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Nana Spec 69' 510


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Ok, next dilemma. Having an issue at low revs under load. For example 35mph in 4th gear. The ignition breaks up and it coughs and splutters. I've cleaned the points and put new plugs in it recently but it doesn't seem to have helped. Thoughts? Condensor? New points? 

Edited by slowlearner
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80% of ignition problems turn out to be carburetor and 80% of carburetor problems turn out to be ignition.

 

There is no accelerator pump on an SU it relies on the thickness of the dash pot oil to delay the slide moving up. Check they are full. Most use 3-in-1 oil or ATF.

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One issue I had was the aftermarket point spring (arc) was too long, shorting out on the dizzy housing. Only found it by cranking the engine over with the cap off. Didn't do it all the time but when it did, it lit up like the 4th of July. Had to get an oem point (factory spring arc). Just a thought.

Edited by Fetch
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  • 3 weeks later...

It's been an eventful few days for Nanaspec, heading off to SW Motorsport for a proper tune. And just as well too. It was running like a bag of spanners. Wouldn't idle properly and kept breaking up at low revs.

 

 

Stewart and his team are the gurus of tuning carbs on Dattos and despite pretty much everything going wrong, it turned out really well. It ended up costing a lot of money, but the car is literally transformed. I couldn't believe how much nicer it was to drive. He also went looking for the petrol stink in the car, but couldn't find it. Of course, another surprise greeted me when I hoped in. The bottom spring clip had come off the window winder and the window had come off all it's rollers and was sitting in the bottom of the door. I had to drive the car up the mountains to a meeting, so duct tape won the day. 

 

Today was another adventure...

 

 

The first CACA motorkhana in the car with my 16yo daughter driving as well. @Lachlan also came along in his Mazda 323 metro. You can see the in car footage from a few runs in my car above.

 

I learned a few more things today;

 

1. It's a bit droney in the car on the freeway at 60mph.

Another muffler should fix this. A special muffler in the shape of a snail. 🤓

 

2. The speedo is about 12mph to fast at 60mph.

My GPS speedo app on my phone helped me with this.

 

3. I need to lower the back of the car a little to get rid of the slightly positive camber on the back wheels.

To put this in perspective. Before the khana, the first thing I did was put super skinny tyres on the back. I had 29psi in the front and 45psi in the rear tyres. Usually this would mean instant tail-happy action in any other car. Instead, I had on and off issues with the car plough understeering, starting to transition into oversteer and then lurching back into understeer. My datto guru drove the car after me and had the same experience and confirmed my suspicions. So I'll need to find some shorter springs... or trim a coil off the current ones. I suspect my current springs are slightly too long anyway. I'm not a fan of cutting springs, but it might be an option with these ones.

 

4. I want a better handbrake setup. 

The umbrella hand (park) brake is terrible for handbrake turns. Apparently one solution is fitting a Datsun A10 Stanza (Violet) handbrake assembly between the seats. My other option is keeping the standard park brake and adding a hydraulic hand brake. I've got to look into into the legalities of that. I think the A10 setup might be better. Either way. I need a better setup, coz leaning forward to grab the handle SUCKS!

 

5. Broadly speaking, I think the car has enough power as is.

When I say this, it can spin the tyres on dry concrete and even do so in 2nd gear on wet concrete. The chassis is letting me down, but I think it's manageable to improve. 

 

Overall, I'm pretty happy. The beetle I had before took a LOT of effort to make it work and this car is obviously bags better straight off. I'm also really enjoying driving it. It idles, pulls away gently and goes really well. It's not fast, but it sounds good and it's lots of fun. It's also very forgiving for learner drivers. My daughter stalled and lugged it all over the pits today and it just took it and went. Stew was also very positive about it the other day. He said, "If you put some paint on it, it would be perfect." The reality of that is $10k here and neither I, nor my finance minister (wife) is interested in that. Besides, we'd be afraid of scratching it then.  

Edited by slowlearner
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Been driving the car a LOT recently. The longest trip was across town to collect my upright bass the other day...

 

http://www.instagram.com/p/CGrKGSDHAYG/

 

 

I gotta say, it's such a nice thing to drive. Even in peak hour on a hot day (85degF) it just doesn't get hot. The new radiator is sweet. It also turns out that my upright bass fits fine in the front seat.

 

I also had my Bilstein decals turn up after SIX MONTHS! 

 

http://www.instagram.com/p/CGig2zdnCJC/

 

Still gotta put these on. In other news, I got a choke cable from Stewart Wilkins the other day and fitted it to the Hitachis. Coz, it doesn't like starting with no choke now. 

