1969 datsun kingcab project

[Spoona_Jay21]

looks good wayno!

[Raggleflaggle]

Kudos on the effort!

[ratsun73]

this...is...so...cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!sweet build!

[Tristin]

This truck needs more U 

[wayno]

this...is...so...cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!sweet build!

 

Thankyou, I just drive it now, it gets decent mileage, and everything works except for the horn.  :)

[denmarkboy]

Thankyou, I just drive it now.  :)

 

 

i figured this was as good as any thread to ask how your doin? i was searching your build treads and couldnt find a current project in mid construction.just akin sure your feelin o.k.

[wayno]

I was just going thru this thread and thinking about all the stages this truck has went thru, I bought it as a non-running piece of shit and proceeded to make it into this vision I seen in my head, actually it only took a couple years to put it on the road as a daily driver, that is a short amount of time compared to my other builds and the fact that I had never done anything like this in my life.

Fast forward to a year or two ago, I always wanted to turbocharge this engine, well I finally accomplished it after 7 years of being on the road, I had just about everything I needed 7 years ago except the knowledge, it took a while but it is there now, and it has had no issues except for the cooling of the engine, earlier this year I stuffed a Volvo wagon radiator in it, it now runs way cooler than it has for years.

This is what the engine compartment looked like when I started.

This is what it looks like today except before the radiator conversion

 

There is not a lot of room in this engine compartment.

And it all fits under the hood.

 

This truck gets almost 31mpg going 75mph on the freeway, before I was lucky to get 28mpg and I had to drop a gear on hills, I don't have to drop a gear anymore with the turbocharger, it goes right up the hills without moving my foot at all, funny thing is I don't move my foot to go down the other side of that hill either, it just goes 75mph without moving my foot everywhere, it shows more boost going up the hill and less boost going down the other side, normally I show 4/6psi boost on level ground, close to 10psi going up the hills, and 2/3psi going down the hill, when I get on it I normally show 12psi and I have seen as much as 20psi(that is when I let off the pedal), I have adjusted it to go no higher than 15psi now.

I have every once in a while shown 1400 degrees exhaust gas temperatures(EGTs) when it is very hot outside(above 90 degrees) while going up a long uphill grade, I let off the pedal when it gets to 1400 degrees, but normally I see less than a 1000 degrees, I have made no big trips since installing the Volvo radiator, but I suspect that the radiator will have little effect on the EGTs, I have no intercooler, I put one in the 720 turbodiesel and it had very little positive effect so I have no plans on installing one in this truck.

 

The truck is a pleasure to drive now, I had it painted again recently but it appears I have taken no photos of it, it doesn't like to start below 40 degrees so I don't drive it in the winter very much so it stays under a vehicle cover, but I daily drive it all the time the rest of the year, it is what I drive on trips year round as I can plug it in and warm it up before starting it when it is cold outside, but the 520 kingcab with an L20b starts way easier in the winter so I drive that when it is cold outside locally, it has never been on a long trip.

[]2eDeYe]

Turbo diesel powah! 😄

 

 

[wayno]

I suppose I should have given more info on the turbocharger I used, it was out of a 1985 Subaru XT with a 1.8 liter gas engine, my 2500cc diesel engine seems to be a perfect match for this turbocharger, I have never been able to match the results I got with this turbo on my 720 turbocharged diesel engine, I always seem to have too much boost on the freeway with the VW Passat turbocharger cruising at 70mph but I suspect that the Passat turbo would work well on the SD22 diesel engine.

Now one has to keep in mind that I was not trying to make a race vehicle, I just wanted the truck to have the HP needed to make it nice to drive on the freeway, it has always done well around town, starting out from a stop light has never been the issue, the issue for me was on the freeway when I came to an uphill grade like I mentioned in the last post, the results I got were better power in 2nd gear up, 2nd gear is better, but 3rd gear I start to get pushed into the back of my seat, 4th gear is good also, 5th is different, it is not pushing me into my seat near as much, but it continues to accelerate up to freeways speeds(75mph for me), then I let off and then hold it at 75mph, the boost settles at 4/6psi and the EGTs settle at around 600 degrees, but what I wanted was to not have to drop gears when I came to a hill/uphill grade, I was successful, it goes right up any normal freeway hill without any issues, this is what I wanted out of the turbocharger and is what I got.

