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"Swamp thing" JBC 510 racecar


Icehouse

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I don't think we said anything about our new cage and seating position...  It is AWESOME!  So glad we made that long overdue modification.  What a difference!  The car was such a joy to drive on Friday. 

 

But now it's Saturday!  Time to get serious.  : )

 

This weekend was a little different than the typical Luckydog race.  It was "tournament style" So they had 5 races total.

Saturday 6hr     

Saturday 2hr     

Sunday 2.5hr    

Sunday 3.5hr    

Sunday 1hr       

 

All races required at least one driver change but the final 1hr sprint on Sunday evening.

Racing Saturday was just awesome and we ran the whole day trouble free.  Well almost trouble free...  On the first lap of the 2nd race on Saturday, a Mini attempted to pull up along side me on the way to the carousel but when he ran out of track, instead of hitting the brakes, he hit me instead.  It lifted the back of the car up and pitched me sideways and I immediately went exit stage left and into the infield.  We were in a pack all going straight down the road.  We were still a long way from the corner so I wasn't expecting anything like that and had no idea what happened at first.  I thought maybe I'd lost a rear wheel or ran over some debris (or maybe a bear?) so I cut across the dirt to see if the car was still underneath me and when I felt I was still rolling and still under power, I rejoined the track in last place.  When I got to the corkscrew I could look down and see the pit entrance and no cars were pitting (which you are obliged to do if you hit another car) so at that point I assumed I must of run over something.  It was only after the race when the other driver came up and apologized in the pits that I actually knew I'd been hit by a car and who it was.

 

Anyway, starting from the back turned out to be kind of fun as I was then able to work my way back up through the field before turning the car over to Jeff who continued our upward trajectory.

 

We didn't finish as high as the first race but it was still a pair of top 10's for the day!

 

                           Finish                                class finish              total time           dif                       laps       best lap                       best lap no.

Saturday 6hr      23rd of 69 cars.                6th                      6:01:08              13 laps                145              2.02.887             41

Saturday 2hr      29th of 56 cars                  9th                      2:01:27              6 laps                  50              2:03.117            43

 

Jeff and crew chief Brenda

 

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Jeff taking the checker in one of the races (weather was on and off all day - much like many of the cars we raced against)

 

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Short video

 

https://datsun510.com/index.php?/gallery/image/53149-211528616_09112021theridge1mov/

 

Frosting for dessert after the Saturday night spaghetti feed

 

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Beautiful night!

 

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And a first for me - a sunset rainbow!

 

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Then it was time to get the car ready for the next day - under the influence of DeWalt flashlights, we swapped brake pads and checked over the car

 

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Not the prettiest 510 on the track but it sure gets the job done!

 

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After comparing notes - Jeff and I felt like the car felt a little down on power compared to our April outing.  Looking over the motor for anything obvious, we found that the air cleaner was pretty badly choked by a layer of dirt/dust. 

 

Brenda and I found a replacement at O'Reillys in town that night and we installed it in the morning - expecting the best.

 

The best is what we got.  Jeff started us out Sunday morning and was driving as good as I've ever seen him.  He was in a battle for probably 30-40 minutes with a black RX7 and a red Thunderbird (a way faster car) and eventually came out on top.  He handed me the car in 1st or 2nd place (I hate it when he does that!  So much pressure) and I was able to stay on top and bring the car across the line 1st in class!  YES!!!

 

During the 2nd race only a few laps into my stint the car started feeling out of sorts.  So many things go through your mind as you try to feel the car and how it responds to your inputs to determine what might be wrong.  I suspected the left rear tire was going low but I wasn't sure as the car still felt pretty solid, after passing the pit entrance and continuing down the straight my suspicion was confirmed though while going through turns 2-4.  Something was DEFINITELY wrong.  After turn 5 is was actually quite a handful getting it back to the pits.  Unfortunately Jeff and Brenda had hiked up to the infield grandstands so when I radioed in that I had a flat, they were quite a ways away from the pits!

 

I pulled in to an empty pit stall and who should come over to help guide me back to the wall?  The driver of the Mini that punted me off track the previous day.  Cool how everyone helps each-other out in this series.  By the time I was out of the car and started jacking up the rear to swap the tire, Jeff and Brenda returned and soon I was back on the ground and back in the race with no further issue.  Another top 10 finish - even with the mishap.  And I'm sure I lost at least 3 laps with the flat!

