how to free up hp on stock a14

[king bee66]

shaving down the combustion chamber is worth a couple hp i believe

[datzenmike]

....yes.... but gasket and machining costs for barely any increase plus risk of having to run higher octane ga$. He also has few tools and nowhere to do the work.

[DRIVEN]

Guys, it sounds like he's set on solving all his problems with a carb swap. Remember when we were 17 and knew everything? Those UTI instructors are in for a real education. Man, this makes me feel nostalgic. Anyone remember this one?

http://community.ratsun.net/topic/31443-engine-swap/

[datzenmike]

Wahahahaha what a train wreck!!!

 

 

I don't think that quite the case here..........

[Skib]

[ggzilla]

shaving down the combustion chamber is worth a couple hp i believe

 

Going from the stock 9.0 to 10.0 is worth 1/2 of 1% by itself, or on an A12 approximately 1/3 HP. However if used with a full quench combustion chamber (e.g. flat-top pistons and closed-chamber head) it's worth as much as 2%. Or on an A12 that is 1.3 HP.

 

Most of these mods are cumulative and don't snowball unless a whole set of mods are done simultaneously.

 

There are single mods that can make huge difference, such as swapping auto for manual transmission. Or change differential ratio. Or a turbo.

[DRIVEN]

There you go. Almost local...give or take 800 miles.

http://community.ratsun.net/topic/34425-a15-4sale/

[josh_t]

i don't want to tear into this motor to get 2hp if i'm lucky. i dont want to swap motor's either unless it's a ka or a vg since they are the most plentiful and there is plenty of aftermarket support for both of them. you guys keep telling me to do this stuff that at the least costs a couple hundred. if i had the money i wouldn't have started a thread on how to free up some horsepower for free or cheap. i would have actually done something worthwhile. how come none of you understand this. tell me it isnt possible on this motor, thats fine. just answer my original questions. just because i quote prices for expensive parts does not mean that i even remotely want to buy them. it means i did some research and found that its expensive to say the least to do anything substantial to these motors. i understand that fully. and just because i'm 17 doesnt mean i'm some inexperienced kid that thinks he knows everything. i know for a fact that this carburetor isn't helping anything since the throttle shafts have 1-2 thousandths of radial play. Nice vaccum leak. not to mention that the power valve actuator "piston" is very worn as well as the "cylinder" in the carburetor upper section. if my power valve wasnt stuck shut i would have even more trouble keeping it running. so yes i do know that a new carb whether it be a hitachi or a weber will fix more than one problem i'm having.

[josh_t]

some one delete the previous post. i was being an ass. i apologize. i read the linked post for the sr24det lol i must say i might look like that guy if i dont stop now. but i really dont have any money but i also dont want to keep my foot to the floor 24/7 to keep up on the freeway (or anywhere else) because somebody decided to gear the poor thing to go like 250 in second gear. jk but it is geared too high. i would love a manual to put in it but money is an issue and for some reason my dad likes being a dick and saying no we cant use his truck that gets 25 mpg to get a tranny that i would be paying for thats probably less than an hour away if i find one. i do live close to atl.

[josh_t]

might i ask wtf? dicen que en Inglés por favor

[metalmonkey47]

Lemme just say first,

 

SKIB, ban the spammer.

 

 

 

Second, I remember picking up my 210 and thinking the first thing I was gonna do was rip out the shitty A15 and drop in an SR. Hell, I still wanna. Theres a guy on 240ATL selling a gold top SR with forged internals that needs a re-ring/sleeves for $300. Tempted? Yes. I will never do it though. After driving my car for 10000 miles, I've realized how much fun you can have with 90HP and a little patience. I can honestly say I'm 100% glad that I didn't fuck it up. The A motor has been so faithful up to this point that it seems like it would be stupid to tear it out. That's why my LZ project is on the side for now.

 

 

Honestly Josh, stick with the A14 and I think in about a year or so you'll be glad you did so. When you're financially ready and have a second car to drive then you can swap it and beat the shit out of it.

 

Datsun's in Georgia are already hard to come by, keep yours straight!!

 

 

 

 

 

I'm more then willing to come throw a hand in sometime getting it on the road, just let me know ;)

[DanielC]

You have a car with a small engine, designed to get good gas mileage. There is no "magic horsepower screw" on the carb. Or on any carb.

Speed costs money. How fast do you want to go?

 

You have a small displacement engine. The engine is being held back by the automatic transmission.

In an effort to maximize the gallons per mile, the rear axle is geared too high for good performance.

 

The change in the exhaust, and the careful timing and a good tune up, are about the limits on what is possible with out spending a lot of money.

[ggzilla]

Adjusting the carburetor and tweaking the timing (Static timing + modding the advance weights) can sometimes improve HP up to 50%. This is of course only possible if the engine is not up to tune in the first place -- many used engines are off-tune.

 

Since you know the carb is leaking air and fuel both, start with that.