Edited by slowlearner
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Another big arvo on the Datto... (grrr, insta link isn't working)

 

http://www.instagram.com/p/CG7COORrERp/

 

Like usual I was overthinking the rear springs. But when I got into it, it wasn't so bad. The hardest things to removing the driveshaft bolts. Stew Wilkins gave me a tip about getting it right.

 

"Cut off half as much as you want to lower it by."

 

I piled my wife and 2 of the kids in back of the car to try and get a measure for where it should be. Then I looked up some pics online of rally cars resting. For the most part they looked level, where as mine was backside up (floor to side trim; front 285mm; rear 317mm). So I ended up cutting an inch (25mm) out of them. When I got the car back on together, the car looked backside down, but when I measured it I got; 280mm front; 280mm rear. Dead even. So I guess that's a win. 

 

 

 

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  • 4 weeks later...

Been nearly a month since I last posted and LOTS has happened. I've been offered a new job and taken it, which is great for my whole family. Unfortunately, it also means moving again... that's three times in three years. We have to sort out what to do with our house and I've had to downsize some wood work tools too. Where I'm going we're provided with a really nice house, but I'm going from a 2 car garage to a generous 1 car garage. So yeah, not so much room for junk, although there is some sneaky storage for parts.

 

In Datsun world, the car has been getting driven 3-4 days a week. Stewart Wilkin's tuning the car was worth every dollar. The twin hitachis (SUs) are very sweet carbs and give lots of down low torque as well as fun shouty noises with your foot flat. 😁

 

I'm still battling a few issues, but they might have to wait til next year and I have these things to put on the car...

Megasquirt EFI

Race motor

Back mudflaps

Hydraulic handbrake

Proper rear exhaust mount

 

My turbo guru mate and I are planning a few things like maybe a different cam and a turbo. He has an adjustable nozzle turbo off a 3 litre diesel hilux he thinks is perfect. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Trying to sort out a few things before moving. One of them is a baffled rear sump for my l18 race motor. I've been fiddling with the temple Stewart Wilkins gave me a while back. Today I got it almost sorted. I also pulled the Stanza sump off and had a look at the bottom end. Suffice to say I'm very happy. It's obviously been fully balanced. It's also pretty clean.

 

http://www.instagram.com/p/CImrLR_rPr-/?igshid=118m2iwnbf395

 

 

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

After about a month in mothballs, I could finally get into my new (very old) garage today. There's not lots of room, but there should be enough to get into trouble again. I'm told they might replace it with a bigger, taller shed in the not too distant future. For now, I'll count my blessings and start setting up my gear. 🙂

 

Let the fun begin!

 

 

kurrajonggarage.jpg

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've been thinking through my EFI situation and I'm wondering about changing tack a little. I could go with the ITBs, but I have some hesitations...
1. Throttle shaft bushings leaking dust (or boost), at least one of them is quite loose.

2. Linkage and throttle position sensor to the ITBs.
3. Any sort of street induction needs an air-box to really work well.

4. Even though ITBs will give me the most HP at WOT, they won't give the best drive-ability day to day and the car is a daily really.

5. My machinist is distracted by a 1200hp turbo barra! He's already had the ITBs a year...

 

So, you can see where I'm coming from. That brings me to my new idea. I bought a full set of SU (hitachis) with the air box a while back. I meant to put them on the car, but the linkage was holding me back. Which is why I ended up with the red set.

 

I digress...

 

I'm thinking of putting injector bungs on my spare SU manifold...

 

11VGaJa.jpg?1

 

Then using the airbox as a plenum with spacers where the carbs would go.

 

fhFheg5.jpg?1

 

 

And putting a TB on the front of the airbox...

 

C65dUQV.jpg?1

 

It should look factory and keep the police happy if I ever get pulled over. Coz the state govt are a pain.

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your car is running fine. Is it worth dumping  alot more money??? As you said SW Motorsport charged you alot to get this running. That money could have been used for the Fuel Injection now you going to do it all over again.

I would builf this on the side if anything till it breaksdown but that could be years from now

 

However Fuel Injection is nice but I dont really think your going to gain a HUGE power improvent. Frivablility will be better.

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14 hours ago, banzai510(hainz) said:

your car is running fine. Is it worth dumping  alot more money??? As you said SW Motorsport charged you alot to get this running. That money could have been used for the Fuel Injection now you going to do it all over again.

I would builf this on the side if anything till it breaksdown but that could be years from now

 

However Fuel Injection is nice but I dont really think your going to gain a HUGE power improvent. Frivablility will be better.

 

Amen brother. That's the exact plan. Build it on the side. Get the ignition running first, with the carbs still on the car. Then once that works, install the fuel system.

