blue72's $200 '70 510 Project

[blue72]

Is this stuff supposed to be in my gas tank? :blink: :lol:

 

 

That's as much loose junk as I could shake out. Looks like I'm going to be spending some time cleaning this one out.

 

 

The 240Z fill neck (the one on the bottom) wasn't going to cut the mustard as it was too short and bent at the wrong angle. I had recently purchased the correct fuel filler hose parts from Chris#51EPGraham and was all ready to attach them to the tank, but I figured that it'd be best to give it a good shake first. That's when I discovered the hidden surprise above.

 

I took a break from the fuel tank to install the driveshaft I bought from SRSANDS, and it fit perfectly. The length was spot on and the slip yolk had the right splines. The only thing I was missing were the four bolts at the rear. I actually did have four driveshaft bolts from a 280Z, but the shank diameter on them was slightly too large. Instead I purchased some hardened metric bolts from the hardware store.

 

 

I did have to cut some length out and grind off part of the flange on the head of each one, but other than that they fit just fine.

 

After the driveshaft was in and secured I moved on to the halfshaft. I was all ready with my hammer, block of wood and new u-joints still in their boxes. I removed both u-joints from their packaging to discover that one was the wrong part in the right box. After yet another visit to the auto parts store, tomorrow I'll have the correct one and can put my halfshaft back in. Then all I need to do is hook up the transmission linkage, clean out the fuel tank and bleed the brakes. After that I can take it for a careful spin around the neighborhood.

[WAGON JON]

Man I am digging this thread! Lots of rust and lots of welding! YES! Never go the easy route. Fix the 510 and make the rust pile GO! Magnificent!

[Wide14u]

that was a lot of crap in the tank

[Bob3]

Man I am digging this thread! Lots of rust and lots of welding! YES! Never go the easy route. Fix the 510 and make the rust pile GO! Magnificent!

 

 

 

X2 ^ :thumbup:

[KyushaKai]

Very cool stuff man! Love the work you're putting into this Dime.

 

BTW, what kind of camera are you shooting with? I'm toying with the idea of upgrading my DSLR for something that can shoot video too and yours looks good.

[blue72]

Thanks guys. It's coming along bit by bit. I did take a break from it yesterday to install the heater control panel on my 240Z. Figuring out how best to route and adjust those cables took longer than I thought (they weren't hooked up when I bought the car). All I've got left to do on the Z is to straighten and reinstall the front bumper. I'm also waiting for one or two little pieces for the Dime. I was able to order the special bushing for the auto trans linkage (the linkage piece looks just like a clutch z-bar) that I was missing and it is on its way here. I recently bench bled the brake master cylinder and installed it, but it'll probably be tomorrow or soon thereafter that I bleed the rest of the system. Oh, and I got the halfshaft pieced together and back in place too.

 

The other day I flushed the gas tank out a number of times with the garden hose and got the rest of the loose junk out. It's spongy, not hard. My best guess is that it's just old gasoline varnish. The tank is passing the weekend filled with vinegar to help gently remove surface rust.

 

As far as the camera, for still photos I just use a cheap Kodac point & shoot. It's my little everyday camera that can get dirty and I don't have to worry about it. I use my DSLR for other stuff. I took the video with a Sony HDR-CX150. It's a tiny little handheld HD camcorder, but the picture quality is pretty decent and it was on sale at Costco. I'd love to have a DLSR that shoots HD video. ;)

[Rustina 510]

Truckin right along blue72, yeah I've been collecting parts an hunting down trim stuff.

 

That body is pretty beat up, looks like we both have a ton of body work to do

[yellowdatsun]

It's SOOOOOO nice to see someone save a car like this, and be willing to put the work into it. I see all too many get thrown away because someone deems them junk. Thumbs up on the metalwork!