 

I ran the last sprint by myself and although I didn't feel I was driving my best - due to attrition and a couple cars in front of me taking each-other out I was running in 2nd place with 15 minutes to go when I started to fuel starve - with a 1/2 tank of gas!  The gremlin that plagued us the last two races had returned!!!  ARGH!!!  WHY?! 

 

With only 15 minutes left and nothing to prove and our pit mostly disassembled and packed up by then I just peeled off and called it a day so as not to risk running the engine lean.  We still finished in the top 10!  Not many cars running by this time on a Sunday evening!  : )

 

Disappointing note to end on but what a great day of racing!

                           Finish                                class finish              total time           dif                       laps       best lap                       best lap no.

Sunday 2.5hr     16th of 59 cars                 1st                       2:31:16              4 laps                  62              2:00.912            34        

Sunday 3.5hr     22nd of 54 cars                 9th                      3:29:28              7 laps                  68              2:01.698            64

Sunday 1hr        32nd of 39 cars                 10th                    45:20                 9 laps                  20              2:03.394            19

Go get 'em Jeff!

 

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Can we get a refund on this tire?  Tread still looks good.

 

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Packed up and ready to head home

 

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Edited by carterb
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I brought the DSLR and took a number of photos during Jeff's 1st stint on Sunday morning

 

Jeff ahead of one of our favorite cars to race with

 

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Why yes, that IS a lot of cars!

 

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GREEN GREEN GREEN!!!!

 

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The Ridge has a couple sets of bleachers now in the infield.  You can really see so much of the track now it is amazing! 

 

Jeff going through 8a-8b

 

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up the hill through turn 9

 

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Chasing the black RX7 through turn 6 (carousel) - the blue Neon is pretty fast with the right driver

 

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Get 'em Jeff Get 'em!!!

 

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Got 'em!

 

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That Celica was pretty fast too!

 

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Edited by carterb
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large.2106832201_09122021jayboattheridge

 

But Jeff still got by!

 

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Turning around from atop the bleachers I can see the end of the straight away headed towards turn 1

 

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Here is the Thunderbird!!!

 

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Next time you talk to Jeff, asking how THAT race went!  : )

 

Thunderbird - 510 - RX7...  Stayed like that for 30-40 minutes!

 

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headed to turn 6

 

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Next race I'm going to replace the rear view mirror with a picture of the nose of an RX7.  Jeff won't know the difference!

 

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When you are racing hard - this kind of stuff happens

 

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Finally, the Thunderbird went wide in 6 and Jeff ran up the inside, passing him by 8a.  The RX7 followed!

 

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Both cars stayed in front of the Thunderbird who, probably frustrated, tried to pass them at the end of the straight by taking to the dirt on the inside and eventually paid the price for being over aggressive and flew off between T1 and T2 and never troubled them again.  Awesome racing!

 

 

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After the race, we line back up and do it all over again!

 

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Turn 1 (and 2-5) can get pretty hairy on lap 1!!!

 

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Seatbelt tail didn't get tucked in...

 

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This is the run from 12 to 13 - the top of the corkscrew

 

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Traffic!

 

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We got together a couple weeks after the race to investigate the fuel problem and look the car over.

 

We didn't even notice this at the track.

 

large.1093646144_09222021swampthing(1).J

 

Pretty good bash in the left rear 1/4 and the tail panel is bashed in a bit as well.  Was that from the mini?  I don't see green - just white.  ???

 

THIS is from the mini

 

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Bashed our wheel pretty good!  (this was a brand new one too!!!)  No wonder I jumped up in the air!  Looking back at the video - It actually jerked the steering wheel out of my hands.

 

This is what we were really looking for though:

 

large.2009028886_09222021swampthing(3).J

 

of course in the driveway, the low pressure fuel pump had no problem what-so-ever draining the tank dry.  And the flow appeared to be per spec.  So all we can assume is that once again, something was sucked into the pick-up to block flow - but once the pump was shut off - it floated away and was no longer an issue...  Ugh!  Frustrating!  We need a permanent fix.

 

I'm starting to wonder about Jeff's committment - he's started prepping his "drift car"

 

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Do you have a build thread for that one yet Jeff?

 

Check out this sweet wagon he'll be working on this winter!

 

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The off-season is in full swing - with talk about K24 swaps, lower rear end gears, and paint jobs...  All talk or???

 

Stay tuned!

