^^ There's what you're lookin' for.

[datto510]

Like these? :lol:

 

[MicroMachinery]

Like these? :lol:

 

 

Yours aren't Work Equips, are they? I don't see the rivets going around the inside.

[datto510]

Yours aren't Work Equips, are they? I don't see the rivets going around the inside.

Yessir! Work Equip 03! :cool:

[MicroMachinery]

Yessir! Work Equip 03! :cool:

 

I like yours more than the one in the picture up above.

[JDM510]

nah im not woried about them matching perfect.... i just want something close in a 14x7or6 with a +10 offset

 

 

but yeah id take any of the 3 you posted

[MicroMachinery]

Alright. Here's the part that has probably taken the longest from start to finish. Funny, though, that I will probably have the least to say here. Chock full of pictures, though. ;)

I've grappled with the task of building an oil pan to fit on the bottom of my KA24DE on and off for a while now. Given one large block of time, I probably could have made the mock-up, taken the measurements, constructed a dummy, and then moved on to fabrication. Picking at it over a longer period of time, however, is far less time efficient. Here are some pics of the metal piece to replace that floppy manila mannequin. Enjoy :D

 

The Sump was the easy part. The rest took a little more creativity.

 

 

The walls were the difficult part.

 

 

Here's some shots of the walls of the pan going together.

 

 

Getting close...

 

 

:cool:

 

 

All buttoned up, bolted on, ready to drop in.

 

 

No butchered crossmember, no expensive custom swaybar. Kinda makes you want one, doesn't it? ;)

 

 

I like this part probably the best..

 

 

Those last few pictures are pretty dark, but what that ruler is measuring is the sump floor, which sits exactly 1/8" below the crossmember. Nearly flush. I had planned to have about 1/2" below the crossmember, but it looks like I goofed in a good way :P

 

If anyone is interested in one of these pans, let me know. I can have more made for less than the cost of the sway bar you have to buy AFTER you cut and flip your crossmember. :cool:

[bonvo]

nice tig work but uuuuuum wheres the drain plug

[JDM510]

yeah i HATE not having a sway bar!!!!! how much for a oil pan??? ka24e PM me....

[MicroMachinery]

nice tig work but uuuuuum wheres the drain plug

 

Haha, nice catch. I still have to take it back off to install the drain plug as well as the oil return bung for the turbo :). On top of that, I haven't fabricated the oil pickup tube either; I installed the pan just to see how everything was going to fit.