Mr.510

They only do Harley stuff now. No exceptions. I found out something else about that one-off intake: it was built for one of the Baja 1000 trucks.

I have a VG30DE pulled from a '91 automatic Z32 with 2018 miles on it. The car was destroyed and the engine removed in 1991. It's been stored in a heated shop for 19 years! I believe I have the complete harness and ECU for it as it was supposed to get swapped into a 510... but it's been so many years that I'm not sure I can find the other bits. It's going to need head gaskets and a timing belt since it's been sitting so long. Anybody got a guess what this thing is worth? I've never really considered selling it but I can't see myself getting around to using it either. I see used import engines on eBay for around a grand.

Gerolamy made this one for Nismo. Perhaps the 'mystery' cast IDF manifold was made by TBO. I don't think Frank or Sly remembered where it came from. I think it will be coming to the NW in July. I'll shoot pics when/if I see it.

I know what I want for Christmas!

Here are some better pics of the triple Weber VG intake: We found out some more information about this intake: It was built by Barrie Gerolamy of BC Gerolamy. He cut down a stock plenum lower and welded on horns from three air cooled VW intakes. The ports are very smooth, the reddish purple color you see is port putty. I'm told there is also a one-piece cast intake at the motor builders' but it is *much* taller and therefore not very useful except in a mid engine race car. Here are a few pics of the custom oil pan I built for Ken's VG-powered GT2 240SX: Note that I had to skive off the front lower corner for steering rack clearance. That really sucked! This pan has the same diamond trap with hinged trap doors that I use in my production oil pans. It's also only 6-1/4" deep so the bottom is approximately level with the bottom of the ring gear - the lowest point in the car.

I've never seen those particular OBX manifolds in person but I have seen some of their headers. They looked like a 3rd grader welded them using a MIG with no shielding gas. They might actually be stick welded. I hadn't thought of that possibility and that would explain the look of the welds. They are made in China...

Ken's shop is an hour drive from mine and I don't get out that way very often. I should have the oil pan for his car done and will need to take it up there in the next week. Should be able to shoot some intake pics at that time. I'll post them here as soon as I do...

My last post can be disregarded. It's been tested in a Z31T and it fits with no issues!

We haven't heard it yet but I'll bet it's awesome! That's a one-off hand built intake that Nissan Motorsports had laying around. Don't know what it was used for but it's clearly been used.

Sure, no problem. I've got a couple of them stashed away plus the one in my VG510 Wagon. It would probably be much easier to just modify an L series distributor to fit into the VG head. That's what I was going to do for Ken before he found the distributor in those pics. A six cylinder Chevy distributor would probably be an even better choice as you can get a wide array of parts for them. Of course with anything but a VG distributor you'd lose the supercool flat cap and spark plug wire perfection that we all know and

Holinger! I never thought of that possibility. I'll pass that along to Ken. He has to re-gear it for it to be useful. The intake is... interesting. It's a piece that Nissan Motorsports had but I don't know what they built it for and/or used it on. I'll try to get a pic of the portion below the plate. It appears to have been made out of a Z31 lower. It's been sliced, diced, and TIG welded like mad. There might be more weld than base material but it's pretty where it matters... on the inside. Yes. That's the distributor a lot of us run with the carbureted VG30s in our old school 510s. Sadly it is now NLA. Nissan Motorsports called it a 'Euro Distributor' in their catalog but the original application was actually Saudi Arabian pickup trucks. They also sold the Saudi intake but it's really weird. The factory carbureted VGs used a down draft two barrel but the throttle shaft was parallel to the crank with one throttle plate in front of the other. I modify the TBI intake to accept a Holley 350 or 500cfm two barrel. They work surprisingly well. A carbureted VG in a 510 is significantly quicker than a stock Z31 or S12 injected version with all else being equal. The circle track racing series Pro-6 adopted my intake as a replacement for the Saudi one about two weeks ago. They've been running the Saudi intake with a Holley 500 turned sideways for years but it creates all sorts of problems. They used to run the Saudi distributor but they don't really need mechanical or vacuum advance. Now they run an MSD pickup in a Z31 distributor as it's much cheaper. Here's an early version of my intake: I bolt the billet adapter on now as there is too much crap in these castings for reliable welding. Hey, where'd my avatar go??? Nevermind, I fixed it!

