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New to the 510 family


nscason

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Hey guys. I have been part of the Datsun community for over a decade now. I started with my '77 280Z. It was and still is my first car. I have modded the hell out of it and in over 10 years still not done. You guys know how that goes. hahaha I live in the desert in southern California. Imperial Valley to be more spacific. 

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Thats my '77 at the Motorsport Auto Z West Coast Nationals this year in Orange CA.

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Im running megasquirt 3, distrubutorless, individual race coils and semi sequential injection. I finally  got the wideband and the ecu dialed in and had a successful dyno run this year. Its been all seat of the pants tuning, being that I live out in the middle of no where and don't have any access to a dyno. Now I'm ready for the turbo to go on. Just need two more parts and its build time. I'm going with a holset hx35w from a 99 dodge cummins. Its the same as the turbo on my 96 dodge cummins, heh heh heh. The body though is a touch rough. I have mounted, relocated, cut and hacked this car. I found a good replacement car to throw the soul of my Z into. A '71 240Z that has been sitting out in the desert near me for the past 20+ years. Picked it up for $500 and its complete too!!

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This one is a project for a little down the road. I need to finish moding the '77 so everything gets installed in the '71 only once. I want a clean instal on everything.

 

The latest addition to my Datsun family is my '72 510 4doorIMG_0476.jpg

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This one was sitting for 20+ years as well. It is also complete as well. Oh, AND I also got a truck bed full of extra 510 parts. Deal of a lifetime haha. My first plans are to get it running and safely drivable. My dead line for that is Christmas. Shitty thing is that its been out of the DMV system for a very long time. So I need to take it over there to get the VIN verified *:| I think I may see if I can get it running in a week or two and drive it there. All rat rod status. haha With all the cross over parts and surplus of 510 and Z parts, it just might be possible. I figured I would say hey and introduce myself. Oh, right. My name is Nick Cason 

 

Looking forward to chatting with you guys. Hit me up if you have questions or comments or have seen me at the Z nationals.

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Welcomw nick. Awesome first post, pic to letter ratio is still a little off though. What's the interior and under the hood look like on that dime? Can we get some daytime shot please? Are the wheels just steelies? Stockers? I can't tell they're a black void

 

Hi, I like pictures, reading takes too much thought ^_^

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Thanks Guys!! Love the warm welcome! The lights I have on the 77 are HID projection beam that I purchased from Motorsport Auto. They will fit anything with a 7" round headlight. Huge upgrade from the stock or even the H4 upgrades. Im going to look for something similar for the 5 3/4 round like the 510 has. 

 

As far as the 510 goes. I left right after work and drove to landcaster area (mojave desert) to buy the 510. It took 4.5 hours to get there with my truck and trailer. Got there at 9pm. It took 2 hours to load everything, ugh what a pain. Drove home in 5 hours. Over 500miles in one evening/night and all on a work night. Got home 20 min after I usually wake up for work. Took the truck, trailer and 510 to work with me. hahaha I was so tired after work from driving all night that my short nap went 3hrs. woke up at 9:30. Still had to make room in my garage and take off the rollers off the 240Z. Didn't even get to unchaining the 510 till midnight. All on another work night. The pics were taken then. hahaha got it in the garage by 2am.

 

The interior is complete and had boxes full of parts. hahaha the motor is the same way, complete. the hood made the trip home in the bed of my truck. The previous owner had it unbolted for some strange reason. Oh, I was stoked when I saw them, the motor has the stock carb and manifold. There was another spare stock carb and manifold in the back seat. The easter egg was in the trunk. I have the dual SU's and manifold!!! YAY! Thats what the 240Z and my MG midget has!! Woo! My MG runs like a champ. I love those carbs. Future plans for the 510 will be Turbo, fuel injection and megasquirt 3. Thats much later though.

 

The rims I will be putting on the 510 are my polished vintage centerline drag series 14x7

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2 of them are currently on the front of the 77 Z. I plan on slapping 185/55r14's on them and trading up to 15x7 on the front of the Z.

 

I'm currently on vacation and would almost rather be in a 115+ degree garage to get started on the 510. So ill get some better pics (daytime ones ahahaha) once I'm home. Thanks guys for the great feedback.

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Thanks! Calexico?! no way! Ya, so Im in Mission Beach, San Diego. Out of the 110+ degree weather right now. Absolutely love it here when its blazing hot back home. Plans for the 510 right off the bat is to get it running and drivable. After that, clean and polish it and make it look new ;) and mod it to make it as fast as the Z.

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The plan is to get some flairs on it. It is a negative off set. The rollers in the pic of the 240Z is what is currently on the 510. The 240 is wheel'less on stands for now. Those are 14x6 and they fit inside the fenders. Im going to get the new tires (185/55r14) on those wheels for now and eventually swap the tires to the centerlines when I'm ready. I need to get replacement wheels for the front of my 280Z before I slap the centerlines on the 510. I am going to get some pics of the 2 centerline rims on the 510 that don't have tires to get an idea of where I'm at. Well, sometime once I get home. It still is crazy hot back home. It's supposed to be 115 for most of the week. After being in San Diego for over a week, I don't think ill be getting much done. 

