1969 Datsun 510 2Dr Z22 turbo EFI build

[Grinder]

Well I guess I should start a build thread. Like everyone and their dog here long time 510 fan always wanted one but being a Z car guy first and foremost the 510 kinda went to the back burner. Kept an eye out and missed a few but most of the stuff around here is rotten and goes for a fortune. Long story short a guy I knew had one about three years ago. It was a project he picked up from a kid. Put the car back together, added bubble flairs and painted it flat black. Found a rebuilt L16 and dropped it in. Shortly thereafter he found his dream car - '60's Impala which he proceeded to dump huge piles of cash into to build his dream car. I told him if he was ever going to sell the 510 to let me know. Three years later I get a message on my phone from our local classified adds which pops up any time anything Datsun is listed. 95% of the time it's either wheels that fit a Datsun, books with Datsun in a picture on the 59th page or some rotten piece of junk. Anyhow this time it turns out to be this 510 and it sure looked like the guy's car that I talked to years ago so I call the number right away. He answers the phone and I ask him if this is so and so and it turns out it's the guy. He says he just posted the ad less than five minutes ago. Anyhow I ended up buying it and so it begins....

After she arrives at home with some of her stable mates:


Missing the rear cover so I covered her shame with a piece of sheet metal till I can get around to fitting something properly.

[Grinder]

Of course I haven't even had her towed home and I'm researching engine swaps. You know the usual KA24, SR20, VG30E and ET, etc... I'm trying to get 'er running in the drive way and I'm not having a lot of luck. I rebuilt the carb not knowing what kind of shape it's in. Getting better. Find a bunch of vacuum leaks. Replace the weak coil. I'm an Electronics Eng so I pull the stock harness out of the engine bay and give 'er a rebuild. I've got all the connectors for the 240Z, etc so I was already good to go there - add some new ground wires, etc. The whole time I'm fighting with this I'm thinking how much easier it would be if I was running Mega Squirt like I just built for the 280ZXT. That's when I start thinking about building an L16 turbo with EFI (MS3). I start researching about how to make this happen. I think it would be a fun little engine and I don't need an insane build - I've got other cars that make lots of power and the L16 turbo is kinda unique as most people don't bother. I start researching EFI manifolds and figure I'm going to have to build my own. Then I start trying to figure out how I'm going to trigger the EFI. Looking into an L28ET dizzy, etc and I find out that the Z24i has an optical dizzy. It also has a hemi head with a good quench area - hmmm that's perfect for a turbo build. A friend of mine tells me he has a Z22 so I do some horse trading (thanks Greg!) and now I'm going down the Z22 EFI turbo road. She burns oil so now's the time for a rebuild. The tentative plans are a full gasket set, ITM hyperutectic pistons and rings (only $50 more than rings alone - seems like a no brainer), ARP head and rod bolts (good for a boosted engine and the NAPSZ seems to have an issue with the head bolts getting loose after time), and Cleavite crank and rod bearings. Once we get her cracked open we'll see if anything else needs doing but I'm trying to keep this fairly low cost. I picked up an extra oil pan (thanks Peter!) and oil pickup (thanks Hayden!) so I don't need to rip the L16 apart to build this thing.


So the challenge of this beast is to get it into EFI land. I'm already part way there researching for the L16 EFI conversion. I need an EFI manifold from an early 200SX (Z20) and an optical dizzy from the later Z24i Hardbody. DatsunMike as always has been a pile of help. Posted tons of picks and pointed me in the right direction. Found a dizzy from a Z24i (thanks Sealick!) and while I was looking at a 280ZX for a good friend of mine I look down in the dirt literally and there lies a 200SX intake plenum and runners - the last piece of the puzzle (thanks Robert!)


So here's the plenum and runners before the masaging begins (minus 12lbs of pine needles)









Intake runners bead blasted, ported and polished









Intake plenum ported to accept a 240SX 60mm throttle body. Might be a little overkill so I may have to go to a 280ZX 48mm TB for better throttle response. We'll have to see how it works out.





Intake plenum with 240SX TB and an adapter plate made of 1/2" aluminum. Two screw holes are tapped into the plate to mount the TB and the other two line up with the stock mounts. Third set of holes mounts to the stock location below the TB. Cut the water inlet/outlet off the TB to reduce plumbing.












Plenum and TB test fitted. TB adapter is port matched to the plenum

[Grinder]

And here's my dizzy from a Z24i with the optical encoder wheel. I might be able to use the wheel as is since it has a larger slot for TDC. MS3 firmware 1.1.2 supports the Nissan CAS so we'll see if that works. If not I've got a 24-1-1 50mm optical encoder wheel we cut on the water jet that should work instead. I cut it for the L28ET but it's the same size conveniently


Has the same 10 spline count as the L28ET oil pump shaft which should work in the Z22






Stock 50mm optical encoder wheel. Same size as the L28ET and VG30E dizzy. Different in that it has a larger slot for TDC whereas the L28ET are all equal size (and six instead of four slots on the second ring)





The pigtail looks like it goes right into the dizzy but it's just a cover plate that holds the more common rectangular four pin connector - same as the L28ET dizzy. Nice as this makes it easier to interface to

[DADZSUN]

Damn, that`s a nice start into the 510 world.

