1974 620 With A Twist

[Canadian510]

So if you've been following my 510 build you'll know that I picked up a 620 almost 2 years ago now and never got a chance to do anything with it.

Well I've finally got moved into the new place and have some free time so this project is kicking off!

When I first found it, inside a guys small shed at the end of his driveway, was surprisingly solid and he wanted $1500 for it.

 

Picked it up with a flat bed and brought it home, only thing I did in the next 2 years was take those ugly mirrors off



Truck was mainly a seat for the dog



And yesterday finally got it loaded and brought to the new place



Now the short term goals are to pull the old l18 that burns as much oil as a 2 stroke, replace it with the build l16 I had originally in the 510, throw a clutch in, and lower the truck substantially with new wheels/tires/shocks just to get it going. Once that happens ill be going with a rather unique engine/trans combo that I won't let out of the bag yet, check back for more updates!

[]2eDeYe]

Did you keep those mirrors? 

 

Nice solid truck to start a build with :cool: 

[hobospyder]

Did you keep those mirrors?

 

 

right?

 

Got any pics of how they were mounted?

[Canadian510]

Did you keep those mirrors? 

 

Nice solid truck to start a build with :cool:

 

 

right?

 

Got any pics of how they were mounted?

 

 

Sorry guys threw them out, One was badly cracked and the other frame was pretty beat up. Someone mounted them with 4 very big self tapping screws, going to have to fill in those holes too.

[Canadian510]

Not much of an update since I've been unexpectedly out of province the past week but did get some parts ordered for when I get back.

 

Disc brake brackets because running the stock 4 wheel drums would be way too sketchy, discs, shocks, a clutch and headgasket for the l16, and getting the mystery engine dropped off at a shop to be checked over.

 

Once I get the engine bay prepped and the mounts in I'll let that cat out of the bag.

 

Also sourced a transmission locally I just need to pick up, hopefully will have that back in roughly a week.

[Canadian510]

Got some work done in the past few days. Firstly got the truck lowered close to where i want it, need to pull/roll the rears though, little bit of poke there and i'm not a fan

 

 

And then went about pulling the tired old l18, did i do this in the opposite order i should have? Probably... Do i care? No. 

 

 

Was pretty uneventful, broke the 2 trans mount bolts but the rubber was shot anyway so no big deal. Driveshaft bolts were also seized had to cut them off and pound them out. Going to swap over the front cover and a few other small things to my l16 and separate the engine and trans tomorrow.

 

Part of me wants to pick up some cheap shoes for the brakes so i can take it for a little spin after getting the L16 in but it would kind of be a waste since i ordered Beebani's full balljoint/coilover front end that uses D21 discs. We'll see what happens there. 

[Canadian510]

Got the engine separated from the trans today and tore the old l18 down to a short block. Probably only keeping the open chamber a87 off of it, just not enough room around for all of it and have no use for another L series block laying around. The poor old clutch was quite a site, no materiel left and most of the fasteners wore down to almost nothing, no wonder it was slipping haha.

 

Also transferred all my pictures in this thread from PhotoJunk to a new spot, thankfully only a few pics in this thread, my 510 one not so much :/ 

[5t341tH]

Looking good. Wish I had space to pull engines like you

[Canadian510]

Got some more work done to the truck today, l18 is fully disassembled and figuring out what i'm going to do with it. It's in rough shape, crank is very scored and the cylinders aren't the best so probably going to end up junking it unfortunately. With my limited space and 2 engines already sitting around just don't have the room for another that i'll probably never do anything with. 

 

Engine bay waiting on the new motor, it's going to be cleaned up and slightly modified to fit the new engine.

 

 

Threw some stickers on because that's important

 

 

New engine might be dropped off this weekend then i can really start some progress on this thing 

 

[Canadian510]

Cleaned the engine bay up some, going to remove the battery tray next.

 

 

Things are probably on hold until the weekend now when i might be getting the engine here and can go about test fitting. Then the firewall will most likely be getting some "adjustments".

[]2eDeYe]

Keep up the good work :thumbup:

[nl320what]

L16 definitely a smart motor.

 

Every crossed your mind to swap in a rotary (light weight power)? plentiful and so very simple.....

