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A 510 With an L Engine


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Hello everybody. My name is Collin, I've been lurking around the forum for a little while and decided that I may as well start a thread for my 1970 510 4 door project.
 
A little background on this project: I'm 17 and I've been around Datsun's my whole life, since my dad would auto cross and vintage race Roadsters. For a long time I wanted a Datsun as my first car, but when it came time to buy a first car, I ended up going the practical route and bought a 1993 Mazda MX-6. It's a great car and all, but a year and a half later I've pretty much decided that reliability and practicality sucks, so I started checking Craigslist for a Z. I couldn't really find any Z's that were both A: in my price range, and B: not completely rusted/missing a ton of parts.
So I also started looking for a 510, and came across the one I have. It belonged to a guy my dad vintage raced with who was trying to get rid of some projects, so I picked up the complete car, with some assembly required for $1500.
 
Pics:

 

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006_zpseef99148.jpgVery little cancerous rust. Two spots I have found so far

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and an interior:

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Oh, New Mexico. What you lack in rust you make up for in cracked dash boards

008_zps41aefbbf.jpg The front suspension is currently out of the car for cleaning and painting, rear is coming out soon

003_zpsc7234de6.jpgvarious suspension parts in the process of being cleaned and painted

 

And finally, the engine. L20b. I don't know which model truck it came from, but it is supposedly low miles. The guy I bought it from said he opened it and everything looked good, and since I know the guy I trust him

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I look forward to bringing you guys more updates soon

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Hey Collin, welcome to Ratsun.  Car looks great for the money.

 

Well it IS an L20B but someone has thoughtfully put an L18 exhaust / intake manifold on it. If the head is a U-67 it's from '75-'77 car or truck. If W58 it's '78 and up. I see it has a matchbox dizzy on it, only available from '79 but this could easily have been swapped on.

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L16/18 exhaust manifolds are known as the cast iron header.  Four into two design. Then finished by the two into one down pipe.

 

 

hearervsstockL16-18-1.jpg

 

You get all the advantages of a header... smooth flow around rounded bends and proper separation of the 1,3 and 4,2 cylinders. The stock manifold is equal to a header at least and superior in every way that makes them a pain in the ass. It is heavier though. 

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Nice job.  Be sure you use the 510's L16 motor mounts and  oil pan.  If you use the ones from the truck motor, it will not fit. Mike nailed the exhaust manifolds, all is good there.  When you get to it, have a 2.25" exhaust installed, I prefer a 2.5" but about 98% of the shops will tell you they can't install it because of the cross member.  That's because they don't know how to enlarge the tail pipe hole in it.

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The older I get the more I like L series powered 510's. 11 or 12 years ago when I bought my first 510 I couldn't stand L series. Funny how it changes. Anyways, love the car, love the patina, love that it's a 4dr. Good luck with your build!

Hate to tell you but I don't think the patina is staying. My school has an auto shop with a paint booth, so I can paint it for the cost of materials.

 

Nice job.  Be sure you use the 510's L16 motor mounts and  oil pan.  If you use the ones from the truck motor, it will not fit. Mike nailed the exhaust manifolds, all is good there.  When you get to it, have a 2.25" exhaust installed, I prefer a 2.5" but about 98% of the shops will tell you they can't install it because of the cross member.  That's because they don't know how to enlarge the tail pipe hole in it.

I have been looking for motor mounts so thank you for telling me. I know the PO was planning on using this engine in a 510, so I need to contact him and see if he switched oil pans already or not.

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Hate to tell you but I don't think the patina is staying. My school has an auto shop with a paint booth, so I can paint it for the cost of materials.

 

I have been looking for motor mounts so thank you for telling me. I know the PO was planning on using this engine in a 510, so I need to contact him and see if he switched oil pans already or not.

I have mounts if you need them.

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I would roll it the way it is on the outside

 

don't over do it by stripping the whole car down. if it wasn't bad don't tear it apart.

 

500$ would have been better as it wasn't running

 

 

olddatsuns.com the tech section read everything there 1st and it will answer 99% of your question

I'm painting it because 1. I want to, 2. I'm going to fix the rust on it, and I would rather have a consistent paint job on the whole thing instead of primer patches, 3. there are some other various dings that probably need a little bondo work, and again i'd rather have one color than a bunch of bondo all over the car.

I took apart the suspension because a bunch of the bushings are bad and need to be replaced, figured I might as well clean it all up too.

I probably did overpay but fuck it. Couldn't find a cheaper one near me

 

Thanks for the tech link

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  • 4 months later...

