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Don's Turbo 68 510 in AZ


thegreg

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I recently met a gentleman I am purchasing some parts for my 510 from. He had a on craigslist.com - has his own shop in down town Mesa, AZ. After chatting for a bit, i asked about a car he had under a tarp. Turns out it is a 1968 510 2dr, with a fuel injected turbo 1.8l, he said it was a JDM motor. Then the guy actually got out a copy of Sport Compact Car Magazine, where the car was featured!!! Crazy stuff..I am curious if anyone knows of or has delt with this guy. Nothing shady, all went well with dealing with him, jusr curious. Wondering also if anyone has seen/heard of this car... it was two tone, blue up front, and white in the rear. Had Prime Star rims.

 

Just a small world..

 

This is the closest i could find of a similiar paint scheme...image blue where the pink is, and white where the yellow is...

 

f_304780920-3168410246.jpeg

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Then the guy actually got out a copy of Sport Compact Car Magazine, where the car was featured!!! Wondering also if anyone has seen/heard of this car... it was two tone, blue up front, and white in the rear. Had Prime Star rims.

 

Just a small world..

 

Funny. I've been into 510s for many years, and his car is the reason. I saw that issue of SCC back in '94-ish when I had my first 210, and immediately went out looking for a 510. Took me two years to find my first one. Had 23 since then. All because of that one issue of SCC. :wub:

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There were JDM EFI L18s but not turboed. That must have been put on by the owner.

 

Being in SCC doesn't make it a JDM motor

 

Thousands of L18 motors were imported in the 80s and maybe the 90s so they would be JDM motors and nothing special.Japan has some weird rules about having a car certified for the road and it gets harder and mor expensive as the mileage goes up. It ends up cheaper to buy a new one and scrap the old ones. The scrapped cars have motors with 50K on them and lots of miles left yet so they are sold overseas. These import motors were cheaper to buy than to build a worn out L18. Some of these motors were from high(er) end cars and came with EFI, (sold only in Japan and badged as an SSS-E) while some had closed chamber heads, flattop pistons and dual SU carbs and intakes. Often the SUs and intakes were removed and the stock US ones installed for ease of connections.

 

The earliest Nissan turbo motor (I know of) was the '81.5 280zx. The earliest 4 cylinder was the '84 S12 (200sx) with a CA18ET. In Japan there was a Z18ET in the S110 (200sx)

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. I appreciate you digging up that 510 again article. That is me back in the day with a mullet! LOL

That was when I had a draw through side draft weber 40mm. It worked great, then I intercooled it, That’s not the smartest thing to do with a draw through carb.. it puddled a lot not to mention the danger of fire every time the plumbing for the intercooler decided to pop loose because the silicone tubing connectors were fuel soaked.

Then I changed it to EFI.

I got the intake manifold and a cast iron exhaust manifold from my buddy Curtis.

I made a little adaptor plate and bolted a T04 turbo to the exhaust manifold.

grabbed up an L18 block bored it 90 over, modified some standard Corvair forged pistons, (enlarged the wrist pin hole and used the stock Datsun pin, and dished the top )

I cant remember the crank and rod combination I used (because it has been over 18 years since I built this motor) but it ended up being 1722cc with 7.5 :1 compression ratio.

I used Pontiac Sunbird turbo computer and sensors.

It was my daily driver and really ran good, and when you laid into it, (which was always back then) it was like a raped ape it could turn a mid 11 second 1/4 mile 

I still have the car and I am planning to get it back on the road in the next few months.

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Very cool!

That’s not the first time someone got all wound up in 510s after seeing or riding in one of mine.

I’m not sure but I think you may hold the record.

I have no problem sharing any of my ideas, tricks, and or methods that I have developed over the years.

Even the ones that didn’t come easy, or took the most R&D, trial and error, I don’t hold as precious secrets.

Knowledge is a beautiful thing.

When I was building this car 25 years ago, I did not have the internet, so I had to pick brains and read books.

Well, picking brains just ended up frustrating me because I got a lot of differing advice.

There is always that someone that in all good intentions, wants to truly help you but just don’t really have the correct or all the info they are supplying. Sometimes guessing to fill in the blanks.

I didn’t know which way to go.

So I put all that aside and got in the books to learn who knew what they were talking about. By then I was able to choose my own practical concepts and come up with my own solutions.

Back then it could take years to learn what you could in one night on the internet. And if you tried something and it worked you would have to publish a book to share that with those that were interested.

This being said, there just wasn’t a lot of directly related info out there, and if there was it was hard to find.

The internet is a beautiful thing!

And of course even if it is written there is always a chance of misinformation. You still have to pick and choose. I’ll be the first to tell someone that I am not sure how to answer that, or the answer I am giving is my theory on the matter and may need some research to verify it.

 

I don’t know if it has anything to do with the older I get,

but I’m starting to wonder if I forgot more than I know. Or if I forget more than I knew.

Because I don’t remember it’s probably , I don’t know how much I forget.

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