 

And yes, not a huge power gain but increased drivability. Particularly with regard to ignition and fuel economy. Also, when I add boost it'll be ready to go with only a change of tune. I also have another rally spec L18 with a big SSS head, nasty cam and full balance. So the plan is, get the EFI built, tune it on stocker and then install the rally spec motor and tune it. Once that's done, it's time for boost. 😎

Edited by slowlearner
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15 hours ago, banzai510(hainz) said:

Is it worth dumping a lot more money???

 

Hang on, I missed this qu... Would I part of this forum if I said "No"? Of COURSE it's worth dumping a lot more money! 🤣🤣

 

Just don't tell my wife... 🙄

Edited by slowlearner
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On 2/7/2021 at 5:31 PM, slowlearner said:

I've been thinking through my EFI situation and I'm wondering about changing tack a little. I could go with the ITBs, but I have some hesitations...
1. Throttle shaft bushings leaking dust (or boost), at least one of them is quite loose.

2. Linkage and throttle position sensor to the ITBs.
3. Any sort of street induction needs an air-box to really work well.

4. Even though ITBs will give me the most HP at WOT, they won't give the best drive-ability day to day and the car is a daily really.

5. My machinist is distracted by a 1200hp turbo barra! He's already had the ITBs a year...

 

So, you can see where I'm coming from. That brings me to my new idea. I bought a full set of SU (hitachis) with the air box a while back. I meant to put them on the car, but the linkage was holding me back. Which is why I ended up with the red set.

 

I digress...

 

I'm thinking of putting injector bungs on my spare SU manifold...

 

11VGaJa.jpg?1

 

Then using the airbox as a plenum with spacers where the carbs would go.

 

fhFheg5.jpg?1

 

 

And putting a TB on the front of the airbox...

 

C65dUQV.jpg?1

 

It should look factory and keep the police happy if I ever get pulled over. Coz the state govt are a pain.

There is a guy building injection setups that use the SU carburetor. The vacuum bell and float bowl is removed, and an injector boss mounts where the vacuum bell was. 
 

It transforms the SU carb into a throttle body.

 

Check it out here: http://pattonmachine.com/TBI-Main.htm

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3 hours ago, Racer X 69 said:

There is a guy building injection setups that use the SU carburetor. The vacuum bell and float bowl is removed, and an injector boss mounts where the vacuum bell was. 
 

It transforms the SU carb into a throttle body.

 

Check it out here: http://pattonmachine.com/TBI-Main.htm

 

That's a great idea. I personally wouldn't go with TBI because of the issues with siamese ports and uneven mixtures in adjacent cylinders. I know BMC had major issues getting this right for production EFI on A series motors. It's even more of an issue if you want to add forced induction to an engine. One lean cylinder can = holes in pistons or broken ring lands. So yeah, I'll go with individual port injection. 🙂

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  • 2 weeks later...

Race day update...

 

On Saturday, my 14yo son and I headed out with the car club to a Motorkhana at Sydney motorsport park on one of their gravel car parks. The event was a test with the park concerned we'd throw up too much dust that might land on the circuit behind it. There were no worries there thankfully. It's the first time my son has driven properly. Even though we did some practice in the church car park getting used to the clutch, he spent most of the day revving it up and dumping it, then apologizing. I really don't know why, coz I was clutch kicking all day. LOL! Here's some video footage from the day.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajVlBDe9oGI

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXSQ1B8He1E 

 

 

In the week before, I put big mud guards on the back wheels and tried to sort out some rally tyres for the front (we're not allowed to use rally tyres on the powered wheels). Unfortunately, I couldn't get the old rally tyres to hold air. There was one other 510 there with a L20B and webers. As it turns out, I came in just after him in the results. This is the first time I've really made the most of the LSD. I found by the end of the day I could really throw the car around. I am missing the hydraulic handbrake though. I hope to get this sorted before the next event. My son was totally hooked and wants to come again next time despite being very nervous all day.

 

IMG20210220085313.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

First step, visually check alignment of all the pulleys.  Stand to the side and look down them to make sure they are all on the same plane.  Second step, check for wobbly or dented pulley.  After that, unsure.

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XwWujQM.jpg 

 

 

Place a straight edge on the alternator pulley and see how it lines up with the fan. Close is good enough.... the belt will accept some miss alignment. Closer is even better.

 

Spin the alternator. Should spin freely. Is it stiff to turn?

 

A high amperage alternator will resist being tuned by the engine when charging a low battery. The one above is 100 amp from a 2002 Altima being mocked up on a spare engine. If for some reason the battery is low the belt will sometimes screech on start up.

 

 

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