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72 Datsun Wagon upgrade to KA-T


ShagWagon

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so I think I got the pictures to work... so lets give this a try... I took these a while ago and have been meaning to post them. I got the new head a few months back and started porting and polishing it myself. looks pretty good for my first time. I just tried to make it look as close to the one I payed to have done that didn't end up working out.
 
But this will go through the process of port and polishing as well as installing all the BC valves, springs and camshafts. as well as the timing once the head it on the block.  enjoy.

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this was something I saw done in an article to help reduce turbulence with a turbo'd KA

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I started porting the head, I used my works air compressor and a die grinder, then smoothed it out later with sanding dowels ( I think that's what they're called)

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got it back from the machine shop decked and tanked ready to put all the valves back in which I used this handy make shift tool... a little slow but it worked wonders

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whats going in, BC dual springs, BC titanium caps and the retainers

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all the vales are in and good to go

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and now the moment of truth with a test fit of the camshafts... much better this time around

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I'm using the adjustable Jim Wolf Tech sprockets with an offset to reduce valve gap since it has stage 2 cams and will be turbo'd

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now to put it on the block. look at those fancy forged Supertech pistons, ARP studs and Cometic head gasket ;)

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everythings all torqued down, and the timing is good to go

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I had them deck the valve covers with the block and head as well so it all mated up perfectly

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just need to get the valve cover powder coated as well as the oil pan and it'll be ready to drop in :)

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So here are the pics from the cross member swap. I was going to post them last night but I go tired :)

 

I saw this done on one of the many 510 forum sites... cant remember which though... probably this one for all I know. I just used some angle bar to keep the pieces in place... used a laser and a 90 deg. angle to line everything up and then chopped away with my cut off wheel. I really suggest using a metal chop saw though, but this worked out fine for me.

 

got a good mark with my sharpie

 

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got er cut out with the angle iron tacked in place.

 

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you can see why I suggest a metal chop saw, but it still mated up really well for the most part

 

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my less then professional welding job... I use an arc welder because its a stronger weld and I don't have the money to drop on a TIG... but I mean if you can weld with stick... you can pretty much weld with anything :)

 

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Decided to cap the ends of the mounts so it looks cleaner

 

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got the welds cleaned up, lookin good

 

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spray painted for now to prevent any rust until I can get it sand blasted

 

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everything fits back up right... lets hope that's the case when its on the car :-p

 

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annnnd look what I picked up from the Tacoma pick-n-pull today. single belt setup here I come

 

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There was another Nissan pickup in there with a KA24E that was barely touched... and by barely touched I mean I pulled the throttle cable off of it and that's the most that's been done to it... just a heads up if anyone else is near by and might want something off it. bring a can of spider spray though. a few black widow nests in the engine bay.

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just a heads up if you're trying this your first time. this little guy is a drain hole... when you're welding the cross member back together make sure you don't weld this up other wise you could risk rusting out your mount over time when water gets stuck in there. I would have never caught this had I not washed off all the dirt before I started.

 

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Got some more work done today. got the cross member finished and under the car, reattached the steering assembly.

 

Also drilled these guys out finally and replaced them. Should make things more responsive until I can drop the money on some T3 upgrades.

 

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decided now was a great time to clean up the engine bay... ooowh ghost flames.

 

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put on the flywheel with some ARP bolts and the new stage 3 clutch.

 

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did a test fit with the engine and it all lined up really well. glad to see my cross member flip was a success.

and just so everyone knows, I don't plan on using that valve cover, its there to keep just and paint out of everything.

 

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Test fitting the ITB's to see what kind of clearance ill have.

 

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and I'm actually really surprised. that's plenty of room to build a custom plenum for the turbo :)

 

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And then I test the turbo manifold and ensured what I knew was gonna happen. I either have to find a single chamber brake cylinder that can run everything so I can still keep my brake booster, get rid of the brake booster... no thanks :-p or get a new turbo manifold that moves the turbo forward... thinking about it.

 

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I'll probably leave it in there while I'm gone and then play with it some more later. I need to get the valve cover done and a few other part painted so I can have the engine fully assembled.

 

I'm just glad everything is really coming together. It's definitely been a while since I've had the time to make some progress on this.

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Going to order these parts soon so I can start designing the plenum. Should be a pretty simple design. And then I have velocity stacks I'm going to have welded to the ITB's.

 

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And then the velocity stacks. Should help a lot inside the plenum

 

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I don't remember where I got the velocity stacks but this place has some that look exactly like the ones I purchased

 

http://www.orientexpress.com/p-5362-mikuni-billet-aluminum-velocity-stacks.aspx

 

And the plenum parts are from this place. They sell just about anything u would need to make your own intake.

