Duke's '72 510 (Carbed KA Autocross/Hillclimb car)

[Unclejesse88]

Nice job as always. Did you make the center piece of the camber plates, or just the outer section? They look great at any rate.

[burrito213]

this is cool. :thumbup:

[DISLEXICDIME]

The end of the tc rod looks like a. Tye rod end from my e30 rack.

[benzo]

After messing with the engine and transmission for so long on this (see my other thread on the noise the engine is making) I felt like I needed to make something. I had been running the car without air horns and I knew that this was holding me back a bit in terms of total performance. My dad had some extra flared tubing from the horns on his roadster so I used that to make a set of my own. I'm very pleased with how they turned out, and they definitely add to the great intake sound that you get with side drafts. Disregard the messy wiring...that should get cleaned up soon.

 

 

Now if I could only figure out the rattle in the engine and find a good transmission I would be set.

 

sweet job on the air horns

[Icehouse]

Duke you rock!!! I always love seeing the updates!

 

What are you going to use to run the VR sensor? Do I see MS in the future :)

[]2eDeYe]

I see that the lateral end of the T/C rod appears to be stock. The threaded tube section is self-explanatory. What did you use for the ends? Are they a hotrod part or a OE part for something? I once remember reading of modifying some Volvo parts but figured that'd be a part-search nightmare so I left it alone. How do the T/C rods seem to work? They tolerate the (lowered) angle of course, but I'm wondering if the difference over the rubber (or poly) bushings is noticable.

 

I am back at home and making progress once more. Tonight I finished the T/C rods. They use 280zx tie rod ends (thanks for the idea Byron). I took some pictures of them with the LCA's. Both are just single adjustable because I don't see them as something you are going to be adjusting all the time.

 

 

I thought this was funny...the threads on one tie rod go a good CM further up the shaft.

 

:thumbup:

[blueridgespeed]

Duke you rock!!! I always love seeing the updates!

 

What are you going to use to run the VR sensor? Do I see MS in the future :)

+1 ( I want to know the exact same thing!)

[Duke]

dude all the work on this car i sick. do you know the color code on the engine bay? is it the datsun 518 gray?

 

It's Rustoleum grey. I am not patient enough to do a "real" paint job, and the Rustoleum is tough as shit, cheap, and looks decent. Perhaps one day it will get some real paint, but not right now.

Nice job as always. Did you make the center piece of the camber plates, or just the outer section? They look great at any rate.

 

I just made the plate part. I'm thinking about making some bearing carriers sometime soon, I'm not sure if I actually will or not though, as I don't really need them.

 

Duke you rock!!! I always love seeing the updates!

 

What are you going to use to run the VR sensor? Do I see MS in the future :)

 

No MS, MJ (megajolt)! I like screwing around with carbs to much to give them up just yet.

[Duke]

I have made a few more mods in the past few weeks. Nothing major, just some things that have been brewing in my mind that I wanted to do.

 

First is I converted the fuel system to AN fittings. I didn't have a fitting for the inlet for the carbs, so I made my own from some steel tubing and steel AN fittings. Worked out nicely, and it looks cleaner IMO.

 

 

I also needed a shifter boot. The tunnel hump that I made to accommodate the KA tranny was very narrow, making it hard to find something off the shelf that would work. I found some old CV boots laying around the shop, so I made a plate to mount one to, and I worked a treat! One thing nice about using a CV boot is that they won't break like so many of the cheap off the shelf shifter boots do.

 

 

The last thing that I did was something that I had been contemplating for quite a while. After I made the adjustable T/C rods, the wheels sat really far forward in the wheel openings. Also, because my car is fairly low, I had some major rubbing problems. To correct for these things I modified the fenders by moving the opening forward 1/2" and up 3/4". To the untrained eye, they look stock, which is what I was shooting for. I still need to do the body work on them, so they may stay ugly for a while...because body work is not really my cup of tea.

 

[Farmer Joe]

those fuel lines look soo nice.. makes me wanna do that with the kingcab. guess thats another project...

 

when i read what you did with the fender, INDYs fender job on his dime was the first thing that popped in my head..

 

the fender looks good without body work yet.. fuck it... 2 weeks.. lol

[Duke]

I have fallen victim to the roof rack trend...

 

Well, actually, I just wanted to be able to easily carry a decent amount of stuff in my car with the passenger seat in (apparently people don't enjoy sitting on the floor of my car when I have to give them rides), so I figured that a roof rack would be the best option. I was able to pick up a Thule box pretty cheap and I had some Yakima bike racks and cross bars sitting around the garage, the only thing I was missing was the rain gutter mounts. I really don't like the look of the normal Yakima mounts, and I hate that they mount the bars so high. I wanted the rack to be fairly low profile when the box was not on there so I decided to make my own gutter mounts. Here are some pictures of how it turned out. Yes, I know the box looks totally ridiculous, but it does allow me to carry a bunch more stuff for road trips/camping/rock climbing trips.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please excuse the glare in the picture from the cracked lens in the camera I was using.

[510kevin]

holy crap! looks like my car!!

 

looks really good man, i like the towers you built

[FiveTenzo]

 

 

Dam thats tight. Thats almost the exact color of car and wheel i wanted. What kind of wheels are they?

 

:thumbup:

[Duke]

 

Dam thats tight. Thats almost the exact color of car and wheel i wanted. What kind of wheels are they?

 

:thumbup:

 

Thanks man. The wheels are 15x7 Konig Rewinds repainted with Duplicolor Bronze wheel paint.

