Style23's 71 510 Wagon Project

[Style23]

Alright, figured it was time to start this as parts are starting to come in. Will be a long project but after waiting 3 years for the car whats a couple more right?

 

Rough ideas i have in my head: Low and go.

 

-Built Ka24de-t

-ford 9" aluminum rear w/ coilover 4 link

-15x10~12 watanabe's....i want 12" wide but finding tires is proving to be difficult, so still not 100% sure

-15x8 watanabe's on the front

-wilwood's in all 4 corners

-several chasis stiffening methods...stitch welding, high density foam in the body cavities, butterfly brace

-planning on canteen green paint off of the nissan titan

 

car will be configured as a street/strip car mainly, but dont want to exclude myself from a weekend warrior road course. And definately dont want to ruin the character of the car.

 

 

 

for right now my plans are get the L16 running, so i can tool around in it as i wish, until i am ready for the motor swap.

 

parts either in the garage or on the way as of 3/22/14:

 

Techno Toy Tuning 280zx strut casing front coil overs with 225# springs

Arizona Z Car 12.2" 2 piece rotors with wilwood 6 piston calipers

Arizona Z Car 5 lug conversion

2" rear block kit

 

 

I had the car up and running about an hour after i started working on it, bled the brakes and was cruising around the neighborhood. Took it out and got it up to 50 and had a bit of a spit and sputter at high end, so i stopped at the store, adjusted the carb a bit, cranked it up 15 minutes later and was running fine til i pulled out of the parking lot. Made it about 60 feet before it died, and wouldnt run. When i got it to run i had to keep my foot in it and would backfire like crazy. Called a friend to pick me up to get my truck and towed it home. Hasnt ran since, which was about 3 weeks ago. Im open to suggestions as to what it could be. so far i have replaced the entire carb instead of rebuilding it, fuel filter, spark plugs, wires, cap and rotor, ignition coil.

 

The plugs are very sooted after trying to get the car running, so not sure what im doing wrong.

 

as of right now i am in the process of taking the front of the motor apart to get to the timing chain, because i figured that was my next logical step, and from what i can figure out it is off. I am guessing i jumped a tooth or something when i was testing it, thus why it ran fine, and hasnt ran since.

 

I know next to nothing about carb cars, because everything ive worked on has been fuel injection, so i am learning a lot as i go. My dad is coming over tomorrow to give me a hand in figuring out what i dont know about timing, etc...

 

I always welcome constructive critisizm, so if you have any suggestions or ideas please dont be shy.

 

 

But picture time, some of these are reposts:

 

 

 

hauling it home from dallas to houston, stopped at whataburger for a snack after a 16 hour work day:

 

 

Its new home:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

running and ready for a spin:

 

 

 

 

And, back to the drawing board:

 

 

 

 

 

 

And the toughest part of the body work, the rear passenger quarter has at the thickest i found about 3/8" of filler in it:

 

 

 

 

[Style23]

no pictures today, but the timing chain did the trick...old chain had been adjusted all the way out and was still off...so got the car back together and it is running, but now it ran long enough for me to notice the alternator isnt charging at all.

[hang_510]

welcome.

timing is everything ;)

 

 

looks like the gas caps been missing & spewed fuel everywhere.

[mrbigtanker]

Very nice another god,just got one myself,making it nice and clean,cant wait to see were this goes.

[jser12]

Very interested in seeing how this turns out.

 

Especially the part about a 10j on a wagon. Unless you get flares.

 

Is your goal to build something similar to the 2jz wagon?

[hobbes_the_cat]

Oh man, no wonder you were asking about that wagon I parted out years ago, they were twins! Its nice to see this one will have a better fate.

The510keeper ended up with one of that cars quarter panels... I think it was the passenger side. If you drop him a line he'll probably hook you up.

[Style23]

Yea the rear quarter is pretty rough...from what I gather the rust is because of the bad respray to cover up the body work right next to the rear door.

 

I've looked at 2jz's wagon a lot but it will be a bit different. I plan on doing a tub...I really wanted 12" wide but can't find the tires to match..

 

Hobbes, I will shoot him a message and see...the bottom kick panel is dented a bit so not sure how to fix that. I may end up going a bit different route, ratsun instead of full body work and resto. Weighing my options still.

[Style23]

small update: new alternator in, and learned the hard way there is a thing called a voltage regulator on old cars...hooked up the battery and got an arc and the starter started smoking. hopfully i didnt fry anything but this learning thing is getting expensive...new voltage regulator on the way.