 

The paint is weathered and not the greatest. Ill know more once I clean it, polish and wax it. My midget looked almost as rough and Its an original survivor car that would look great at a car show. The 510 is really straight and relatively dent free. There are a few that I plan on pulling at some point. Nothing major though.

 

The future plan for it is:

White paint - matched to what I will shoot on the 240Z

Black JDM fender mirrors - exactly like what is on the 280Z

Black fender flairs - matching what the 280Z has

Black hood and Black BRE style stripes down the side with DATSUN in it.

and the centerline drag series - Like on the 280Z

 

See where Im going with it ;) haha I am going to have the 240Z and the 510 be a matched set. All while retaining an L16 (heavily modded) like the 280Z is ;)

 

Not bad, huh?

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Ok, so my 510 was sitting for 20 years. I got it in my garage about 3 weeks ago. Started with taking everything out of the car that wasn't part of the car. vacuumed it and blew out everything. I wanna say I found 4 dead mice inside and in the trunk. Surprisingly the wiring was left alone. I also laid out all of the extra parts. It took up the entire floor of where one of my cars normally is parked. I got a touch bored and wiped down the entire exterior of the car with glass cleaner and paper towels. You don't want to start compounding a sitting car with all of the weathering and junk on the paint surface. I gave it a good once over with the buffer so it would look a little pretty. That way it doesn't look like I'm working on an old piece of junk. That was all one evening. The next day....

 

Now its time for engine mechanical and electrical. A car sitting for 20 year, not my first rodeo. Lets do this.

 

Pulled the spark plugs. They were dark brown and not covered in any debris. Great sign! I had a small bottle of marvel mystery oil. squirted some in each cylinder. Checked the oil. Oil was present and it was black. Another good sign. Dark black is simply old, not contaminated. The oil filter was so rusted on the outside that you couldn't tell what brand or filter number. I changed the oil and filter and the paint on the block inside where the filter is was perfectly new and a really pretty blue. Didn't expect to see that at all. I then jumped over to the fuel system. Cut off the old fuel lines and blew air through the hard line between the pump and carb. Line was clean. Blew through the pump. Only a little bit of fine dust varnish. Installed new hose going from pump to hard line. Time to see if the motor was free. Grabbed the fan and turned it by hand and the crank was free!! Motor wasn't frozen. Things are looking promising. Hooked up a length of fuel line from the pump to a gas can. Grabbed my extra car battery, hooked it up and put the key in. Got the two red lights on the dash. Some electrical works. Turned it to start and nothing. Grabbed my remote trigger and tried that. Motor tuned over!! spark plugs were still out. Turned pretty nice. Cranked it for a while and the low oil pressure light turned off. Good, good. No Fuel coming through the pump from the gas can. Sucked the fuel through and cranked again. Fuel Shot out! Alright, Pump works!! Installed the fuel line to the carb. Checked for voltage at the coil and ground through the points while cranking. good and good. Plugged in a spark plug and held it to the head. Spark was present. Great! Put in the spark plugs and cranked it to prime the carb. Bad sight glass o-ring. Shit. OH! There was an extra carb and manifold on the floor that looked like it was rebuilt 10+ years ago and never used. Extracted the o-ring and installed on car carb. Cranked to prime carb AND!!!....

 

ITS STARTED!!!! ITS ALIVE!!!!!! after only 5 HOURS of being under the hood. WOO!!

 

Didn't smoke, didn't putter, miss or stutter! Holy shit! HELL YA!

 

Didn't mention the cooling system. The radiator was empty looking. Blew out the inside of the radiator. Coolant blew out! Sweet. topped off the cooling system with water and it immediately started leaking from the braided hose connected to the intake manifold. Installed a new hose.

 

Not to shabby, huh guys? hahaha

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A little lower, maybe smaller tires, and 280zx struts will make those wheels fit perfect ... it looks too clean for flares. The 280zx struts narrow the front track width by 3/4" on each side, and they are a good way to go lower with better brakes.

 

I agree on the wheels and ride hight. Those are simply my rollers. I ordered a set of 185/55-14 through americas tire and they will be in thursday or friday. Got the yokahama S drive extreme summer performance tires for under 400 ;) haha after those are on I am going to figure out how much I will be lowering it front and back to get the stance I want. And ya, At this point I can't justify the fender flairs. But ya, its getting there. The best part! I have the only 510 in the Imperial valley! Woo!!

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Nice work man. Bravo on the step by step resurrection. Obviously not your first rodeo. Have you done a compression test yet? To get the most out of that L16, the key is getting it breathing. Having wrenched on the 240 you likely know this but... Spend money on the head, porting, valve train, lumpy cam and you can get 9K rpm out of it. Open it up and that little monkey will sing falsetto. 510s are REALLY fun cars to drive. Enjoy.

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