A 510 30 years in planing.

[dislexicdime]

i know what you mean . when i think hood pin. I think cheesy 80's mullet rocket hood pin's

[Eagle_Adam]

wow.......


i dont post here much, mostly lurk....



but hot damn! 60 pages strait and im caught up! great build

[RonM]

Thanks Adem, I'm always blown away when someone reads through all this. Kind of like War and Peace ay. Hey you wouldn't be the same Eagle_Adam on NWD too?

[DATREBB]

Another hit to the groin you say Ron. Well you must be carting around a bag full of crumbs by now. Guess your lucky it didn't cave in your roof and smash the windshield when the hood tried to give you a hat for a present. I've been in a car when this has happened and its not a nice feeling. Really like the Area 510 scheme as there is so many things that could be worked with it. I kinda like the the old cheesy hood pins too. The thing I don't like about them is drilling holes through a perfectly good bonnet. I have never read war and peace but it must be a half decent read. By the way keep up the good work realm community, I'm told there's plenty of nachos to go round.

[RonM]

Nah DATREBB, They haven't snuffed the rooster yet. What little I still have left in my bag must be made from pretty tough stuff.

[DATREBB]

No doubt!

[Bike papa]

Ron,
You shouldn't be be surprised when people comment on your epic build. I too have read it from cover to cover.
If I were to compare your build to mine I would say that reading yours is like watching "National Lampoon's Vacation with Chevy Chase". My build... More like "Must Love Dogs" LOL

Besides no one else on this site says "Bitchin". Which I haven't heard since I left SoCal over thirty years ago.

Stay true to yourself

BP

[James]

This build is bitchin.

[RonM]

I know it's been a while, but here's an update on the car. A friend and I have been shaking down the tune on the Link G4 ECU. Just doing some data logging and playing with the mixture and timing curves. We really got the boost dialed in.... FINALLY. So, today I went on a flat out run on 880 West from Marina to Davis exit. Did a rearview video this time and as you can see I almost bought the farm getting off the freeway. Turns out there's some work being done to the Davis exit. It used have a nice sweeping right, but now it's flat into s cement barricades and an abrupt hard corner. No reduce speed warning signs or nothing. Thank you Cal-trans.

Full sphincter clench for sure. To be honest, I was paying too much attention to the gauges, but I had no idea they'd turn the exit into a 20mph corner. I must have been doing at least 50 when I looked up. I grabbed all the breaks I had, slid it sideways, let off the breaks and my grip on the wheel when I came into the apex of the corner, and BINGO.. The car did everything it was supposed to. Thank you Datsun gods.


http://youtu.be/nSMJegee3t0

[two_68_510s]

Nice to see you back again Ron! Especially after seeing your centripetal force encounter! (good tires?)

Great recovery, BTW!

Car sounds good

[Sleepys-14]

Holy crap! That was a bit sketchy. I can't believe you didn't say anything in the video. When I have those moments, I always call myself an idiot or something.

[510rob]

Yikes, that's spooky. Glad that you saved yourself and the car and everything.

[andrew.lori]

Nice catch Car sounds great BTW....

[RonM]

The truth is, I got lucky in one of those perfect storm situations. It could have easily gone the other way had I not looked up soon enough, if I didn't have GREAT tires. (Hancook Vertus R Joel), or a bunch of other things that thankfully lined up. I'm glad I kept my wits and didn't just stomp the breaks; that definitely would have been a different story.

I agree Joel and Andrew, the motor sounds wonderful when it's all wound up like that. Can you guys believe this is the same motor Miles at Fine line said was shot and needed to be replaced? What an ass.

[RonM]

So the other day I saw the dreaded white cloudy coolant. Really, It came as no shock that I'd finally blown my stock head gasket. This actually gave me an opportunity to put some fears to rest, and make some necessary repairs and upgrades. this way I'll feel much more confident pushing the car on a track. Some may recall that during the build there were questions razed by FLI about the freshness of the motor, I was also tripping on how that lash pad got into the oil pan, and whether it cause any damage on it's way down there. Once the head came off it was a huge relief to clearly see the cylinders and pistons are in great shape. Fresh honing marks are visible on all four cylinders, and there no vertical scoring or blow by stains whatsoever. Looking at the exhaust valves the number one cylinder was much darker than the other three. I believe this was due to compression loss at the valves though.

I took the head to get pressure tested and have it decked. Turns out the head was fine and only need 10/1000 to clean it up. Sense everything appeared to be in good shape, that with some low budget repairs and upgrades I can push on this motor with more confidence. I decided to get a minimal valve job with new seats, guides and seals. I got a Toemi multi layered metal gasket, and ARP studs. I figure as long as I keep the redline at 7500 rpm, I feel comfortable switching over to e85 now and pushing boost to 14-16 psi.. Obviously, I will not attempt this tweaking on my own, so we're saving up for some dyno time.

While the head was out and everything more accessible, I took care of some other odds and ends. I finally installed a steering brace that I'd bought two years ago. Super easy. I replaced the Revolution water temp gauge sending unit, lowered the boost controller on the strut tower so I could reinstall the VID plate, reran the bulk of the wiring harness along the bottom rail to the front grill, and relocated the igniter chip so I could make it more accessible.

Before I convert to e85 I want to swap the SR coils to LS2 coil packs. With this setup, you bypass the igniter chip all together at the plug as the LS2 coils have the igniter integrated in each unit. Super cheap, way more powerful, and easy to install. I figured with the cold start issues, and lower overall efficiency of e85, I could use all the help I can get. With the O2 sensor being monitored by the ECU I should be able to safely run a very tight and efficient tune. Also if any failure in the mixture should occur at WFO, the ECU will shut things down long before I ever could.

Although this car will never be a daily driver, I'll finally have confidence taking it out for the occasional fun run. There were just too many things hanging out there to drive it too far from home. Now I know what I have, and I know how far I can push it, Canby may be within reach. My lack of confidence in this motor really dampened the feeling of satisfaction with the car and the feeling it was truly complete. Finally taking away all those doubts and questions is a damn good feeling. In hindsight I really should have pulled the head before I installed the motor. Lesson learned.