 

in other news, i found a company that will cover the car as a classic if anything were to happen so i dont get blue book value on it. Will give me $10,000 of coverage that i can up as the project progresses. Game plan is to have it insured tomorrow so i can get the registration done on wednesday when i go to the DMV to correct the title they spelled my name wrong on. Inspection on friday, and hopfully legal by the weekend. One of the stipulations of insurance is i need to submit detailed pictures of the car, so i rolled it out on the driveway a bit to get it in the daylight, so i have decent pics to show, everyone likes pics:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PS....found a cool gauge option, i was looking for something digital i could blend with the factory dash but give me much more readouts so i didnt have to plaster gauges all over the place...i found this:

 

i am officially naming this build B.O.A.T - bust out another thousand.

[Style23]

few small updates, i got the new alternator and voltage regulator in, and is charging properly. Have the car registered and insured. Took it a mile down the road to get some gas and by the time i made it to the gas station i had a very loud valve noise and it was smoking badly. After investing $400 in the temporary motor i have decided to cut my losses and move forward with the new motor sooner then planned. So i will be trying to sell the engine to recoup some of what i have invested.

 

On other news my calipers showed up today for my brakes, but am waiting for a call from UPS to pick up the rotors and 5 lug hubs. Unboxed the calipers and they dont match, the writing is different as you can see in the picture. Not a huge deal to most probably but i am all about the little details, and with dropping the money i did on the brake kit, it has to be perfect. Also noticed the calipers have some damage to the finish on them, looks like they have just been floating around the shop and have misc. scuffs and scratches on them. Nothing major by no means, and would be able to deal if they matched. I know they will get scuffed up eventually, but i want to be the one to scuff them. I called and spoke with Dave(i think?) at arizona z car and he didnt have a problem with me sending them back to get matching calipers.

 

 

[KELMO]

Nice goon. Bummer about the lettering on the calipers.  I think the "boat" name is awesome, but for most of us around here it would just be another 10 :thumbup:.

If you have no plans for the steel wheels and hub caps, I would be interested.

[Style23]

Kelmo I don't have plans for them but it will be a little while...I'm looking for cheap 5 lugs that will fit the car to use u til I'm ready for the final wheels...

My macho bigger is better may have bit me in the ass...realized last night that my dreams of 15" wheels are crushed and it's not looking good for 16 either. I may have to downsize to 4 piston calipers, I will have to bolt them up and measure.

Better news is I picked up my rotors and hubs from ups today...

[KyushaKai]

My macho bigger is better may have bit me in the ass...realized last night that my dreams of 15" wheels are crushed and it's not looking good for 16 either. I may have to downsize to 4 piston calipers, I will have to bolt them up and measure.

 

Yeah I was about to say, the AZC Wilwoods require 17's.  The 4 piston AZC kit should be more than enough though.  Hell, even 280zx fronts/stock drums feel awesome in mine.  I do eventually plan on getting some Wilwood bling though.

 

And from what I've read/been told, the chassis stiffening foam is a bad idea.  It works well, but if it rains and water gets trapped, the foam is going to make it hard for it to drain from whatever cavity it is in.

[mrbigtanker]

Well holy shit, build it bigger in TEXAS,right on cant wait to see were this goon goes.yee haw cowboy

[tr8er]

I bet they've sent that unmatched wilwood a few times, always getting it returned. That's why it's all scratched.

 

I love the brown interior with green. Classy. And 10" is plenty. Lots of work on the wells just so you can spend more money on tires is not necessary. I say build with 10's and if you spin those, you can always go bigger.

[Style23]

Thanks for the words everyone...im getting frustrated that i picked the wrong brake setup and am trying to figure out what to do to correct it. Im so confused as to what the right choice is with this, now knowing i for sure should go with 4 pistons instead of 6...not sure that the 12.2" rotor was a good choice either, thinking maybe i should have done an 11"

 

on the chasis foam, that is something i had considered, so i planned on welding up all the holes in the cavity to try to seal out moisture, but that could cause potentially more problems with moisture sealed in there...im a ways away from that point, so it will give me some time to do more research on it...the car wont really be setup to drive in the rain but in Houston we get freak showers all the time.

[Rhapakatui]

I saw your L16 listed on Craigslist.  Did you find another engine for it yet? or are  you just pulling the L16 to raise funds for the future swap?