[VintageRice]

Is it just me or is there a lack of people asking for a video of that KA running?!?!?

[VintageRice]

Neeeeeeeeeeever mind. Found it on page 8.......................

 

 

 

 

 

:D

[Duke]

So I have been planning to install Megajolt controlled Ford EDIS ignition on my KA for the last few years. I have been slowly amassing parts and making the various brackets to hold the crank position sensor, the coil pack, and EDIS box. Well in the last month I finally pulled the trigger and got the whole project back together. All I can say is I don't know why I didn't do this sooner. It totally transformed the performance of my car. Not only does the engine run smoother though the mid range, I also feel like I picked up some top end performance as well. I also really like how easy the Megajolt is to tune. It has data logging capabilities so you can see what is going on after driving. You can also plug a wide band O2 sensor into it and log that along with all the other things. I know you all want to see the pictures of the install, so here they are...

 

A screen shot of the Megajolt tuning software and my ignition map.

 

 

Distributor block off plate and crank sensor mount.

 

 

Vacuum canister to for evening out the MAP readings for the Megajolt box.

 

 

Ford EDIS coil mounted where wiper motor used to be.

 

 

And a new look for the engine bay.

 

[]2eDeYe]

That cleaned things up nicely in an already clean engine bay. :thumbup:

[VintageRice]

Still one on my favorite 510's. :)

[Duke]

Thanks guys!

 

Ever since I did the work to the front suspension a few years ago I haven't been running a front sway bar. This is mainly due to the stock style bar not fitting with the raised T/C rod mounting points (they will hit the sway bar as the suspension compresses). The alternative to this would be to use a Tilton style bar that mounts below the control arms, but I really didn't like this style because of the lack of ground clearance that comes when you mount the bar this way. So after some deliberation I came up with a design that I thought would work. Using 1" 1144 "stressproof" steel round stock I bent up a sway bar that mounts to the chassis on some custom mounts and then snakes between the T/C rod to the driving links above the control arm.

 

 

You can also see the adjustable links that I made to allow adjustment of the roll rate. I am planning on remaking these as they force me to use a male and female heim setup, and I would like to use a turnbuckle with R and L heim joints to allow easier length adjustment.

 

 

 

I modified the control arms to allow for mounting of the hiems.

 

 

 

And here are the pictures of it installed. There is about 1/8" clearance between the bar and the chassis, so needless to say it was a bit of a squeeze to get it though there.

 

 

 

The male female heim setup that I hope to revise soon, but it will work for now.

 

 

And here are the chassis mounts. I had to move them inboard compared to the stock mounts to allow me to fit the bar thought the small gap that I had.

 

 

 

The install isn't quite done. I still need to finish paint the body mounts and get the bar electroless nickle plated. I just wanted to get everything mocked up and make sure it all works as planned before I finished anything.

 

With the front bar, the handling has been totally transformed. Before the amount of front body roll made the car unpredictable in transition and difficult to handle on long sweepers. With the bar installed, the car is MUCH easier to drive near the limit, with very neutral to very slight understeer handling. I have an auto-x event in a few weeks (my first in 4 years, and the first with the KA) so it will be very interesting to see how it handles then.

 

Also, I apologize for the low quality pictures. I unfortunately do not have a very high quality camera, but it is better than nothing I guess. I plan to get something better soon though, so hopefully picture quality will get better in future updates!

[JakeWard]

Damn. Designed and tested already. Very cool.

[VintageRice]

Dude. Awesome. You've got skills. I'm jelous of that bar!!! I still need one to fit my front sump KA.

[mcmlxxxv]

woah!! this build is ..... Man ... im speechless!!! :thumbup:

[Duke]

Thanks guys! It is definitely a labor of love.

 

I recently installed a ATP short throw shifter. This thing is amazing. I'm usually the kind of guy who likes to do things myself, but in this case I couldn't have done it any better. Check out my review of the product here: http://community.ratsun.net/topic/46206-atp-short-throw-shifter-review/

 

 

I also made a camera mount for my roll bar so I can hopefully get some in-car footage. I'm excited to use this at some upcoming auto-x's.

 

 

Another recent development was a new set of tires. I decided to go with some Toyo R1R's. So far they are amazing. The breakaway point is not quite as predictable as the Kumho's that I was running, but ultimate grip is awesome. While I was at it I also decided to get the wheels powdercoated. I chose a dark bronze color. Couldn't be happier with how they turned out.

 

[Duke]

I did my first autocross event in 5 years today. I have never run the car with the KA swap and the newer suspension components so I was really excited to see how it was going to run.

 

The car was great. The handling was awesome. Very manageable to drive at the limit, with the balance a little towards understeer. One thing that was very obviously missing was an LSD. There were multiple sections where I was having to feather the throttle because of wheel spin on the inside tire. I'm pretty confident that with a limited slip would lower lap times at least a second over a 1 minute course. As it was I was the second fastest car on street tires, and I think I should be in the top ten overall.

 

It was great to actually use the car for its intended purpose, and to have it work well. I do have a few tweaks that I'm planning before the next event, so hopefully I can get a little higher up in the running order. Also, a diff swap and CV's are something that I will be working on this winter for sure.

 

Here are some videos of my two fastest runs. The quality is a bit shaky and the sound isn't the best, but it's better than nothing. Feel free to give any driving critiques that you feel would help.

 

(yes, I know I'm burning a bit of oil...the engine is getting a little tired)