Autocross/Street Handling '72 510 Wagon

[jalen]

It's not your alternator belt is it? Mine does it, and stops after I tighten the belt. I have to readjust it every few months. I believe futafab had a bracket to keep it tight.

 

And I'm 5'7" which is perfect for the wagon especially with the bench seat in it

[Stupid_fast]

Get an idea of what the new motor and exhaust sound like. It really roars up in the 3-6k rpm range. Going to need to figure out some of the whining and fix it, it's either a belt or an alternator problem

 

Car gets aligned this week and then I just need to fine tune. I've got it in the ball park but it could always be better, need to check sync and air/fuel all the way through the rpm range. 

 

Will have some finished engine bay pics tomorrow before I leave for the last week of school. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

jrock and all of you tall Datsun know how this feels. 

 

Hahahaha you're the only person who makes me feel normal sized. :)

[jrock4224]

LOL I ANSWERED THE "how do u get in that truck .." question this am at the gas station...... I said its my religion .... no different then sitting in a pugh for 6 hours ....that vg swap should be the how to do shit the right way faq thread ....... that's a clean install and I ask wheres the build thread ....... but I prolly already did and know that it was pre ratsun?   but I can hope!!!!!! that's the sweetest vg install......ever..... saved the pics...

[jrock4224]

lol two things........... I tap the throttle occasionally on gear change too ...lol and your neighbor was givin u the stink eye stare ...... any story there....?

 

 

 

ok three things... on the vg, looks to be set back and eliminated the wiper area.... I gather from the track tires and set up looks like it was set back for weight purposes........there's a ton of room between the rad and the front of the motor which leads me to believe this also......here in Washington that motor would be sick but I need wipers.....but I bet setting it back (if it is ) makes a big difference on the track...damn that vg swap is clean ... slap the pops on the back for that one....for me (yes I am wondering outloud along with phixius ... vg in a 521 hmmmmmmmmm...nahhhhhh phixius can do it first...)((I would love a vg wagon though,  carters makes me happy to look at his vg goon))(((please vg your goon soon SoDG)))(((((no more parenthesis)))))

[mrbigtanker]

What front lip is that?

Oh no its a FRAM,get away from the FRAM.lol

[hang_510]

eliminated the wiper area.... here in Washington that motor would be sick but I need wipers.....

 

search "down under wiper" for the hidden motor conversion.

[Son_of_a_Datsun_Guy]

LOL I ANSWERED THE "how do u get in that truck .." question this am at the gas station...... I said its my religion .... no different then sitting in a pugh for 6 hours ....that vg swap should be the how to do shit the right way faq thread ....... that's a clean install and I ask wheres the build thread ....... but I prolly already did and know that it was pre ratsun?   but I can hope!!!!!! that's the sweetest vg install......ever..... saved the pics...

 

lol two things........... I tap the throttle occasionally on gear change too ...lol and your neighbor was givin u the stink eye stare ...... any story there....?

 

 

 

ok three things... on the vg, looks to be set back and eliminated the wiper area.... I gather from the track tires and set up looks like it was set back for weight purposes........there's a ton of room between the rad and the front of the motor which leads me to believe this also......here in Washington that motor would be sick but I need wipers.....but I bet setting it back (if it is ) makes a big difference on the track...damn that vg swap is clean ... slap the pops on the back for that one....for me (yes I am wondering outloud along with phixius ... vg in a 521 hmmmmmmmmm...nahhhhhh phixius can do it first...)((I would love a vg wagon though,  carters makes me happy to look at his vg goon))(((please vg your goon soon SoDG)))(((((no more parenthesis)))))

 

 

Yeah, that motor blew up and was out of my dad's car before Ratsun haha (it was a Robello built VG that had some oil pressure issues and just kaput too many times). He's in the progress of something super secret now. there is actually a chunk of firewall missing right behind the VG there so that he could move it back and set it perfectly between the strut towers how he wanted it, and to clear the original Maxima plenum he had been using. So there wasn't really any room for a wiper motor there anymore and he decided that as an autocross/show/track toy, he didn't need the wipers anyway, and he likes the way it looks without wipers. 

 

My neighbor wasn't giving me the stink eye, he wanted to come watch it run for the first time with the new motor. He has an old Chevy pickup and his son has a 66 mustang that makes ten times the noise that my car does. He came down to get the grand tour right after that. 

 

I've thought about VG a lot, but it's not in the cards for a long time. I'll run this 2.1 until it blows up then start thinking about a VG or something like it. (Maybe Nissan will have gotten their shit together and I'll pull a motor out of a wrecked IDx when they start getting on the road... you didn't hear that from me) 

[Son_of_a_Datsun_Guy]

Some in car audio

 

http://i1221.photobucket.com/albums/dd471/Son_of_a_Datsun_Guy/2071B7ED-22B3-448E-83DC-DB21C0C9B3DC-6011-0000081EA07C82AF_zps4a5d9fb4.mp4

[jrock4224]

seems like your tach revs faster then the car...and higher..

