Spriso's SR20DET Bluebird Coupe Project

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510wizard
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Re: Spriso's SR20DET Bluebird Coupe Project

Post by 510wizard »

Michael,
Could you post some pictures of the process that you use. Another question, have you thought of using the Caswell system for doing it at home. It appears to have good reviews online or is it just to much hassle.

http://www.caswellplating.com/electropl ... -kits.html
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spriso
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Re: Spriso's SR20DET Bluebird Coupe Project

Post by spriso »

Sure-- I will try to put something together tonight.

Yes, I have often pondered doing home plating, especially when I have just a few parts to get plated-- I get hung up on all the materials, time and space that it takes up-- I am not a chemistry guy-- so for me, sometimes it is just easier to just write the check!

Michael
Michael Spreadbury
Spriso Motorsports
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510wizard
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Re: Spriso's SR20DET Bluebird Coupe Project

Post by 510wizard »

It seems that all the plater's have a min charge, so getting a couple of handfuls of fasteners plated at a time is cost probative. I have a good friend that restores Morris Minors and he brings in 5 gallon buckets of fasteners at a time so the min charge is no big deal. Of course their all British whitworth thread, so it's not like their easily replaced with new stuff.
goichi1
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Re: Spriso's SR20DET Bluebird Coupe Project

Post by goichi1 »

Thanks for the info on the effects of blasting, I too use glass beads so that's good to know. I also have my cabinet vented outside and the evac pulls air from out side too, this makes for a really nice clear blasting view. Yes, the glass breaks down fast and makes a ton of dust, this usually clogs my cannister and I lose suction, meaning a lot of cleaning.

I am checking into that link on the plating, looks interesting.....usually when I say this I'll find it in my mail box in a few days! :lol: I understand what you mean about taking shop space!! I am all out in that area!!
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spriso
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Re: Spriso's SR20DET Bluebird Coupe Project

Post by spriso »

Yes, small batches are a problem when sending out plating to a bulk plater-- it can get expensive quickly.

I tend to start working on a batch of hardware and brackets that I plan on getting plated and prep it and when the box gets filled (or I need the parts) they go out.

Another factor to consider with the home plating kits is the smell factor-- I know when I have visited the local plating shop (or anodizing shop for aluminum parts), I know that I would not want my shop smelling like that!

Michael
Michael Spreadbury
Spriso Motorsports
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Re: Spriso's SR20DET Bluebird Coupe Project

Post by spriso »

This project. On again, off again. Damn it.

We build a lot of cars. Mostly Datsun roadsters, but other fun stuff too... but Brian's recent SR20DE swap into his 510 inspired me to get this thing back on the road once and for all (it is such a hoot to drive).

I have a significant birthday coming up in 2018, and frankly, 510s have been a part of more than half of my life. It's time to drive my own 510 again. This thing will back on the road under its own power for 2018. Finally.

Here's what I've been working on:

One of my least favorite parts of driving a 510 is dealing with the dead steering-- worn out steering boxes and the related monkey motion steering is a frustrating part of the 510 ownership experience. My Mitsubisi EVO spoiled me with razor sharp steering, and having previously converted a 510 with a rack and pinion, I decided that it may be time to explore that road again.

With the recent development of the James Boswell custom rack and pinion crossmembers, this peaked my interest. I did a lot of reading and really liked the methodology of how they approached this project. http://www.jbcoachwerks.com/technical/

I contacted Jeff, and ordered a RHD steering rack without engine mounts (as I wanted to salvage as much of the previous work that had been done), and a few weeks later a bare crossmember, and a use power steering assist Toyota AE86 steering rack arrived:

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This is a really nicely designed piece, and the stock power steering lines cleared everything like OEM:

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With that decided, the engine was supported (to lock it in place) and the existing 510 crossmember, NOS RHD steering box, and all assorted steering parts were removed from the car, and it was time to start building again (now the 3rd front crossmember I've had in this car!)

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The JBC crossmember fit easily into the car (bolting into the stock locations), so it was just a matter of building some new motor mounts to meet up with the stock SR20DET isolator.

A pair of new base plates were made (with a nice punched slotted hole):

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And then bolted to the stock motor mounts:

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New legs and reinforcement plates were made:

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And removed and ready for powder coat:

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Check that one off the list!

Michael
Michael Spreadbury
Spriso Motorsports
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Re: Spriso's SR20DET Bluebird Coupe Project

Post by spriso »

Transmission Crossmember

This was actually done before the new crossmember-- I wanted to lock the engine/trans in their original location, but also wanted to build a new crossmember so that it would have better exhaust clearance for the 3" exhaust.