Well I'm not dead, just unproductive and occasionally lazy. But school's drawing to a close for now so I actually got some work done on the car. Put the front suspension all back together, got the rear together, but not quite all the way. I need to find some replacement bolts for the axles, but living in a small town the local hardware store doesn't have a very good selection of high grade metric bolts. The car was originally an automatic, so I'm half way through replacing the pedal box, as well as pulling out some other random interior bits to refinish/replace. Still looking for a 5 speed trans. Nest step is rebuilding my brakes. Not too many pics but here's what I have:

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Pedal box swap in the works

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Front suspension built up. Took this oic before I put the anti-roll bar on, but it's in there now

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I also found some sweet Enkie wheels my dad used to run on a Dodge Colt. They have been commandeered.

Also, good news for those liking the patina, everything turned to shit in Advanced Auto, nothing was getting done, and the line to get in the booth was like 8 people long for the semester. So the body is staying as is for now. Hope to bring more updates soon

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  • 3 weeks later...

Everything on this car is a fucking battle I swear. Spent a day getting my rear brake cylinders ready to rebuild, but couldn't find a rebuild kit in my heaping pile of hydraulic rebuild kits that would work, so I went online, found that new cylinders were 12 bucks from Vato Zone. Not a tough choice when rebuild kits were 10 from anywhere I looked. Got one side installed and everything buttoned together (pic below) and the other side is being a stubborn piece of shit and all I really have to show for the 3 hours I've spent on it is a bunch of bent clips. But once I get the passenger side cylinder installed I'll be just about done with the rear of the car. Pics:

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That's my drivers side set up. Needs shoes and the drum and then ready to roll. Still not sure if Roadster drums will fit, may just scoop up some 240z drums instead of drilling the Roadster ones out.

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The fruits of my labor...

This week I don't have much going on, start my summer job next week so I need to push to get stuff done. See you soon, Ratsun!

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Hey Collin, first thing before you really start cleaning the motor up is to drop it in there and make sure it runs good.... make sure the motor internals are good and possibly hope the stock carb is fine.

 

If it runs good then pull it out and clean the engine bay and keep on keepin on with your plan.

 

Probably want to drop the gas tank and clean it out, install a couple good clear inline fuel filters to catch debris and see if there is bad rust in the lines and tank still.

 

After you get it running sweet, then start the brakes, body work, paint, in a similar order.

 

What happens on these projects is you loose motivation cause the thing sits and you just dont want to mess with it anymore, hence you have someone else unfinished project that was sitting.

 

Let me know if you need some quick tips to get it going and back on the road with minimal pocket change.

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Hey Collin, first thing before you really start cleaning the motor up is to drop it in there and make sure it runs good.... make sure the motor internals are good and possibly hope the stock carb is fine.

 

If it runs good then pull it out and clean the engine bay and keep on keepin on with your plan.

 

Probably want to drop the gas tank and clean it out, install a couple good clear inline fuel filters to catch debris and see if there is bad rust in the lines and tank still.

 

After you get it running sweet, then start the brakes, body work, paint, in a similar order.

 

What happens on these projects is you loose motivation cause the thing sits and you just dont want to mess with it anymore, hence you have someone else unfinished project that was sitting.

 

Let me know if you need some quick tips to get it going and back on the road with minimal pocket change.

Little late to change direction. Body work is last on the list right now. Suspension is done really, brakes are next because stopping is probably more important than going. Once the brakes are done and the pedal box is swapped, that's when the engine is going in. I'm not tearing into the engine because I bought it from a trusted source and he said everything checks out on it. I don't have any carb for it, but the intake manifold on it is for a Weber, hence why I'm getting a Weber instead of the stock one. Money isn't a huge issue as far as getting it road worthy. Not because I'm rich, because I'm fucking poor, but because I have pretty much everything I need for it to get road worthy, except a carb and a few other odds and ends. But if I run into any issues I'll let you know.

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Thats true, sorry broham, wasnt trying to take over the project, have done alot and have a system down pat :)

 

The intake is a stock Japan one, so it accepts only the Hitachi DCH340.

 

Unless you use a Weber adaptor plate or modify the flange to bolt on a Weber DGV 32/36 carbie.

 

Either way no big deal, the adaptor is cheap and the throttle adaptor is cheap too.

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  • 4 weeks later...

That needs to be in the Classifieds section not here.... http://community.ratsun.net/classifieds/category/8-brakes/?sort_key=date_added&sort_order=desc 

 

There are Left and Right anti rattle clips so specify.

Early 610 and 710 also used them so expand your search to those too. (My '74 710 has them)

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