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  • 5 months later...

Tired of our fuel starvation issues plaguing us for the last two seasons - we started down the road of buying and installing a fuel cell.

We were going to put it in the stock location between the rear shock towers instead of the popular spare tire well location.

We'll give up center of gravity for lower rotational inertia.

 

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Reference dims taken from my Greengo project. 

 

We found most fuel cell companies offered 15 gallon fuel cells that would fit perfectly.  However, it looked like this solution is going to cost somewhere between $1,500 and $1,800 and commit us to spending $300-$500 every five years for inspection/replacement foam/etc.  I was ready to call and order last week but Jeff talked me out of it and our plan now is to cut the stock tank back open and fit a big in-tank filter directly to the fuel pick up to hopefully prevent us from getting junk sucked up. 

 

This may be the one year not sucking up gas may be a good thing - given the impending cost of filling up our 50 gallon drum with $5/gallon gas twice a weekend!  : )

 

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/5/2017 at 10:46 PM, Trophy24 said:

Rub a dub dub L18 in the tub (or parts washer as it were)

 

Carter brought me the block, head and front cover for a good clean up.  It did'nt look too bad to start with, but it was time for some good old scrubbing.  We have an awesome labor saving parts washer at work for just this type of thing.

 

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Forgot to take pics before cleaning, but it turned out pretty good!

 

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No visible light under the straight edge here!  Nice to have a rare head that has not been warped.

 

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I could see a little light between #3 and 4 cylinders.  My smallest feeler gauge would not fit at .002" so good to go here too. (non metric measurement just for Jeff)

 

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Removed all the remaining gasket material and pressure washed the coolant passages as clean as possible. Blew out the oil passages and bolt holes so it should be ready to assemble.

 

Glad I could contribute to a fun project guys!

I need to find someone with one of those cleaning tanks.

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On 3/24/2018 at 11:24 PM, carterb said:

With start up coming soon - and with the missing carb parts in hand, Friday evening I went through the carbs, cleaned them up, verified everything works smoothly, and set everything to baseline according to the Z Therapy video.

 

http://datsun510.com/uploads/monthly_2018_03/large.5ab71e9c5f589_03232018swampthing(1).JPG.3a535742e90960c5c2379b5909db87b3.JPG

 

Quite a bit of carbon buildup on everything.

 

http://datsun510.com/uploads/monthly_2018_03/large.5ab71e9dcf90a_03232018swampthing(2).JPG.ccfcb1b48f1c0ba586769a9f7137b88c.JPG

 

All parts cleaned

 

http://datsun510.com/uploads/monthly_2018_03/large.5ab71e9f4221a_03232018swampthing(3).JPG.169e5ce3ba97890fdcb31de0f04dbf09.JPG

 

Can't adjust idle screws.  Phillips head screws are epoxied over (?)  If they are not correct, we'll swap them out later.

 

http://datsun510.com/uploads/monthly_2018_03/large.5ab71ea39b32e_03232018swampthing(4).JPG.464708e9e4085f3a0b5517080e668239.JPG

 

Bowls and floats cleaned, valves checked.  One gasket needs to be replaced.

 

http://datsun510.com/uploads/monthly_2018_03/large.5ab71ea4e64a7_03232018swampthing(5).JPG.e7eab3946838f2db25f8f4e8e04e0aac.JPG

 

The needles were stuck in the pistons so tight I could not remove them without damage.  Fortunately I had an extra set of needles.  M66?  I don't remember exactly and couldn't read the tiny stamp.  If I didn't have the extra set, I would have left the old needles in there but I really wanted to make sure they were set to the right protrusion against the nozzles per the video.

 

http://datsun510.com/uploads/monthly_2018_03/large.5ab71ea7ab7f2_03232018swampthing(6).JPG.5d232a50b4b587cc12514dcd6ef72401.JPG

 

Ready to set

 

http://datsun510.com/uploads/monthly_2018_03/large.5ab71eaa5f412_03232018swampthing(7).JPG.e5cba82f90d698b65f59052e15268e90.JPG

 

Pretty much everything was sticky when I started, especially the nozzle actuation by the choke linkage.  They would stick down every time.  Now everything is smooth, pistons fall completely and smoothly (had to eliminate the rubber dome alignment numbs) and we should be ready to go.