[80datson]

go for ka swap! fastest way to double yr hp!!! A series are Gas savers why would yu turn a basketball player into a baseball player? *cough* michael jordan *cough*

 

 

[josh_t]

well the honestly first thing my dad told me as soon as he saw it was "this car is going to be just like my yellow mustang was to me. It will be seemingly the slowest thing ever made but it will be almost bulletproof and somehow fun to drive. it's gonna be the car that you are going to either want to do drastic changes and/or sell the whole time you own it but the second you do either you will hate yourself." so i think you guys are right. if i do anything drastic it will be a non turbo ka or vg though. i think i'm done here unless one of you has more input. i kinda get hp happy at times and want all i can get, then like right now i go back to being content with 80. i can still light up the tires with 80hp, an automatic, and, as i recently discovered, dragging brakes.

[king bee66]

i think i'm done here

 

sorry mate, youre not allowed to leave until you post pictures of your car

[metalmonkey47]

sorry mate, youre not allowed to leave until you post pictures of your car

 

I think he means the thread ;)

[king bee66]

yea probably but either way, hes posted threads and not a single pic, there is currently a great disturbance in the force

 

 

edit: eh nevermind, hes got a gallery. i never remember to check there

[josh_t]

lol i was just fixing to say i have a gallery. but it told me i'm at my limit. i was gonna put pics of everything good and bad but i cant. idk how 4 pics is the limit.

[RedBanner]

Post the link right here, dont have to fill your gallery.

And second of I know the secret to freein horses on a b210 with out any money at all

No one mentioned to you how heavy your car is, and has a tiny little motor.

lose some lbs, every 20 or 21 pounds you shed is one free hp.

And since you have the auto a 63a bolts right in and the 63a mount fits theres bothe sets of hole for some reason, but the pilot bushing dosnt fit, my auto had a hole in the crank that was the same id as the bushing. And a lip on the crank face, and I had to grab the cast iron piece bolted to bottm driver side of the motor, it completes the bell housing, the starter was different, exoust was different too, never put a 4 speed in an auto but some of those problems are the same.

[josh_t]

so i do have to grind the lip off the crank like datsun1200.com says? i would rather have a 63a than the 4 speed anyway so if i swap a tranny it will most likely be a 63a i am guessing that the driveshaft splines are the same as the 63a. and i dont really know what you mean by grabbing the cast iron piece on the drivers side of the motor and what about the bellhousing? i shouldnt have too much trouble with the exhaust. and i guess if i pull the tranny from a complete car at a junkyard or whatnot ill get the starter too. or if i have the cash just buy a new one since they are like 35 bucks or so.

[ggzilla]

No you don't have to grind the lip off the crankshaft. That incorrectly said you "might" need to do it. Instead you pull off the adapter, a thin round thing.

 

You can use the automatic starter. It is more powerful, but the same size dimentions. Or since you have the money just spend it :-)

 

The cast iron block stiffener is to reduce NVH so if you leave it off it will be like earlier Datsuns (and other brands) where the bottom half of the transmission does not bolt to any structural piece.

 

 

NFRB, didn't a pilot bushing fit right into the crankshaft? If not, how did you solve that problem? A clutch requires a pilot bushing.

[josh_t]

well in that case ill leave the current starter because it still looks fairly new. i dont have much info on the repair history on this car other than the parts that arent "numbers matching" such as the carb, alternator, starter, and a few other things here and there. there are also a few parts missing such as all the emissions parts including the cat and some sort of hanger at the front of the exhaust. i could probably find out at least a little bit pretty easily since i know the previous owner. they only had it for a couple years tho. is there some sort of registry for this type of thing?

[josh_t]

another thing i have really wanted to try is megasquirt. it would require some fabrication as far as the intake goes but i think it would make a nice upgrade overall. i might get a horse or two but i could probably get a huge difference in reliability and possibly efficiency. and i like to mess around with afr's and stuff like that anyway. i could definitely make it more responsive that way. i'm quite proficient at electronics and wiring, having built several computers and done lots of software mods even modifying tables in hex files which would be similar to modifying the fuel mapping on the megasquirt. i am pretty good with wiring too. i have hooked up quite a few sound systems from scratch including my own and have done some wiring and replacing of capacitors in computer power supplies.

[RedBanner]

On my 76 it had a ring cast on the crank with two small demples in it, I flushed it off and,tried to drill it out for a bushing but didnt really get a smooth finish product so I took the whole motor to precision machine and they fit it with a bearing with the same id.

it looked like the cast iron extention was needed, but only couse it had like 4 of the bell housing bolts and a bracket for the exoust,

But for real lose some weight off that thing.

I drove that car for 2 years after that, when the head gasket blew I dropped the 12a out of a free rx7 in it, raced it wreched it fixed it wreched it blew the motor and parted it out. But I just got another auto car and roary motor so look out.