[blue72]

It has been an eventful and fruitful week. On Monday I was gung-ho and ready to go forward with bleeding the brakes. First came the driver side rear which went well and took only a couple of minutes. After that was the passenger side rear which devolved rapidly and took three days. The main problem began when the bleeder valve refused to budge and broke off in the wheel cylinder. I tried heat, an easy out (which snapped off in the fitting, of course) and various sizes of drill bits to no avail. Eventually I ordered a new wheel cylinder, and decided to get some new brake shoes for the rear at the same time. I got those parts on Friday. In the mean time I hooked up the battery cables on my Suburban project, and continued to clean out the gas tank for the 510.

 

The gas tank had sat for about four days with vinegar in it. I found a gallon of the stuff sitting around the house and put it to good use. The bottom of the tank came out clean, nice bright bare metal. After the vinegar I rinsed the tank out about a dozen more times to remove the varnish that it had loosened. After that I blew it out with compressed air a half dozen times until no more small, loose pieces were coming out of any orifices. I actually found all four of the gas tank mounting bolts, the only pieces of hardware still left in the car. I did replace the flexible rubber feed and return lines because the 40 year old ones were hard and cracked. After that I only had to hook up the vent lines and the fill hose which was made easier by the nice sunny weather we had here this week (the rubber was nice and pliable).

 

 

During the downtime I also applied two coats of POR-15 to my new metal work. The next pieces I'll be making will cover it all up, so they needed some protection before being shut in for good. I also made a small patch panel for the inner fender that was pockmarked with rust.

 

 

When my brake parts did come it, I had a few new battles to fight. For one, when I tried to install the hard line to the new wheel cylinder it immediately cross-threaded and I mangled the first two or three threads. I was able to salvage it even though I don't have a tap that size and thread pitch. An hour later I found that the line had a barely perceptible kink in it at the very end where the line nut concealed it. So, with the new wheel cylinder in place I could now throw on my replacement drum brake shoes. It sounded easy enough until I had to look in the FSM to find out how to find and loosen the shoe adjusters. Even with the adjusters backed all the way down and slack, the drums wouldn't fit. That one turned out to be the fault of the e-brake. Someone had adjusted the cable way too far in to try and compensate for brake wear. With everything relaxed (and after completely disassembling, cleaning and lubing / anti-seizing the adjusters) the drums finally fit over the shoes, barely.

 

Okay, wheels back on and time to bleed the rear brakes. After collecting a bunch of very murky fluid and exorcising the air bubbles I lowered the rear. The front brakes bled nice and quickly with no stupid bleeder problems. I also had to investigate an ATF leak so I put the front of the car on jackstands. I knew the leak was coming from the new flexible cooler hose I'd had made at NAPA. I thought that perhaps I had overtightened it and split the hard line at the flare (it seemed hard to turn when I'd put everything together before installing the engine). Upon disassembly the hard line flare was just fine which added to the mystery. I had kept the old flexible line just in case, and it threaded into the line nut beautifully, but the new flexible line only threaded in a few turns before getting real tight and not going in any further. Hmmmm.... I took both flexible lines as well as the hard line with me to a local hardware store with a good selection of plumbing fittings. The didn't have any nuts that'd thread onto the new flexible line. Instead I went back to NAPA who had made the line for me in the first place. I thought perhaps that they could find a line nut that would work and I'd just cut the double flare off, put the new nut on and reflare the hardline. It turned out that whoever had made my flexible replacement line put a J.I.C. fitting end on when my original was a metric 14 x 1.50 size. The solution we came up with was to have a whole new flexible line made with a compression fitting on the difficult end. The guy behind the counter gave me a good discount on the new one, so all in all it wasn't too bad. Still much less than buying one new from the dealership, even if they were still available. I got home, cut off the flare and had everything installed with the new compression fitting in a few minutes time. There was just enough daylight left to run the car and verify that it wasn't leaking any more.

 

While I was picking up all of my tools and cleaning up for the night I noticed that just down the street a neighbor had called a wrecker to tow his vehicle to a repair shop. I thought I recognized the truck and so I drove over. Sure enough, it was the guy my dad bought the 510 from, so I invited him over to hear it run. He was pretty stoked and made sure to have me promise to take him for a ride when it's street legal.