 

I find that I work on my cars that run more often than the ones that don't.  It's always fun to go for a test drive when celebrating a victorious part changing.

[Style23]

i dont have another engine for it yet, i much prefer to have a running vehicle, but it is part of the process i suppose...will free up the engine bay for me to clean it up while i wait i suppose...i think i talked myself into an SR even though i was so against them for so long. If that is the case it will be a little while longer before the new motor will be here and ready to go in.

[Style23]

havent made much progress lately...work is slow so not much cash to throw at the project right now, have to love the oilfield...got the shipping conformation from techno toy tuning, they shipped my coilovers yesterday, 2 weeks late, but they are on their way.

 

pulled the engine, managed to do it in about 3 hours by myself, not to shabby for my first engine pull ever, and no major problems at all...motor is out and ready to sell.

 

 

Ready to party:

 

Almost forgot the most important tool:

 

made a solid 18% of the fluids into the pan:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

hope you folks dont mind all the pictures...

[Style23]

Finally turned a wrench on the car today for the first time in forever it feels like....totaled my mountain bike, concussion, swollen face, sore shoulder, etc..so used the money i had planned to put towards the motor for the car to buy a new bike. 3 Days after ordering the bike i smoked the turbo in my diesel daily. Drove a rentail Hyundai Elantra for 3.5 weeks...talk about a shock from my 3/4 ton.

 

Anyway, truck is back up, so got to put my focus back on the car...

 

got the engine bay mostly cleaned up, almost ready to start media blasting...the game plan is to media blast, stitch weld and prime before the metal starts to rust in the humid houston weather. doing the whole engine bay in a weekend is near impossible by myself in my opinion. So the plan is to do like 1/4 or 1/3 at a time, that way i can ensure the metal isnt exposed to long.

 

have 80 grit glass bead i will be blasting with, and will be priming with a grey PPG epoxy primer.

 

KA24DE will be here some time this week, eventually it will be getting a z32 transmission, and a megasquirt engine management system.

 

 

 

Also have a few goodies ive been sitting on for a long while waiting for the right project...time to bring this project up to the 21st century. Not a fan of spending all this money building the car and taking the distributor wire with me to prevent theft. Will have full remote start, glass break sensor, digital tilt sensor, engine immobilizer, and the standard bump alarm. Since the ignition on my car is bad and i dont have any keys, i decided to use a push start, since i have the engine immobilizer anyway. Did a little bit of searching and found an OEM push start thats actually out of the nissan GTR. I need to get a wiring harness and trim ring out of a 370z so i can splice in the plug to wiring and mount the button.

 

 

[Just Joel]

Nice alarm... need to do this also ;)

[Style23]

after the freight company not calling me and letting me know the engine was here 2 days ago, i went and picked it up today...this is my motivation to finish the engine bay...im really dreading body work and paint...

 

 

kind of surprised the cherry picker went up that high, the bed of my truck is up around 4' off the ground.

 

 

and note, my driveway truly sucks for trying to pull a cherry picker across it by yourself without swinging the engine wildly.

 

the project continues.

[banzai510(hainz)]

Why you don't pull the hood off? hopefull you didn't bent the hinges or hood. don't take much to bend them

hopefully you just take the hood off putting this motor back in.

[Style23]

yea i pulled the hood off after i pulled the engine....i pulled the engine by myself and didnt have another set of hands to help remove the hood.

[Style23]

planned on working on the engine bay all weekend and ended up having to work both days...so sunday about 5pm when i went to get started on it i fired up the air compressor and the auto water drain blew and oring and the tank wouldnt hold air...so in all i got 0 work done on the car this weekend...

 

but today i picked up a new one, and kind accidetally bought another motor...so now i have 2 ka's. at least i got an ECU, 5 speed trans, and complete wiring harness with this one...although the engine itself is nowhere near as clean.

 

on a side note, does anyone know what the screws are inside the fenders to remove them? i havent been able to get them off yet, i had assumed they were phillips, but couldnt get any to turn. Im not sure if ive got it wrong or they are just packed full of dirt.

[mrbigtanker]

Yes the 2 screws on the front bottom side that you can't see are Phillips. I love we're your wagon is going, I have been getting second thoughts of even finishing my wagon but you just got me motivated again.Watqnbes are a good choice to I have a hook up on a set for 3000.00 or a little less bit they are wide so rear will make fit but front won't work unless I run flares.