The transmission is a new S15 SR20DET 6-speed gearbox, and while there are some crossmembers available on the market that would work with this gearbox, I wanted to build something that was as low profile as possible...

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And installed in the car (using a stock Nissan rubber isolator):

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Clearance with 3" round exhaust tube:

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Done... cross that off the list!

Michael
Michael Spreadbury
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Re: Spriso's SR20DET Bluebird Coupe Project

Post by spriso »

Making it Steer

With the engine/transmission in place, it was now time to build the steering linkage from the firewall to the steering rack.

The guys at James Boswell have a pretty good installation guide http://www.jbcoachwerks.com/installation-guide, but I made a few modifications to that to work with my project.

First off was to find a U-joint that would work well with the Toyota rack and that I could modify to blend with the 510 steering shaft.

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I determined that I could shorten it up even further by modifying the retaining collar thereby lessening the angle of the steering U-joint down to the steering rack:

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The stock 510 steering column housing was then measured and shortened:

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A slit was then put into the end of the steering column so the collar would tighten down on the inner retaining sleeve:

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The center of the U-joint was drilled out to match the diameter of the 510 shaft, and it was welded to the U-joint with the TIG welder. The collar matches the ID of the 510 steering shaft tube, and retaining collar keeps it in place. (That glob of weld is the original MIG weld from the factory)--

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And installed into the 510 steering column:

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With that in place, the second half of the steering linkage project needed to be built. I took a steering intermediate shaft from a Nissan Frontier pickup and shortened that to work with the Toyota U-joints (the spline count is the same):

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The steering shaft turns nice and freely with no free-play, nice and smooth with lots of clearance to the engine/starter-- done!

Michael
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Re: Spriso's SR20DET Bluebird Coupe Project

Post by spriso »

Making it Steer-- Part II

Now that the steering rack turned with the steering wheel, it was time to work on the power assist portion of the rack install. SR20DET engines come from the factory with a power steering pump (and assorted brackets, etc.) and I have a pile of them here from the many SR swaps we have done over the years. The no-brainer idea was to mount one of the factory PS pumps onto the engine and I would be done... yeah-- right.

The factory pump bolted right up to the engine, but the pulley clearance to the radiator fan left a little to be desired (I had also cut off the original PS pump pulley off of the crankshaft, so that was going to need to be replaced as well):

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The center pulley for on the lower crank pulley was not being used, and if I could move the steering pump back, I would gain the clearance that I needed and I would not need to replace the crankshaft pulley. Hours and hours later-- a new simple PS pump mounting bracket was made:

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This allowed me to install the stock SR20DET PS pump and run it off of the center pulley:

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The pump was cleaned up and the banjo fitting on the pump was modified to accept a -6AN fitting that will feed the PS rack hardline:

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The hardlines that feed the power assist steering rack were built to clear the new motor mounts-- this required modifying a tubing bender to get even more of a radius from the 3/8" hardlines without kinking them:

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The power steering reservoir (a modified Nissan NX-2000 steel unit) is located behind the left side strut tower:

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This should disappear quite well once the hood is on:

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Still a little plumbing to go on that system, but it's getting closer to getting taken off of the white board!

Michael
Michael Spreadbury
Spriso Motorsports
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Re: Spriso's SR20DET Bluebird Coupe Project

Post by spriso »

Making it Stop, and suspension stuff too

If we are going to go fast, then we better be able to stop this beast quickly as well. Mario from TSR builds a beautiful Brembo based brake kit for the front and rear of the 510, and I added this to the list for the front and rear of the car:

The front kit is based on a 280ZX strut (so the 200SX struts were pulled and sold off), and use a Lotus Elise Brembo front brake caliper (still needing to be refinished in this shot):

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While I was building the front struts, I made some simple reinforcement gussets for the spindle to tube:

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And welded to the strut:

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The rest of the setup is some MR2 Tokiko Illumina struts, and a simple coil over kit and camber plates up top-- Mario's brake kit normally is used with a 17" wheel, but I was relieved when we found that we could squeeze the 16" Watanabe RS-8s over the calipers (with business card clearances!)