 

On Monday I should receive the parts I need to properly hook up the transmission linkage, so I think late Monday afternoon the car will finally move under its own power again. That should be fun.

[blue72]

Well, I finally made a trip around the block in the 510. It came after plenty more work though.

 

Yesterday I was playing around with getting the car to run reliably, but after hooking up the fuel tank and lines, I wasn't getting any gas. The car simply drained its float chamber and never refilled. I decided to look into the fuel hardlines. Just as I suspected, they were pretty clogged. The feed line flowed a little, but the return line was completely blocked solid. I spent the better part of four hours spraying carb cleaner down the lines, jamming weld wire and coat hangers through them and blowing lots of compressed air. Finally at the end of the day the return line opened up (I was blowing air into it from the back when it did, and a bunch of varnishy crud sprayed out all over the engine bay).

 

I have been able to test out some of the electrical items now that the motor runs. The windshield wiper motor works, the heater blower works on all speeds, I've got one low beam and no high beams, the front and rear parking lights work and the rear side marker lights work. The front side markers aren't hooked up at the moment.

 

This morning my latest batch of new Nissan parts showed up:

 

 

I didn't know that the hood moulding was still available until I called the dealership. The trunk emblem was NLA though. A few minutes later I was ready to install the transmission shifter linkage.

 

 

I also threw on the new radiator drain plug and spark plug wire holder. Once the engine warmed up a bit I put it into gear but it only lurched forward a few inches. As I suspected, it was low on transmission fluid. I had to pour quite a bit in until it came up the right spot on the dipstick. As a word of warning to other auto 510 owners, don't pour too fast or it'll start spewing out of the vent line. After that I put it in gear, revved it up, it gave a bit of tire squeal and off I went. It wasn't quite warmed up all the way, so it stumbled a bit. Every time I came to a stop, the engine died (my spare battery is only good for one attempt at restarting, then it's useless), but I did manage to go full circle around the block. Back home I tried to throw it in reverse, but it kept going forward so I had to circle at the end of the street. I was pleasantly surprised by the nice turning radius. It did get up into second gear once on the way back.

 

Turned out that one of the transmission linkage arms had wiggled out, so I pulled it back off and put in a new cotter pin to keep the thing in place. I did notice that the rear tires were too wide for the fenders because I gained some new scuff marks on the sidewalls. After that I made one more trip around (this time with reverse) before calling it a day. I had to make up a new bumper bracket for my 240Z and put it on.

 

 

I bought that bumper from a junkyard for cheap and it was in much better shape than the one that came on my car. Only problem was, it came off of a '73 Z and my car is a '72. A little welding, some bending of bar stock, and after drilling a few holes, it came out almost spot on. Now I just need the rubber strips that go on the front of it. Tomorrow I might drive it into town to get it safety inspected and registered. It's been off the road since last summer when I started on the bodywork and paint.

[blue72]

Yesterday I finally got around to adjusting the valve lash. With the valve cover removed it was actually surprising to see how clean everything was.

 

 

The only thing out of place that I could spot was excessive wear on the #1 intake lobe.

 

 

 

It's only on that one though, the others look fine.

 

After setting valve lash to the cold specs, it did seem to run a bit smoother. I was also playing around with the timing. I'm pretty sure that the deepest indentation on the crank pulley would be #1 TDC, but if the timing is adjusted to 10º like the FSM states, then the car won't run. It seems to like 25º, so I left it at that until I can do some further investigation. Oh, I have also found two minor oil leaks. One is at the pan (which got all beat up when the engine was drug around all over) and the other is at the head gasket, right where the head meets the front cover.

 

Leaving off there I started back on the metal work. Anyone want to lend me a shrinker?

 

[blue72]

Today at approx. 4:00 p.m. I received my shrinker / stretcher set from Eastwood. I quickly unpacked the two bodies, jaws and handles to try them out. Later that afternoon I had this:

 

 

Which I welded in place like so:

 

 

I was surprised at how little effort was required to shrink that edge. I'm excited to play with it some more later this week.