 

http://datsun510.com/uploads/monthly_2018_03/large.5ab71ead518d6_03232018swampthing(8).JPG.fef5451dc31d3cbefa1a467204ccec14.JPG

I have a set of carbs like these I plan to put on my 2 door all apart. I'll need to study up on how to rebuild them.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Where does time go?  We are only 1 week away from our first race of the season!  Time to hook up the siphon to the wallet.  Racing yields opportunities to invert one's pockets around every corner.  : )

 

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Though time is short, we MUST get on top of our fueling issue.  After discussing some options, we drained the tank, blew out the fumes, and cut an access hole to the pick up.

 

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The end of the pipe was shortened (above) in order to accept a filter Jeff purchased last year.

 

In the process of cleaning out the debris left by the abrasive cutting wheel, I found this traitor hiding inside!

 

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It appears to be a piece of rubber hose - either from vent or filler neck.  The perfect fit clogging the fuel pick up.  Good riddance to you and all that came before you!

 

But now with filter fitted, we will not be so susceptible to accidental sabotage.

 

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The wire is temporary, shaped to pull the filter away from the the sheet metal during welding.

 

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Like it never happened! 

 

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Vent delete as well. 

 

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The small one on the opposite end has shown itself to be sufficient, and without the penchant to spilling fuel during sustained lateral g's.

 

After leak checks complete and a quick layer of protective paint - back into the car it went and hopefully it will be the last time we deal with these issues.

 

 

Edited by carterb
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We spent a few hours today further preparing the car.

Re-installation of the rear firewall, defrost fan and vents, some "de-bonking" bodywork, and fluids exchanged, all while Jeff finalized and finished the electric power steering installation! 

 

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What have you created Dr. Frankenstein?! 

 

We are both excited to experience the difference next week.  Nice job Jeff.

 

P.S.  If any of you plan to see us race, the track has an on-line form to fill out prior to arrival.

 

https://waiver.fr/p-wVRPC

Edited by carterb
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Neat solution to the fueling issue. I went the route of grafting in an entire Z31 pickup setup. It includes the "swirl pot" to help keep the fuel pump submerged during cornering. I wish I put mine on the driver's side instead of the middle, but it seems to work. I did a road course event on Easter and things went well. Now I just need to learn to drive.

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I don't know if there is really a good time to get sick but I just got sick at a BAD time!  Positive Covid test Thursday evening before race weekend.  We'll have to miss the fun now but Jeff at least got down to the track day yesterday to shake down the power steering and fueling "solution".  I'll let him report on how the day went.  No racing now 'till June.  : (

 

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The track day was overall a blast, I mean it was fun being at the track!  The car ran great for about 1 hour..... Then even though I started with a full tank of fuel the starving returned..... RRGGG. I pitted in (the day was two 3 hour race blocks).  The tank was over half full, dang!  The morning was wet and with the new power steering reducing feedback like we wanted, but it took some getting used to and I didn't want to push it in the rain.  It's weird how the brain works.  Even though I installed the power unit if I didn't know any better I'd swear that the steering was faster.  After re topping off the tank I was back out.  By this time I was used to the steering the track was dry.  I was flying around the track!  I wanted to see how it felt to catch a drift with the new steering.  It was blowing my mind! Of coarse after about 20-30 minutes the issue came back.  I pulled back in.  I don't remember if I went out again.  I think I decided to drive into town and grab a new lift pump.  I mean in my head that has to be the issue.  So I spent 70 bucks on a cheap rattler pump.  jammed it in without adding any extra fuel.  Went back out, probably another 25 minutes of good running but this time the car wasn't cutting it was just loosing power.  A local Datsun guy Scott showed up to check out the series.  I told him the issues and the newest issue.  We pulled the plugs.  Yep lean.  weird is wasn't cutting like before.   I went back out and it did another about 25 minutes before the issue came back.  Scott had the idea to head back out, when the issue came up just pit in for a minute running the lift pump and then head back out.  If it goes another 25 minutes the new lift pump can't hang.  After doing the test he was right.  1 minute of fill time got me another 20-25 minutes.  So in conclusion we are going to get another nismo pump.  The same pump that we used flawlessly for 2.5 years.  

 

I only took 1 picture that day.  

 

 

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Me and Paul pulled apart the Diff due to 1 tire fire issues.  Turns out or rare R190 needs a clutch disk.  Maybe someone that reads this has one?  

 

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  • Icehouse changed the title to "Swamp thing" JBC 510 racecar

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