 

http://www.rossmachineracing.com/intakepartspage.html

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Todays project was to mount the throttle cable and pedal. They are both out of a Nissan pickup with the KA24E so its the shorter cable. I'm sure there's other things that could have been more productive but I really wanted to see how this was going to work out... After getting it all set up though... I'm a little worried about how responsive this will be. I literally have less then one inch of pedal travel. I'm going to have to re-learn how to drive lol. but here's some pictures

 

This was actually the last thing I tackled but in retrospect it should have been the first so I could have judged the throttle cable bracket better. but it all worked out. The pedals pivot pretty much the same but the mounts are on opposite sides. So a bracket is needed to get the pedal in the same spot.

 

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Went ahead and drilled out the holes using the old pedal as a template for where it will mount.

 

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Went ahead and added a brace for the back side since I don't want to push the pedal to hard and bend the bracket.

 

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painted it up all pretty and mounted it. It fits great and the pedal lines up where the old one used to.

 

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and then for the cable bracket I just bent, cut, and drilled out the metal, got it all lined up good and bolted it to the manifold.

 

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if this ends up being to responsive to where its un drivable I'll have to figure something out for the pedal... I'll probably modify the two pedals so the pivot point is up higher giving me more foot travel. That should give me more control over the throttle response.

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I couldn't find a place that would paint my valve cover for a decent price and I didn't want to pay 150 for a new one so I did it myself with some caliper paint and high heat clear coat. Took three times to get it right but what evs. First time the paint fisheyed. Woops second time my dog knocked over what it was drying on... so the third time I took some precautionary measures haha. Turned out pretty good for a 30 dollar paint job.

 

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So I got to work on my plenum I'm making and its actually turning out really well. I bought a table saw and threw a metal blade on it and its been amazing. Another reason I love aluminum... its like cutting wood. But here's some picks of what I have so fare

 

First I had to separate the bottom so I could give it a taper towards the back

 

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got the base plate cut out and fitted as well as the velocity stacks fitted

 

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Plenty of clearance on the inside

 

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you can see the taper to towards the back end

 

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all that's left now is the rear and front caps as well as a 3 inch tube ill be using for the inlet. Ill have more picks when I get it all finished. I still need to test fit it to make sure there's no clearance issues.

 

I wish I had a flow bench that I could test this on... but ill just have to trust that this design should work really well... I copied the design from other plenums so we'll see... maybe ill run into someone that will want to flow test it... until then im not worried about it

 

Now I just need to find someone that's really good at welding and have them put this together

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Thanks guys,

 

Yeah I cant wait to have it back together too. I miss driving the thing... especially living up in Washington with one of the biggest fan bases. I really need to make it out to some of the get togethers though.

 

And I don't have a lot of posts but I've had this car since for 8 years. Its been a work in progress the entire time lol. The body work and paint were the first things I did. I really didn't show up on ratsun until I decided to go through with the swap. It's been a process but I haven't given up yet so I doubt I will now. to much effort put into it to let it fail haha.

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Did a test fit today to make sure I would have enough clearance and it fit great. A lot more room then I thought. I need to find a 3 inch tube so I can have that welded on the front, and get another cap to have placed on the back then it'll be ready to have it welded together

 

Is there anyone on this forum that is good at welding aluminum and would mind hooking me up for cheap... well cheaper then what a shop would charge? lol

 

Well anyways, here's a pic of the test fit

 

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I need to cut out the transmission well so I can get the shifter in there as well... I have the 280zx tranny mount on order right now so I can get that mounted up. It seems like the engine is setting a little to high though... It could be because the transmission isn't fully up but I also had this problem with the L20B I had. I had to make spacers to raise the body off the cross member because it was making a dent in the hood.

 

I still have to look into tackling the wiring and Tuning... or atleast a base tune... One step at a time :-p

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Would like some opinions on this idea..

 

I have been thinking about putting a scoop on the hood. Mostly to avoid having to build a custom manifold if I have issues with the turbo clearance... but also because I just like the way it looks... The only purpose of it though would be to have turbo clearance... and at the same time keep good air flow over the exhaust. Just wanted some thoughts from other people and where a good place to get a scoop would be

 

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I found this when I googled 510 hood scoops. It really doesn't look bad at all

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People sometimes have strong feelings about hood scoops. The key part of this is that you like how it looks on the car.

 

This one looks like the example you pictured, and is advertised as being from an 85 300ZX turbo. 

 

http://seattle.craigslist.org/sno/pts/4644088182.html

 

I do like the design of the scoop, but prefer a clean hood on my car.  Take that for what it is worth as I am going to run fender mirrors and some feel strongly about those too LOL. 

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Hey there looking good! Regarding the scoop you should factor in key elements that satisfy your taste, look or the style you are trying to achieve, two the puropse behind the scoop! In your case sounds to me you like the scoop and it will serve a purpose clearance and cooling! The two door on the pic pulls it off nicely IMO because its modified throughout with the air am, zg flares and that cool looking spoiler.

So what are you doing to the rear? IRS, T bars, 4 link, 3 link?

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