71OldSchool510

Back in 1987 I worked at HamFab and prior to that I had been building in my garage for about a year an L20B block I had picked up at a garage sale, and the large port SSS head at FarPerformance Swap Meet in Mountain View, across from Garretson Enterprises. I then spent about $1,800.00 at CompTECH Machining in Sunnyvale, CA as they machined the block, porting, polishing heads, Shot-peen rods, de-burr block, balanced (everything down to the water pump pully), lightened the L20B flywheel to 11lbs which was also machined and balanced, exotic racing pistons and Cam from NISSAN. I ended up with about 10:1 compression, and measured 240 psi per cylinder one cylinder was 237 psi. In total I had spent about 10K on the motor itself over about 20 months. This build included used 44 Mikuni Side Draft long manifold. The Mikunis were modified with larger jets etc. The heads I had CC'd myself at the shop (HamFab). I learned a lot about race cars at HamFab as that is all we built "race cars" (mostly Porsche and Audi) and so many exotic engine and suspension modifications that would make your head spin. Thanks John Hammill and Bob Fernandez you guys are the best!!! Great times. I had mated the 280Z 5speed to the L-20B fairly easily though the clutch fork was different and so was the slave cylinder. I also reversed the transmission crossmember to fit properly and redilled holes and the shift hole was further back by about 5 inches. The driveshaft was custom made in Hayward but I don't remember who it was. I found some info on the transmission swap as someone else doing this in the 5nDime magazine. I used to lick stamps for Rex Janett at this house in Mountain View for the 5nDime magazine. Rex had a few sweeeeet 510's and one plain mint condition stocker. Ok back to the 71 510. I took the 610 struts cut them to 240z height and welded on threaded sleeves to accommodate 24o lb adjustable coil overs. Tilton Camber-Castor plate was installed and the castor was set about 5 degrees aft from stock (most people don't understand why this matters) but its very helpful for high speed stabilization keeping the car tracking straight. Cut the springs in the rear and slotted the rear cross member (slotting was done at FarPerformance, Mountain View only 1/2 mile from my house at the time) I machined 1" bump steer spacers out aluminum and hardened bolts 1" longer. All bushings were Teflon by Tilton. Mated with 240z brake calipers and rotors with a special offset bracket that was machined at HamFab for the 610/ 240z mating. Many more mods to the motor that included crank fire MSD ignition and Jacobs Coil, Large fuel pump, Large Racing Nissan Oil Pump. ( I was about to install a sump system but never did). This 510 had put out about 218+ hp with 92octane and some octane boost infused in the gas tank. Its all in the detail. The electronic tack was noted to have witnessed 9k rpm and was still accelerating hard... I backed off but the motor was a smooth as glass. I did not want to go much past the 9k rpm as shifting into 3rd at over 70mph gave an unexpected chirp. The cynthrithical clutch with counter weights was a big help in connecting the engine to the trans. Well I know its possible to squeak out 250hp if it is done right and spend a bit more money on a better intake system than the 44.