Mini Resto on the old man's car

[Pedro]

In the last year I've been assisting my dad a bit of a makeover on his Datsun. It started when we found a fully rebuilt FJ20 with forged pistons etc that he wanted to throw in his car as his motor was blowing a bit of smoke.

 

From there is spiraled as these things usually do;

 

It went from, swap the motor in and a front mount intercooler, to strip the engine bay, rub back and repaint. Install new brake master, clutch master, all new brake lines, all new front bushes and steering. GT28 turbo, custom radiator, electric water pump, MSD ignition, tidy up wiring, fabricate all new intercooler piping.

 

Anyway, some pics, it's been about a year now since it went offroad, and do to life has taken longer than expected, but over the last week I've had the car at my house so now it's moving alot quicker.

 

Here is a pic of how it looked prior to having the engine/box removed and the bay stripped back for paint.

 

 

Part of this original setup included a water to air intercooler using an RS liberty heat exchanger & pump and some custom jap cooler core. The engine bay paint was showing it's age (painted in 92) (see below) and the old water to air wasn't very efficient.

 

 

Old setup

 

 

Grill off showing water exchanger for old Water to air setup

 

 

Old radiator and cooler out

 

 

Checking cooler fitment, perfect. Due to the support already being opened for the N13 pulsar radiator.

 

 

Room showing the amount of space left with the cooler in. The fitting kit used for this car was a custom made kit (one of the early fj20 kits into a road going 510), so the motors sits a bit further forward than kits today, so we have a little less room.

 

Decision was made to purchase an electric water pump to give us the room needed for the radiator and thermo fan.

 

 

Grill will fit back on

 

 

Pic of radiator and cooler

 

 

untidy bay

 

More to come...

[fisch]

Beautiful car Pedro! Dig that hood!

[Pedro]

A while back I'd acquired a custom DR30 exh manifold which I'd swapped to my old man for some money owing, so we mocked it up, but it turned out not to be a go'er on a 510 as the turbo didnt fit on. We could have rotated the housing but I wasn't happy with it so we looked at other options.

 

 

A friend happened to have an s12 (gazelle) manifold which places the turbo down the back of the motor past the mount, that coupled with a T2 flange adaptor. A GT28RS has been purchased with the aim of 200rwkw, plenty for a 62 yr old man.

 

 

 

Few more pics of the progression before we'd removed the old motor or started on the bay.

 

Dummied up Intercooler to see what cutting was needed. Marked the sides and a small bit off the front valance

 

 

Now sits flush

 

 

Removing a bit from the sides of the rad support for rubber 90 degree bends

 

 

Cut with a grinder

 

 

Cleaned up a bit with a file (finished later)

 

 

Dummied up the rad and IC together, still deciding on how I'm going to mount them. Ideally something that holds them together would be good, will sort it out later.

 

You can see the space limitations and reason for cutting off the PS pulley

 

 

Old motor out, new one awaiting bay to be painted.

 

 

Worked out basic IC piping

 

 

My mates old man made me a flange out of aluminum to suit a falcon XF throttle body which are 65mm. Another friend welded that on, then we gave the inlet a coat of VHT wrinkle red, didn't come out the best with a few fucked areas, but will look ok once there is some stuff covering it.

 

 

The old man cleaned up and painted a spare rocker cover with the VHT, came out good.

 

 

I skimmed the lettering off with a blade, then will polish the lettering once the car is back together. The red should look good against the white bay and give a factory look

 

 

At the moment we are fitting all new steering, bushes etc etc. Gave the booster a coast of black paint so will reinstall that with the new brake and clutch masters.

 

Got 6metres of bundy tube to do all the brake lines, then motor back in and reconnect wires, fuel, finish IC and radiator....

[Pedro]

As I mentioned earlier the bay was untidy and needed a clean up.

 

 

After much debating with my old man (he wanted to use rattle cans to paint it), I organised a mate to spray it, I took one for the team and started doing all the rubbing back as best I could, then we masked up and laid some primer down.

 

 

Two weeks later he laid down the colour. Came out pretty good for a garage job after a few beers.

 

 

[Pedro]

I left it with my brother and dad for a bit, and they got the following done.

 

Install of the engine/bix/tailshaft today.

 

Extended lower control arms & new extended steering arms

 

New cross member & NOS eng mounts, brake master, clutch master and starting bending up new hard lines

 

One rebuilt FJ

 

New heavy clutch installed and box attached to the donk

 

eng & box in with zero damage to paint - happys days

[Pedro]

Brake lines finished - Bleed & test was successful.

 

New dump pipe made and installed by exhaust shop, they did a great job.

 

 

 

Again not bad for a home job with a $50 ebay flaring tool and a coke bottle for bending. Total cost was $32 AUD for 6 metres of bundy tube, and about $20 for new brake line nuts.

 

[Pedro]

Beautiful car Pedro! Dig that hood!

 

Thanks Fisch, it is a pretty decent example, there are a few things that I'd change (mirrors, remove tints, I'd actually prefer a bonnet without the vents), but all in all a pretty honest car.

[Pedro]

Final update

 

So it's still not running, but it's pretty close, and I'm on leave til the end of this week, so hoping to get it done if not very close to.

 

As it sits;

 

 

Gotta finish off cooler piping, turbo oil and water lines, fix up a bit of wiring, install the electric water pump, get a wheel alignment, run in tune etc etc etc, these things never end.

 

Also the red rocket cover will go on eventually, just not on the top of the list at the moment.

 

Most of that wiring will be hidden to hopefully, again, just want to get the thing running first.

[Charlie69]

really nice work and documentation. Please include information & picture of electric water pump used.

[Pedro]

Thanks for the feedback, we'll be using a Davies Craig EWP 80 electric water pump for this job, looks like this;

 

 

http://www.daviescraig.com.au/Electric_Water_Pumps-EWP80__12V__ELECTRIC_WATER_PUMP___PART_No__8005-details.aspx

 

There are better options available in the US (can't think of the company name right now), but friends have used these before with success, so I just followed their lead as these are only $160 AUD or around that figure.

 

With SR20's you don't have the room constraints so they aren't really needed. They are good when sitting in hot traffic as they keep the water flowing (faster than a water pump spinning at idle).

 

Downside is it's another electrical item that can fail, and you can't run a thermostat with them.

 

cheers

[Pedro]

Still plugging away on this car, but it's only waiting on a bit of wiring and a few hoses.

 

All IC piping is done, half the wiring is done. Also just got some new shoes for it

 

16x7 front

16x8 backs R8S Watanabes

 

 

Modified throttle body warmers to make them turbo water lines

 

 

Cut off and blanked the one I circled above, rewelded back on on the front pipe and added a -8AN threaded attachment

 

 

Electric water pump mocked up, they are meant to free hang off the hose. Was worried about room before we had it together but seems to fit well.

 

 

Locked my mate in to finish the wiring this weekend pending more 40 degree days, so fingers crossed.