Ecotec 510

[ecotec510]

Thanks, lot's of redo's in the process of this build. Most of what you're seeing here is the result of many failed attempts. The hardest hurdle in the build was figuring out how to get steering into the car with this motor. As you can see I got kinda creative, but it worked out nicely in the end.

Those are helpers, just zero rate springs that keep the main springs tight when the car is off the ground. The rear coilovers are pieced together. Bilstein SZ digressively valved Shocks with bilstein coilover sleeves. I had a set of linear rate shocks on the back, but I like the digressive ones much better. They have spherical bearings on each end too. I'll be swapping the rear springs out soon, I'll take a picture of them off the car.

Thanks Byron, I tend to take the hot rod approach to things. You can put anything into anything with enough work. You are right the low exhaust at the front is a big compromise. The long tube header just looks so cool on there. I wanted to keep the header, so I was forced to work around it's exit. I've used 2.5" tubing and it's run straight down the center under the ds, so it's really not crossing over the ds. We'll see if it will hold up, it's only 1" lower than the x-member at it's lowest point.

Yes, I modeled the stock/revised suspension in the trial suspension analyzer software. It got me in the ball park, but in the end you just have to start making parts and testing things to see if it works. The rear lca pivot is in the stock location. The front pivot is parallel with the centerline instead of angled inward as original. It was also brought down to induce some anti-dive. The steering arms are where I made the most of my changes. The ball joint taper hole is pushed as far outward as possible and not angled like stock. This moved the outer pivot outward around 7/8". Increaasing KPI and improving scrub, which has improved the steering resistance a good bit, and hopefully road feedback once I get it driving again. The steering arms were shortened to quicken things up, and I tried to keep the the ackerman angles correct. Steering ratio is dependent on the rack, but right now I'm at 3 turns lock to lock, with more turning radius than stock.

[nick64merc]

Nice work. I am in the middle of building my own custom suspension, but I have yet to figure out the steering situation. What car is that rack and pinion from and are they fairly easy to come by?

[htownsr510]

Awesome work..I drive thru al once in a while and I would love to stop by and check it out later next year

[broke]

Very nice, and yeah low is good

One question:

1. Is the track width at the rear of the car any greater with those control arms? The reason I ask is that I know others have tried the Subaru CV shafts and found the inner CV sticks out too far from the diff, with the result that they fall apart or pop out of the diff....

[ecotec510]

Very nice, and yeah low is good

One question:

1. Is the track width at the rear of the car any greater with those control arms? The reason I ask is that I know others have tried the Subaru CV shafts and found the inner CV sticks out too far from the diff, with the result that they fall apart or pop out of the diff....

No, my track is pretty close to stock. Never had any trouble with the cv's popping out. It's very important that the axle's are the right length. I had a set of shorter axles made for my cv's since the subie stuff was way to wide. The inner cv's float to make up for the length change in ride height. If the axles are too short, they will pull them out of the diff.

[e510]

Custom made struts w/Sentra SE-R Brembos, 350Z rotors, 350Z hubs, bilstein VW Rabbit inserts

The build looks great and it is nice to see someone thinking outside the box. I have a question in regards to your front suspension. The sentra SE-R Brembo brakes use a 23mm front rotor and the 350z front rotors are 32mm. So how did you get that to work? Also how did you get the 350z front hubs to work on a strut? Are your struts 510, 280zx, 200sx?

Thanks
Eric

[ecotec510]

Custom made struts w/Sentra SE-R Brembos, 350Z rotors, 350Z hubs, bilstein VW Rabbit inserts

The build looks great and it is nice to see someone thinking outside the box. I have a question in regards to your front suspension. The sentra SE-R Brembo brakes use a 23mm front rotor and the 350z front rotors are 32mm. So how did you get that to work? Also how did you get the 350z front hubs to work on a strut? Are your struts 510, 280zx, 200sx?

Thanks
Eric

The rotors are from a 03-05 non-brembo 350z which are 296 x 24mm thick. The tiny bit of extra thickness doesn't hurt anything, and the calipers open up that far even with new pads. The struts are made from scratch. 2" 4130 tube, an L bent bottom bracket with the steering arm mounting on bottom and Z bearing on face. It was some tight packaging to make it all fit. The critical thing was getting the bearing angle right and matching on each strut. I raised the bearing up on the strut to keep the roll center and lower a-arm angles stock at my lower ride height. You could do the brakes on one of the nissan struts if you had a 5 lug conversion hub. With the Z rotors, the brakes barely fit under 16" wheels. It is a crazy brake setup, way more than this car needs.

[XeroX]

Wow very cool build. And to follow the bandwagon, fantastic fabrication...

From my understanding, other than tune, injectors, and some other random things...this basically has the same internals as the turbo'd ecotech right? So in essence you can throw the stock turbo offa redline without TOO much extra work...

I personally have heard nothing but great things about the ecotech's. I have been waiting for an opportunity to work on a Sky or a Solstice hehe...

[ecotec510]

Wow very cool build. And to follow the bandwagon, fantastic fabrication...

From my understanding, other than tune, injectors, and some other random things...this basically has the same internals as the turbo'd ecotech right? So in essence you can throw the stock turbo offa redline without TOO much extra work...

I personally have heard nothing but great things about the ecotech's. I have been waiting for an opportunity to work on a Sky or a Solstice hehe...

Thanks. Unfortunately the 2.0l turbo motor is much stronger internally. A turbo or supercharger could be added to this 2.4l but around 300hp would be pushing you luck on the stock bottom end. There's plenty of aftermarket upgrades so anything is possible with enough $$.

[ecotec510]

Here's some pics of the front and rear coilovers. I took some pics while installing the new Hypercos.

[ecotec510]

Teaser pic of my latest modification. Attempting to raise rear a-arm pivots up 2.5" to improve roll center and anti-squat.

[hillbillyhector]

this is what I like to see. Hand built parts. beautiful.

[ecotec510]

Figure it's about time I update my project thread again. I've been busy with multiple projects this winter, but the 510 is back on the ground again. The rear suspension modifications are complete. Rear pivot points were raised 2.5". This raised the rear roll center. Rear seems more stable now. The main improvement I've noticed is the car doesn't squat like it used to when accelerating.

Modified, powercoated, and ready to install.

Fully compressed. Checking travel, no binding.

This is what the box is in the above pic in case anyone was wondering.

[ecotec510]

Also did some body work on the back end. Shaved the markers, sunk the battery in the floor, shaved all the rear seams, and relocated the tag a bit lower. This car had body damage in the back tail light panel when I bought it. I decided to try a little custom work fixing it.

[anth]

this build is so impressive. I wish i had 1% of your skill!