[Rustina 510]

Awesome work man, I can't wait to see the finished product, I have also been doing a ton of body work, but that is my favorite part

[dat77sun]

are you gonna leave this automatic or are you gonna swap in a 4 or 5 spd?

[Guest kamakazi620]

I WANT that CIVIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! think type r swap BOO YAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Dirttrack510]

Awsome project thread so far. This reminds me a lot of my own 510 project. Keep up the great work, i can't wait to see the finished product. Very creative repairing on that inner fender area & the rear quarter fab work is looking great so far too.

[andrewhans]

this is a really awsome project with a great story behind it.

[blue72]

Hey, thanks guys. I've taken a bit of a break from working on the 510 because I'm trying to get my Suburban project up and running so that I can help my sister and brother-in-law move in May if at all possible. If anyone wants to read about it and see where I've been investing my time, here's a link to my build thread over on 67-72chevytrucks.com blue72's (AKA Beelzeburb) Suburban Build

 

are you gonna leave this automatic or are you gonna swap in a 4 or 5 spd?

Well, for now it'll stay an auto. The plan is to eventually do the SR20DET swap, but by leaving the drivetrain stock for now I can concentrate on making sure everything works before I start tearing it apart again. Plus, I still need to redo the interior, replace the rubber seals and weatherstripping, add some paint, etc... That's enough to keep me busy for a while.

 

I WANT that CIVIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! think type r swap BOO YAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!

Woulda, coulda shoulda. I sold it two years ago to a guy who already had another one and was promising to put it all back together. I know that I entertained ideas of any number of swaps too, but I only had space to hold on to so many vehicles, so it had to go.

[blue72]

Finally taking care of those two minor oil leaks I mentioned back in post 61; the one at the front of the cylinder head and the one at the oil pan.

 

Here's my method for removing the cam/timing gear bolt. I use a crescent wrench on L6 engines because they've got a nice flat spot on the cam itself, but the L4 didn't have that provision.

 

 

Actually, it turns out the head gasket leak existed simply because the two 10mm bolts at the front were loose. It was a good thing I pulled the head off though, I found a small chunk missing from the fire ring on piston #1.

 

 

All of the piston bores look great though, and the tops of each piston are clean as can be. While I had the cylinder head off I disassembled and cleaned the whole enchilada.

 

 

Removed plenty of carbon buildup off of the valves and out of the ports. I also decided to replace that damaged camshaft because on closer inspection other lobes were worn too. A regrind is on it's way to me now along with a set of resurfaced rocker arms. While waiting I cleaned and straightened the oil pan, then applied two coats of POR-15. New pan gasket is on now (The old oil pan gasket still had blue paint on it, could have been the original 40+ year old one) and all the bolts are torqued to 6 ft-lbs. Depending how fast that new cam gets here, I might have the engine all back together and running again by the end of the week.

[blue72]

Well, I had everything buttoned up back in July. Then I got my Suburban running and driveable for the first time in 9 years and I've been busy making good use of those 7.4 litres of displacement.

 

The cam I put in the 510 isn't wild by any means, just 270 advertised duration. With the resurfaced rockers, the wipe pattern was spot on. I also replaced the original valve seals with some of those nice Viton pieces.

 

 

And here's a picture of the shiny oil pan before it went back on.

 

 

I reassembled everything, made sure the timing marks were all aligned properly and it actually ran for a little bit, but not as well as it could have. It bogged pretty seriously whenever I put it in gear, but ran well enough with no load. Something was also up with the secondary circuit which I was able to eventually resolve. I made it around the block once or twice (second gear and 30 mph, but only barely). The car began to run poorly toward the end of the day, so I left it until a later date. When I came back to it a month of two later, the car wouldn't run. I actually found that my fuel feed and return lines were hooked up backwards, so it seemed that I had probably clogged one of the jets with crud. I took the carb apart 3 different times, cleaning and inspecting. Two of those times were to make sure the primary/accelerator pump springs and check balls were in their proper orientation. Everything was put together cleanly, correctly and according to all of the diagrams I could find. It still wouldn't run right.