[Canadian510]

L16 definitely a smart motor.

 

Every crossed your mind to swap in a rotary (light weight power)? plentiful and so very simple.....

 

That was actually very high on my list, even picked up a 12a front mount cover that popped up local incase i did decide to go that route, last second decided to go with something else

[nl320what]

Rotary has to be thought on a different realm than a regular piston engine.  

 

Think about not needing to worrying about valve adjustments, cam timing, broken rockers, broken timing chain, oiling issues, compression ratio, power adding possibilities.......

 

About the size of a geo metro 3cyl engine with 120+hp and cheap.

 

100hp rotary feels more like 300hp comparison cause it pumps power 3x as fast, basically its a 2stroke.

[Lockleaf]

Cheap is relative. Have you looked at how much a basic rebuild kit costs for even a 12a? Replacing the apex seals and new gaskets is surprisingly costly. And it gets ridiculous very quickly if you get a master kit or complete kit.

[nl320what]

Most go well over 150k miles, as long as the oiler is good. Wont need to rebuild, but still has way less parts to worry about.

 

The weight savings in the front of the truck, along with the powerband would scream.

 

I drove one for many years, you dont know until you do, its very different feeling when your shifts points are 9k rpm normally.

 

Id google Datsun Rotary swap for the 510 and trucks..... I feel its a worth while swap for little money and big returns or I wouldnt push as much, but it is up to you in the end :)

[Canadian510]

Well this has kind of gone on the back burner since I'm doing the SR20ve swap in the 510 but had a huge part of the build arrive. Beebani's full front end conversion that changes out the kingpins and torsen bars for balljoints and coilovers. This will give me the room I need to run the exhaust on the engine (which I'm still not sharing till it's in the engine bay)

 

[datzenmike]

Most go well over 150k miles, as long as the oiler is good. Wont need to rebuild, but still has way less parts to worry about.

 

The weight savings in the front of the truck, along with the powerband would scream.

 

I drove one for many years, you dont know until you do, its very different feeling when your shifts points are 9k rpm normally.

 

Id google Datsun Rotary swap for the 510 and trucks..... I feel its a worth while swap for little money and big returns or I wouldnt push as much, but it is up to you in the end :)

I think that's 150k Kilometers. Rotarys are not at all known for long life. While there have been improvements I doubt longevity was increased 3 times. They are known for shitty emissions and even shittier fuel economy and they burn more oil. They do have good power but this is mostly because of how their displacement is assumed. They are light and they like to rev.... now on this, if swapping a rotary your stock gearing should be changed also to take advantage of this. The Wankle is an evolutionary dead end but even a dinosaur could catch and eat you..

[2wheel-lee]

 The Wankle is an evolutionary dead end but even a dinosaur could catch and eat you..

 

Great description!

[G-Duax]

 They do have good power but this is mostly because of how their displacement is assumed........ The Wankle is an evolutionary dead end ..

 

Just a personal mind lock...

Displacement is more like lied about.....

Found an old tech book on engines, including rotaries back in the late '60s, and the way Dr. Wankle figured displacement, and the way Mazda figures it, is about 2:1.

Mazda spent a lot of $$$ with magazine ads to influence mags to go along with their way, and sponsored a lot race organizations, and tracks to have it their way.

 

This is further proven if you look at rotary power output/vs. piston engine output, and their corresponding fuel injector size.

The only reason that a Mazda 1.3L can use the same fuel delivery rate as say a 2.6L piston engine is that they are actually the same displacement, since gas needs the air/fuel ratio to burn properly.

 

But not to start a this vs. that argument, lets move on to the dead end thing.......

 

Do they even offer that engine any longer ?

I think even they consider it's a lost cause now, probably due to the 'green earth' B.S..

Not that I don't like them, hell, I like 2-stroke engines also. But even they are giving away to 4-strokes on bikes, karts, weed eaters, etc..

 

Most beautiful sounding engines are 4-rotor Mazdas, 6-cylinder piston engines, and 3-cylinder 2-strokes.

Check out 'Scoot 4 rotor' on YouTube. Scoot is a shop in Japan that built a non-turbo 4-rotor made by stacking 2 12As together.