510tdi

There's a group from the east coast that are (were) planning a trip to the Canby meet this year. I'm really glad to see there's finally a date for them to work with. Now, however, I'm not sure how to convince them it really is a good time, what with all the "laundry" hanging out at the beginning of this thread. If the east coasters are reading, it really is a good hang, seriously. There's a lot of us that'd love to make your acquaintance.

I finally put a "mugshot" up. I know it's not a Datsun but it's the ride that gets more use in the summer. It's a 1948 Alice Chalmers Model G cultivating tractor with a Kubota 20hp diesel engine conversion. Kinda' like the Porsche 356 of the tractor world, with the engine in the rear. Also, here's a picture of my wagon (considerably faster but not as good at cultivating). ...oops. Can't seem to post this picture in a format Ratsun will accept. I'll keep working on it.

Micro and Lock, thanks for the great info! Way more ratios available than I thought, unfortunately the tallest is 3.34:1. It's been a while but when I crunched some numbers based on wheel diameter, over drive ratio, etc, I think something around a 3.0:1 rear end was ideal. This would put the TDI at around 22-2400 rpm at about 65mph. As I recall, that's about peak torque and efficiency for highway speed, also would allow over 110 mph top speed (around 4400 rpm). Also, LSD would be ideal to allow better control of drift angles, another reason to combine a turbo diesel with rear wheel drive:-)

Very interesting. Do you have any examples of Toy axles used in 510 wagons you can steer me to? What kind of Toyota rear end are we talking about? AE86, RWD Celicas, Coronas, Tundras? Are they the right width and what is their lug pattern? I'd also need it to be able to handle the Diesel's torque. I was contemplating using a Ford, like from a Mustang II or Granada, they came in all kinds of ratios as high as 2.7:1, I think. Problem is they'd almost certainly need to be narrowed$$$.

Fat510, I don't know what cis turboing is. Giles and others have figured out how to combine the guts of the old (non-TDI) turbo diesel VW injector pump into the body of the TDI pump so you can have most of the power and efficiency of the TDI with the simplicity of the turbo dsl. I think it also gets a waste gated turbo instead of variable vaned type. What I've been told is that you have to learn to drive converted mechanical TDIs. Since you don't have the ECU thinking for you, you learn to push it just to the point it would start smoking and wasting fuel. I talked to a fellow who put an m-TDI in an old Scirroco. It had some mods like bigger injectors and turned up pressure. He said it was an absolute monster, able to smoke 'em in 3rd gear at any time and get north of 40 mpg. A 510 with that motor would be awesome, a torque demon. One problem with the wagon would be finding a rear end with appropriate gearing. Even with the Toyota 5 sp over drive (.85 or so), the stock 510s 3.9 axle would be wasting the TDIs torque. And you'd be spinning it too fast on the highway for maximum mpgs. I wonder if there's a rear end with tall gears (around 3.0) that would fit the 510 relatively easily?

Yeah, you're right. I'll work on the pictures. Now that I've got an Ipad (still no cell phone though) I should be able to step up to the next level and include pics. Oooooh, high tech! Damn, just when I was gettin' used to indoor plumbing!:-) Fritz - There's a company in Portland that makes all the parts to put a TDI into a Suzuki Samurai using a Suzuki or Toyota truck 5 speed. They're called Acme Adaptors. If I do the conversion I'd get what's called a hybrid mechanical injector pump from a guy in Canada named Gyles. This would delete all the TDI electronics and make it very simple. You'd lose the computer tuning and lose a small percentage of efficiency but also loose the tricky VW electronics. A 2100 lb 510 (2004 Jetta is 3500 lb!) with this engine would be a monster and probably get 45-50 mpg.

I just found out that all this time I thought I was a member I've just been lurking..how embarrassing! So I guess it's time to introduce myself. I'm a musician, farmer and a long time 510 lover. My enthusiasm for Dimes started as a kid living in upstate NY with an older motorhead brother who had the wisdom to drag his kid bro. with him to the famed Watkins Glen race track. This was in the early 70's so I was lucky enough to witness first hand some (in my humble opinion) of the greatest race cars of all time, including the Porsche Can Am onslaught and, of course, the BRE Datsun team. With all this motor racing over load, what did I come away with? A deep and abiding love of these little boxes on wheels! When I got old enough to look for my first wheels you KNOW what I was looking for but by now it was the early 80's and my family had moved to Alaska. Finding a decent 510 before CL and ebay in the Great White North was like a needle in a haystack but I stuck with it. To make a long story short I finally ended up, after years of sweat and blood, with my dream. I had my '72 navy blue 2 door pretty dialed in. 1800 SSS motor, dog leg 5 sp, Quickor bars, Libres, 205/60 Wingfoots, Scheel seats (lucky find!). A pretty trick little 510 for 1985! My best road trip ever was driving her down to Oregon from Alaska. Now years later I find myself with 2 wagons. No IRS is a drag but compensated for by the added utility of the wagon's extra space. I was committed for a long time to dropping my VW TDI motor and Toyota 5 sp into one of them but we'll see if that happens. I'm also intrigued by the idea of an Ecotec swap. Thanks to all you contributors for keeping the 510 viable and lets hope these little gems never get so valuable that us peasant class motorheads can't continue to enjoy them! 510tdi P.S. Anybody know if Mario is still selling those carpet kits for 510s? I could really use two of them for my wagons.