 

One of my eventual plans was to install an electronic ignition, so I went ahead and ordered a Pertronix unit because it couldn't hurt.

 

 

Didn't help anything as far as running problems, but then again, I didn't really expect it to. Instead, I found something else to play with.

 

 

Yes, I know they're the 46mm style It's only temporary until I get a decent pair of the 38mm ones. I actually do have two Hitachi 38mm flat tops, but they're both rear carbs and the dome on one is dented so the piston can't slide up and down. I'm also in the market for an original air cleaner box too.

[blue72]

Okay, so a year and a half later I am finally working on the 510 again. During that time I became much more involved in my Suburban. It had been more than 9 years since I had last driven it and there was lots of work to do to make it road legal and comfortable. In 2011 I also took my Z to the MSA show and JCCS. Then, at the beginning of last year I started dating the woman who is now my wife. Needless to say, I began investing my time a bit differently.

 

I finally sourced the right 38mm carburetors only very recently. The pair just showed up last week. They are a matched set of Hitachi HJG 38W-18 and most likely came off a JDM Fairlady Z or high compression Cedric/Laurel. I bought this set from RacnJsn95 on here and they arrived bolted to an L6 manifold with goofy reverse rotation linkage and funky emissions equipment. I was able to desmog them by reusing the blockoff plates that came on my pair of rear 38mm flat tops and get them ready to run.

 

 

After throwing them on the Dime, I started to troubleshoot. 1.5+ year old gas still left in the lines had me running down the wrong path for a little while, but then I finally noticed that the engine would only get spark and fire when the key was in the Start position. Apparently starters don't like being backdriven by the engine and running at high RPM, so now the solenoid is a bit fussy. After the new discovery it took some brainstorming but I was able to deduce that I'd messed up on the Pertronix install. Some research followed, together with switching a few wires around and it would finally fire up. The engine even ran after the key switched to the On position and seemed to generally work right.

 

It was fussy and finicky until some of the new gas started flowing into the floats. Once the engine started to get warm (with some constant fluctuation of the throttle linkage) the thermostat finally opened and coolant began to spew out into the engine bay.

 

Culprit:

 

I whipped off the t-stat housing and modified a Chevy SBC thermostat gasket I had on hand to fit.  With a gooping of non-hardening Permatex sealer, we were in business. After the engine was completely warmed up it revved well, sounded nice, idled peaceably and didn't cut out or die when I threw the transmission in gear. All very promising signs.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTugfU0BBSo

 

All that's left now is to drain that old gas out of the tank, make up an adapter for the throttle rod, set the timing and sync the carbs. Then I might get to drive it for the first time in two years.

[blue72]

On Friday, the 10^th of May I drove my 510 for the first time in two years.

 

I only had to make up an adapter plate for the throttle linkage, swap over to SSS carb coolant lines from the 2bbl downdraft ones, completely remove the gas tank to drain old gas / sludge out of it again, reinstall the tank and fill it with new gas, move the car hauling trailer that the 510 was on, pilot it off of the trailer and change the rear wheels. While visiting family in the Denver area a couple of years ago I had picked up some 13” Datsun steel wheels with ancient snow tires on them. They were listed for free on Craigslist. Once back home I threw them on the rear of the 510.  In the intervening time since, one had developed explosive tread separation and the other had a severe air leak in the sidewall.

 

 

I installed a pair of wheels and tires from my 240Z for the test drive instead.

 

 

Oh, then I had to swap a cleaner fuel filter on and blow compressed air through the fuel feed line back to the tank to clear a chunk of crud that was obstructing flow. After all of that though, I got to drive it around for about 10 or 15 minutes.