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In the rear, it is a pair of Subaru STI Brembo rear brake calipers, and a TSR's hats and rotors:

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The rear is using QA1 Coil Overs:

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The rear suspension crossmember was removed, and the bushings removed using the factory removal tool:

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All the mounting tabs were removed off of the crossmember, and the exhaust hole was opened up to a 3.5" hole:

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The control arm mounting points were moved in 3/8" to create a little more room for the 16x8 Watanabe RS-8 wheels and a set of Byron's camber/toe adjusting plates were welded to the crossmember.

A Subaru STI 3.9:1 R180 rear differential is being used with a Perrin high-capacity cover with a custom mustache bar that was built by Eric Straw a few years ago.

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Since the control arm mounting points were moved in, I had to have a custom set of rear axles built to a narrower length, and those were done by The Driveshaft Shop out of NC. The rear control arms, crossmember, etc. was all rebuilt and powder coated:

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And this is what the car looks like outside with the 16x7 12mm offset front wheels and the 16x8 25mm offset rear wheels:

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Inching ever closer...

Michael
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dscottdatsun
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Re: Spriso's SR20DET Bluebird Coupe Project

Post by dscottdatsun »

Brilliant adaptation and beautiful work!!!! I will be waiting to see what comes next
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spriso
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Re: Spriso's SR20DET Bluebird Coupe Project

Post by spriso »

Details That Eat Up the Hours

In a project like this, it is the small details that eat up the hours it seems. For packaging purposes, the turbo compressor housing was re-clocked to make the "hot pipe" tube flow nicely to the front intercooler. This meant that the original bracket holding the waste gate would no longer work and a new one would need to be constructed. This bracket not only has to help clock the compressor housing on the turbo, but it would also need to mount the wastegate to help control the boost. Simple enough-- right?

First a new pattern was made in CAD (Cardboard Aided Design), test fit, and once the fit was confirmed, a new plate was made:

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This was then test fit onto the engine-- front side:

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Back side:

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The bracket was massaged to get the plunger coming out of the diaphragm as neutral as possible. But this simple bracket would not be stiff enough to handle the constant pulling and releasing of the wastegate (as well as the heat from the turbo), so a stiffening rib was added (with enough room to allow a ratcheting wrench to move):

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And test fit again:

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A small dimple die was used to stiffen up the lighting hole, and the bracket was sent out for zinc plating (who knows how long that will last considering where this will live, but it looks good for now!):

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Done!

Michael
Michael Spreadbury
Spriso Motorsports
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spriso
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Re: Spriso's SR20DET Bluebird Coupe Project

Post by spriso »

Intercooler Plumbing (AGAIN)

After staring at this engine compartment for years, I was just not happy with a few aspects the intercooler and intake plumbing. My partner in crime Eric Straw had also convinced me to ditch the stock MAF and run a Haltech standalone EFI system which meant that we would could fix the parts of the intake and hot pipe that we did not like, as well as modify the cool pipe from the intercooler to the throttle body. Heck--- it will only be the third version of this that have been on this car... (as we always joke, I only want to do this twice!)

On a recent frigid Oregon evening, Eric and I knocked out the new plumbing, and I'm finally happy with the way this all fits now...

First, the original bolt on outlet for the turbo was cut off and a 90-degree cast elbow was welded onto the end (Eric in action):

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This was then fed to a hump hose, a transition to go from 2" to 2.5", and a gentle S to the intercooler:

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Now that was rebuilt, the intake plumbing from the air filter to the turbo compressor inlet could be built-- first a bolt-on flange was added:

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And then a tight radius to clear the power steering pump (this is a 3" donut radius):

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And then a simple transition up to the air filter assembly (not having the MAF makes things much easier!) (Still need to build a support bracket for the air filter assy, but that will be soon)

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The cool pipe from the intercooler to the throttle body was then reworked to eliminate the cross over pipe (as now the BOV can vent to atmosphere)-- pay no attention to the unrestored S13 throttle body (which is also mounted upside down so we could have a target to aim for):

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As always, there is a little more to do here, but kudos to Eric for his help on this-- I think we can finally let this stay to make this car run!

Michael
Michael Spreadbury
Spriso Motorsports
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goichi1
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Re: Spriso's SR20DET Bluebird Coupe Project

Post by goichi1 »

WOW! I haven't had a lot of time lately to come and see what's been going on around here, but DAMN! that's coming along nicely. Just what I need to see to get me motivated to get back to my projects that have been sitting for the last 6 years!! Thank you!
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Re: Spriso's SR20DET Bluebird Coupe Project

Post by PoorMtnKid »

Just had the chance to sit hear and read a little my self. What an amazing build , detail is amazing. Feature?
looking for pass. side arm rest
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