[Son_of_a_Datsun_Guy]

Possibly, but it is just sitting in neutral in that video. The engine does rev quick, that's why I kept it down at a 2.1 instead of going to a full 2.3

[jrock4224]

just seems like when u give it that constant throttle towards the end of the vid it says like 4500 and sounds like barely 3k..........my buddys got this sick timing light that when u hook it up it will give u a rpm reading too ....... makes stuff like this nice ...... those revs didnt sound like 6500 either ....not dawging just seems not accurate ...

[jrock4224]

watched it again ...either that audio is wierd or thats not accurate.......call troy tell him no bueno 

[Just Joel]

x2, not right at all...

[Son_of_a_Datsun_Guy]

Must be the tach, I've had the engine hooked up to a wideband for tuning and to a separate external tach that I used to tune the car and get it to idle.

 

The tach reads right at low rpm and the idle is correct (if not a tad high compared to where it was on the external unit), could be that the tach is getting problems further up in the rmps for some reason. 

 

I've driven the car several times (as have my dad and Rob at ZCarGarage) none of us have found something wrong with the motor itself. 

 

The motor does sound odd inside the car too, part of the reason I shot the video. Combination of rattles and the air cleaner not being on. 

[jrock4224]

agreed it looks way closer at idle then it does when u spool the motor up that tach isnt right .......

[Son_of_a_Datsun_Guy]

After some discussion with dad we figured it might be a scaling problem with the tach (so it gets exponentially more off the high the rpm) 

 

We're going to try to put a ballast resistor back on it and see if it helps the problem

[rusty12ver]

Most stock tachs are accurate up to a point, as they read higher they can be off as much as 300 rpms. If the tach gets a board retrofitted, it does better. But it's usually the mechanical part that doesn't keep up.

[jrock4224]

it looks way more then 300 rpm off

[Just Joel]

This ^^^

[jrock4224]

more like 3k at the top end of things ... that's exponentionally multiplying yo

[Son_of_a_Datsun_Guy]

I haven't really had a lot of time to take a look at the tach yet, that problem may be tabled for the time being while I get bigger projects figured out. 

 

Got the front end aligned and I drove it for a while until it just totally lost all power on me, felt like it was running on three cylinders. 

Luckily it was just a bad spark plug wire (my fault from when I put them together)

 

Then I drove the car again, about a mile into the test drive it backfired really loudly and completely died on me. I'm now fairly certain that it is getting no fuel into the carbs or cylinders. it does have spark at all plugs and there is nothing noticeably wrong with the carbs. 

 

This leaves a few options:

 

1. It's vapor locked. I don't know how likely it is because it's sat for a couple days now and still won't fire. 

 

2. The fuel pump has failed. Also not sure how likely this is since I've never seen one of the stock pumps just up and break. 

 

Any other ideas of what it could be? There is fuel in the filter but haven't had a chance to confirm that it has fuel in the carbs. I won't be able to work on the car this week so I'm just gathering diagnostic ideas. 

 

First thing I'll do is get some starter fluid blowing into the carbs while I crank to see if I can jump start it (maybe there's just some weird suction problem somewhere). 

 

 

 

 

On a completely different note, I need to do something about the heater soon. I'm tired of not having a defroster. I'm not really a fan of the stock heater (mine has a bad valve and possibly a bad heater core, been out of the car forever). Does anyone have experience with any aftermarket heaters? I know there are some companies that make a modern heater that is specifically made for older cars, anyone actually installed one?

[Son_of_a_Datsun_Guy]

Been working on making the choke more responsive on the carbs, and have finally resorted to return springs for the short term since I haul ass back down to college on Sunday (this time with the car!)

 

 

 

 

 

Also I realized I forgot to post good pics of the inner workings of the air cleaner. 

 

 

 

 

The LZ hauls ass, so much fun to drive, last little bits go on tomorrow (PCV, transmission needs to spaced down to clear the tunnel a little more, wiper motor needs to get put back in, interior put back in place... then she's good to go)

 

I'll get a driving video in soon. 

[Son_of_a_Datsun_Guy]

 

Loaded up for the trip down to SLO.

 

Made the trip very nicely, not a hitch. Cool coast pics coming soon.

[CanYouSpareADime]

Saw your goon today man :P

[Son_of_a_Datsun_Guy]

I was just about to post haha. 

 

Spent quite a bit of time on tuning this week. Adjusted the valves

 

 

The gaps were pretty off since I first got it started... part of the break in process I suppose 

 

 

A friend of ours, Rico, came over to give me a serious in depth "how to" for tuning the SUs. He got them running better than they ever have. 

 

I also forgot to show the fuel bowl overflows on the carbs that Luke did for me last time I was there.