I like seeing those Zs on your driveway. I`m a formed 350z owner for many years. Great car, I loved the VQ35 which had one of the best drive-by-wire throttle I`ve ever used. While I thought the 350z was an ok looking car (Brickyard), I always thought it looked like it had a long child birth... that rear is pulled back quite a bit. The 370z however with it`s shorter rear - VERY nice!

[Byron510]

I just like how Kurk was one of the few who saved a 280ZX or two - not very many examples left!

It'll be good to follow your build here - the 510 is a great platform to "play" with - it's rather forgiving in many ways.

The NapZ motor does solve many of the issues that our L motors create. namely having the cross flow head, and the intake away from the interference with the BMC. The FJ and SR and KA have this advantage as well.

At any rate, keep up the photo progress. Love to see a good project.

Byron

[two_68_510s]

Hi, Cool project, L16 custom builds seem rare.

I was wondering about something.
Is there a scientific reason your transitions in the manifold are wavy, rippled or what ever you want to call it? I was under the impression you were supposed to make those as smooth as possible. Here is what I am talking about:

Z22EFIplenum4.jpg (253.13 KiB) Viewed 7894 times

Also, does the laminar flow suffer when it goes from the smooth TB to the wavy manifold?

Z22EFIplenum2gif.gif (246.57 KiB) Viewed 7894 times

[Grinder]

[quote="two_68_510s"]Hi, Cool project, L16 custom builds seem rare.

I was wondering about something.
Is there a scientific reason your transitions in the manifold are wavy, rippled or what ever you want to call it? I was under the impression you were supposed to make those as smooth as possible. Here is what I am talking about
Also, does the laminar flow suffer when it goes from the smooth TB to the wavy manifold?[quote]

Well the original plan was an L16 but I've moved to a Z22. I guess the unique part is making it EFI and turbo while keeping the typically unwanted NAPS Z head.

As far as the plenum goes I've kept the stock 200SX setup but I've removed all the flashing, etc. Pictures are a little decieving but most of the "wavy" part you are seeing is the stock bell mouth going into the intake runners. The bell mouth is the best way to get air into the runners smoothly. The rest is what Nissan decided was a good idea for flow so I'm gonna stick with that for now. The nice thing about this setup unlike the L24-28 stuff is the runners are seperate from the plenum so I could make up a plenum after the fact based on my own design. I'm just changing the TB to the larger 240SX 60mm and port matching and polishing everything in the stock setup. The idea is if this works out half decent it will be a cheap/easy alternative to swaping in a KA24 or SR20 since all that is required is the oil pan, oil pan pickup and 1600cc motor mounts to get it in and the intake plenum/runners from a 200sx and the Z24i dizzy which should make it the easiest EFI swap for the 510 that I can think of. I also think the Z22 will respond well to boost. That's the idea but ideas and real life aren't always the same thing so we'll have to see since I haven't been able to find anyone who has boosted and Mega Squirted a Z22 (send me links info if you know of anyone)!

[Grinder]

Took the engine apart so it's all sitting in bits on my buddy's garage on the bench. Took the head apart and started to give 'er some loving:

The gratuitous before picture of the carbon coated chamber:


After a good long cleaning:


After I cleaned the combustion chamber I saw quite a bit of damage. Looks like something bounced around in all the chambers. Of course the first one I started working on was the worst and I forgot to take before pictures but you get the idea from this one:


After some sweet loving she's starting to clean up. Still in the process of cleaning the chamber up but it looks like there is hope Tried to remove as little as possible but I'm not too worried about reducing the compression ratio from the small amount of material removed. Just trying to keep the chamber as clean and slick as possible to keep any hot spots to a minimum and thus prevent detonation. It will of course help with flow but reducing detonation is more important IMHO in this turbo application.

[Grinder]

Jumping ahead here a bit but I was playing with the new Shadow Logger software for the Android to implement a HUD for the Mega Squirt 3 I'll be running in the car. Man this is slick!

PDA on the dash


Piece of reflective window tint and voila - HUD!


Of course pictures don't do it justice so a quick and dirty video of the HUD
http://youtu.be/RDqx4NQoU14

[S15DET]

I wonder if there's a version that will communicate with the Nissan Consult port, pre OBDII, as on our SR20's? Neat idea.

[Grinder]

Sow's Ear:




Silk Purse:

[cambo]

On the exhaust side you might want to consider a Z18ET manifold. It would bolt right to the Z22 head and it has a T3 flange. It just clears the steering gear. Here is a pic of the one in my 510. It's a Z18 top end with a Z22S bottom end.

[Grinder]

I've been looking for a Z18T exhaust manifold with no luck for a while now. Where did you track yours down?

[cambo]

I've been looking for a Z18T exhaust manifold with no luck for a while now. Where did you track yours down?

I bought a complete Z18ET back in 1991. You might want to try some of the australian 510 or 910 websites. They seem to have imported a fair amount of these engines from Japan. I tried to look on ebay Japan, but I don't speak or read the language so I couldn't seem to make my search's work. Cam.

[Grinder]

Didn't get a spindle with my Z24i dizzy so I had one "made up" from an L28ET (which is too long) with the optical dizzy (eg not an '81 with the CAS). Sleaved for a nice compression fit. The original stock dizzy spindle beside the modified one.