Pulling an old 510 race car out of mothballs

[Hedden]

I have a tube frame 510 that I have been working on and I am planning on getting it ready to go vintage racing this coming season, I am currently looking for a place to host some build images so bear with me on that.  

 

The car was originally raced out of Missouri and has a lot of old nissan racing parts on it.  The 1:1 final drive dogleg 5 speed and the MK63 Vented rotor brakes being two of the majors. I am first off looking for any info on a vented brake rotor that will fit those calipers and go under a 13" wheel.  

 

 

[Hedden]

[paradime]

Sorry that I can't help on the rotes. Mike likely knows what will work. Do you know what class it was raced in? Those mods look like GT Lite. Very cool to get this back on the track. Have fun with it. 

[paradime]

BTW, My Dad's family is from Guthery Center IA, and my brother has a built R32. Good to see you on here.

[iceman510]

Welcome.  I run a 510 in vintage in VSCDA events typically.

 

I had a set of those MK63 Sumitomo brake calipers.  If they are the early kind that fit the 240Z, I don't think you will find vented rotors that fit.  The opening was quite narrow for the original unvented 240 rotor.  There is another version which fit vented rotors.  Is that what you have?

 

Check out this information:  http://datsun1200.com/modules/mediawiki/index.php?title=MK63

 

and: https://www.jdmjunkies.ch/wordpress/2021-01-17/240z-the-guide-to-sumitomo-mk63-brakes/

 

That said, if they are the early kind and you really want to use them, you can split the body and put in a spacer.  Wilwood does this on calipers now.   Those are FIA homologation parts, so no vintage group is going to reject them.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

I know it's not what you're looking for, but I ran 13x7 Revolutions with 280zx vented rotors. Those calipers are single piston. We have run Wilwood vented rotors with 13s before.

[Hedden]

 

For the classing on it originally I am not sure I have like a page and a half typed paper from the original owner/builder that kind of takes it up to when it was sold and painted this color in the late 80's early 90's and at that time had the gt4 insignia added for scca classing.  I only have one or two very blurry digitized pictures in it's original Green/Yellow/White #56 paint scheme and unfortunately no log books, so not sure on it's early classing.  The second owner wrecked it sometime in the early 90s and started the repair but it never was never finished or raced again (hence the primer passenger fender) 

 

Yes mine has the mk63 calipers specifically for vented rotors I will grab a 280 rotor and do some measuring to see if it will work with that caliper.  Thank you all for the help! 

 

My next major is sourcing new coilovers, the original Carreras are no good so I am on the hunt for those next.

 

I have been knocking out a lot of small projects, I have rewired the chassis, plumbed new lines to the fuel pump to fix some leaks and currently have the drivers floor out to weld in new hardpoints for the cage and to mount a modern seat.  The engine was rebuilt 5 years ago and has break in hours on it, carbs, master cyl and front calipers have all been rebuilt (in the case of the MC replaced) last spring before I ended up purchasing it.  Another project is hopefully moving to an alternator setup using a single wire mini alternator which is currently in process only small hurdle is my block has the two bolt lower alternator mounting but I don't have a bracket for it, we are going to mill out a billet three bolt bracket that was in the parts bin to see if we can get it mounted properly, after that it's just shimming the front spacing and we are there.  

[iceman510]

So are they 280ZX strut and spindle assemblies already?  The MK63 bolt directly to those.  Is that how they are mounted?

 

I have a pair of Koni race front strut inserts BNIB I would consider selling if you are interested in those as Carrera replacements.  They should fit 280ZX strut housings.  

 

Is it still running and L16?  I have various parts for those around if you need something.  

[Hedden]

I am not sure on which strut assembly yet, I am pulling the wheels to dig into that either tonight or tomorrow (depending on the GF's interest in vday lol) 

 

It is running a dry sump L16 currently the motor is basically brand new so that's a huge positive on this project, I am a little nervous about the clutch the one time I drove it before we started working on the rest of the car it felt like it was slipping but to be honest I couldn't tell if it was clutch slip or wheel spin from the over 15 year old hoosers mounted on it.

 

I have 4 bins of spares that came along with it that I have not gotten into cataloging yet but that's going to be on the list once we have it together.  I know there's a head or two and at least a couple rear diffs (guessing different final drive ratios) plus a bunch of wheels and stuff.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Dry sump L16? Who built the motor? I worked for Dave Rebello building engines in the '90s. If you had them build a GT motor back then, I probably built it.

 

ZX struts are easy to identify by the large wheel bearings/spindles.

[Hedden]

To be honest I am not sure who built it originally, Skunk River Restorations in Ames IA did a refresh on it in 2011 or so and it hasn't been raced or really even started before last fall.  I really don't have much of any documentation besides some old parts catalog pages and some info from the builder owner, besides that the documentation really starts at the 2011 work.

[iceman510]

 

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

Click bait. I ended up watching about ten 510 videos and one "what they found in their backyard" video.

[iceman510]

I think I have watched about every interesting 510 video this winter.  Need to turn it off and work in the garage (which is 34 degrees today). 

[Hedden]

That particular short is my car and from my friends shop, I bought this car from his former lead mechanic who had taken it to California with him

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

The car sounds healthy.

[Hedden]

that was at least 6 years ago lol before it moved to CA with my friend but it still sounds pretty good.   I have the suspension off and it's definitely an odd bird, I was talking with T3 and it seems the coliovers they make will not fit the project. I am reaching out to KW to see if they have some options.  Any suggestions on an image host for posting pics here?

[paradime]

1 hour ago, Hedden said:

that was at least 6 years ago lol before it moved to CA with my friend but it still sounds pretty good.   I have the suspension off and it's definitely an odd bird, I was talking with T3 and it seems the coliovers they make will not fit the project. I am reaching out to KW to see if they have some options. Any suggestions on an image host for posting pics here?

You can upload picts right to the site. At the bottom of the reply text field, you'll see "Drag files here to attach, or choose files." If its not there yet, you may have to post a few more replies before you can.

[demo243]

 This thing looks awesome! Can’t wait to see more.