OK, I don't know how I ever found that 1985 Subaru XT with a 1.8 liter gas engine, but that is what I pulled the turbo out of, it appears to be a very rare car, I have not bought any of the so called replacement turbochargers on ebay that look nothing like my OEM Subaru turbocharger for my 720, the 720 SD25 turbodiesel engine that was in a Volvo wagon I bought came with a modified VW Passat turbocharger, I bought a aftermarket turbo and installed it, it is better but still has too much boost on the freeway, the modified turbo ran at 12psi plus on the freeway, this aftermarket one runs at 8psi plus on the freeway, I look at this only one way, my engines are used and old, I do not want to blow head gaskets because of boost I do not need, 4psi to 6psi works fine, when I floor the 521 with the Subaru turbo will build 20psi if I let it, but cruising on the freeway 4/6psi is just fine, I just don't want steady higher boost  on the freeway.

 

The reason I revived this thread is to tell newbies how I succeeded in turbocharging my inline injection pump diesel engine so they can succeed also, and in all the years that people on here and the Nissan Diesel Forums have tried to do this since the 1980s, no one has published a successful ending/result in a thread, what is hilarious is that it is so simple, and it even took me years to figure out.

The turbocharger doesn't really build much boost sitting in a driveway no matter how hard you rev it, maybe 1 or 2 psi, I have never tried using a larger turbo to see if it will build up any boost, I suspect it might build some, but bigger is not better on the Nissan diesel engine but you can buy too small of a turbo and drive around with 20psi all the time.

Here is the simple part, install the 2002 VW Passat turbocharger, leave everything on the engine stock(inline injection pump and associated throttlebody) including the vent line, then put a "Tee" fitting the vent line fitting for the boost gauge, I am saying to leave all piping and vacuum lines in there stock places, all of them, just put the turbocharger between the air filter and the throttlebody cover, change nothing except putting a "Tee fitting" in the vent line for the boost gauge.

The biggest mistake every one including me makes is piping that vent line too air, this causes the engine to try and run away because when boost is built it basically floors the injection pump and the engine tries to run away because it's getting a shit load of fuel, if the vent line also sees boost it cancels out the boost the other vacuum line sees on the throttlebody side, I know this doesn't seem right, but it works great and is repeatable, as once the 521 ran properly I did the same thing to the 720 and got the same result, there were different results because of turbocharger selection, but the engine ran properly without any nasty side effects like black clouds of smoke or the engine trying to run away.

Here are some photos of how I piped the turbo exhaust using the stock diesel manifold outlet.

 

 

 

 

I also did one this way, but the mount was too high and it rubbed in the hood.

 

Here is how I piped the 720 intake, it does rub on the brake booster but it clears the hood.

 

 

I have found a little more HP putting a valve in the vent line going from the piping between the turbocharger and the injection pump vent line barb, but if too much air is vented thru the valve the engine starts to try and run away again, this is a fine line here, venting some of the pressure in the vent line makes the fuel mixture richer, but in my situation it doesn't work, but I am not drifting either running 20psi all the time, that is a different aspect that I am not chasing, someone else can go that route.

[wayno]

Back in late February I installed a "Air Heater Element" on this truck, I did it because I wanted to be able to drive it year round, and it was very hard to start when below 50 degrees, I never even tried to start it below 40 degrees, I wanted to drive this even if I was not near a 120V plug in as I have a block heater, but that will not work other places.

Here is the Air Heater Element.

 

Here it is installed, unfortunately the wire lengths didn't work out, so red is negative, and black is positive, I put the unit between the intake manifold and the throttle body.

 

Here it is from the side, it starts at 34 degrees pretty good, but after I installed it it never got below 32 degrees, I was waiting for something in the 20s and it never happened.

 

After doing this I notched the frame over the rear axle, I did it in such a way that I didn't have to cut a hole in the bed floor.

 

Here it is, I used 4wd 720 leafs, it might be slightly too low as now the exhaust hits the ground sometimes on parking lot entrances and parking lot speed bumps, I might raise it a little in the front and see if that helps, I can feel it hitting the trimmed front bump stops sometimes also when going over the large speed bumps on public roads, I never had these problems before with this truck, I really didn't think it lowered it that much.

 

I also installed my 520 dash top/face that Jrock powder coated.

 

 

I still would drive this truck on a trip anywhere, it is a pleasure to drive, and I get lots of folks honking and waving when I drive around, and parking lots people approach me or say they like it all the time.