 

In all the time I've owned the 510 I'd only ever driven it around the block a few times. Back when it had the original 2bbl downdraft carburetor bolted on, the max speed was about 30 mph with my foot feathering the throttle in just the right position. This time though, things were different. When the transmission and engine were both up to operating temperature, the 510 could actually get up and go. It didn't bog down or stop running completely when I approached a stop sign and put my foot on the brake pedal. It didn't need to be kept in only one particular throttle range. It simply worked like it was supposed to. Throttle response was good, acceleration was surprisingly decent and it had enough torque to accelerate away from a dead stop at any degree of part throttle. It also has a nice firm 1-2 shift. I didn't want to stray too far away from home since the thing isn't anywhere close to being road legal, but it did reach 35 mph very comfortably.

 

Yesterday I tinkered with the car a bit and got to drive it some more. I was able to balance the carburetors and get them perfectly in sync. I also set the timing to where it would run the best. I even went so far as to replace a broken passenger side window crank handle and interior lock knob. Oh, and I purchased an original air cleaner housing from CorAce on this forum. I was able to bolt on the baseplate but then came across the common lament of LHD 510 owners with SU carbs and dual reservoir brake master cylinders. I already knew that fitting the housing in that tight space would likely not be possible, but I'll try and think of a solution.

 

 

I do plan on purchasing the correct PCV hose in the near future.

 

Once my minor tuning was done and I'd replaced the thermostat housing gasket with a brand new one, I got to drive the 510 around the neighborhood a bit more. This time I even got so bold as to venture out on the highway for a few seconds. My rusty old dime will hit 55 mph and shifts fine into 3^rd gear. No odd vibrations or anomalies to report. The last time it was going 55 mph the car was strapped down on a trailer. The last time it hit 55 mph under its own power was probably 25 or so years ago.

 

The next parts of its transition from rusty, abandoned hulk to street legal vehicle will come as I scrounge up money to purchase the bare necessities it'll need to pass a safety inspection. So far that list isn't too long, but it could take some time to do all the work to get it up to snuff.

 

So far it needs:

1 low beam headlight

a windshield

exhaust pipe from the remains of the y-pipe back to the muffler

wiper blade inserts

a full set of seatbelts

an EGR hose

new wheels / tires

a new driver side door handle

at the very least, turn the front brake rotors and get some new pads or go full swap for ZX struts

 

I need to make sure the following items are operational:

Heater, defroster, windshield washer pump, turn signals, brake lights and license plate lights

 

I need to make the following items work:

front side marker lights, turn signal auto cancel cam (think it just needs cleaned and lubed), hazard light switch, coolant temperature sensor/gauge and horn

 

I need to do the following work:

Bolt the bumpers on, repair rust in the hinge area of the driver side door, properly secure the battery (have a bracket already), replace all the tie-rod ends (I have new MOOG ones ready to go), check all wheel bearings and control arm bushings for loosness and wear, rig up choke cables, put on my NOS lock set all around, securely attach the external rearview mirror and continue to check for leaks.

 

That's the bare minimum list. While the windshield is out I'd like pop out the other glass and paint the top of the car at the very least. If I've got the glass out then I might as well order and install a new headliner and vinyl too. If I do that then I need a new rear window seal because mine is ancient and hard as a rock.

 

My eventual goal is to have a street legal and reliable vehicle. It doesn't need to have carpet or decent seats at first, though they would be nice too. All in good time.

[rusty12ver]

Glad to see this one again. Keep up the good work, maybe some more pics? Always impressed by your metal work on this.

[RacnJsn95]

Glad the carbs worked out for you!

[banzai510(hainz)]

on the Pertronix it says in the instructions to hook the red wire of the module to the +12volts.

This would be the blk/wht wire at the ballast resisitor. Not at the coil as when the key goes back to ON the 12volts goes thru the ballast then gets knocked down to like 6-9 volts at the +coil. So if the red wire of module is at the + coil its not getting the full 12-14 volts.

 

also your module is really close to the magnet ring. I trimm the module just a hair with a file. so the magnet ring tape dont huit it and wear it out then the magnets will stay on the dizzy shaft if you ever pull them out.

 

I put soem nail polis or some superglue on the grren tape holding the tape edge so it dont pell off.