I thought some of my fellow VG freaks might like to see these pics. I took them at my friend Ken's shop, Ultramotive. He is almost done building a VG30-powered, 240SX bodied road race car for himself. It's got some crazy IMSA body with huge flares and air vents over the front tires. It looks like it's eight feet wide! I'll try to get some pics with the bodywork on next time I'm out there. These first pics are of a transmission that came to the USA with the factory Nissan rally team back in the '80s. It is in a modified VG case. It has never been run, probably because it currently has a 4:1 first gear! It appears to use 3.010 shaft-center Hewland gears but they are much wider than the ones typically seen in Formula Atlantics and such. This is a custom-built dog ring gearbox with all quick-change, straight cut gears and direct drive 5th. Word is this was a $15k transmission when built in the mid-'80s. The guts: Modified bell housing, note the input shaft & gear stay in there when you take it apart: Modified tail housing: I think everyone should like this pic, triple Webers on a VG30! This last one is just the front of the car without the bodywork. The motor currently in the chassis is a junker for fitment only: I'm going to build a one-off wet sump oil pan for the car. It will be tested and the chassis sorted with a stock VG30E long block. If the telemetry shows no oiling issues that pan will go on the 'real' motor. If there are any oiling issues the race motor will get a dry sump. He wants to keep it wet sump if possible to reduce parasitic losses. You don't even want to ask who's building the race motor! (I'm not even sure if I'm allowed to say?)

Do any of you that are keeping an eye on this thread have a Z31T that needs/wants a competition oil pan? The first prototype that I built (shown in a post above) has not been installed by the customer yet. I really want to know *for sure* that these oil pans fit without any issues in a turbo Z31. I went ahead and finished the second one and it's identical to the first except I built it on a turbo core so it's got the oil return fitting for the turbo drain. It goes out for powder coat tomorrow. I would be willing to hook somebody up some kind of 'deal' if they were able to immediately install this oil pan and take a few pics for me. I can't believe that I don't know anyone in the Seattle area with a VG30ET Z31!

Because I need the DE's forged crank. Sly says I'll break 'E' cranks with what I'm doing and he knows more about VG34s than I probably ever will...

Nope, that won't work! VG30E and DE are gear pumps while VG33 is a gerotor type. DE gears are huge, BTW! I think what I'll do for mine is machine a little housing that bolts onto the VG33 oil pump where the filter mount is supposed to go that sends the oil straight back into the motor and then use the filter location above the starter. Alternatively a remote filter could be plumbed directly to the oil pump. Does somebody make an adapter for this already? There's a whole lot of extra material on the VG33 oil pump as it's got the 4wd style 'rock guard' timing cover setup. Are they all this way? If there's a 'car' version of the VG33 pump that would sure be a nice piece to have! If there isn't I'll just mill all that extra crap off as I'll be running it in a street 510 with no timing covers anyway.

The external size of the pump? I've always hated that oil filter mount that pokes out sideways! I wonder if the internals of the VG33 pump will fit in the VG30E pump housing? I'll report back.... *goes to shop to take apart oil pumps*

I'm planning to do this very crank swap on a VG34 turbo motor I'm building. I will re-machine the DE crank snout, it's not that big of a deal. Two or three hours max. I've lined up and looked at all the components as you guys have and the only issue I see is my DE crank has an undercut groove that may fall where the crank seal runs. I have to look at it again and measure it. If this is an issue I'll reduce that diameter a bit and press a 4140HT sleeve over it for a smooth, un-interrupted seal surface. I'm going to use the VG33 oil pump and cam drive stuff. Is there a reason you wanted to use the DE oil pump? In addition to the previously mentioned issues it makes the oil pickup tube a really difficult piece to build unless you're using a Z32 oil pan or building one completely from scratch!

To which oil pan are you referring? If it's one of mine they are available on a built-to-order basis. Turn around should be about three weeks as I'm almost caught up. In a month or so I should have them in-stock again. Family stuff's been a real mess so I've gotten waaaaay behind.

HowlerMonkey asked: Yes. I filled my first fabbed sump with room temp 20-50 oil and you can't pour oil in from two big-neck quart bottles fast enough for the level to be measurably different on opposite sides of the trap doors. In fact, just sitting static the doors don't touch the sump walls. They are free-swinging and don't have springs or anything. G-force pushing oil around seals them on one side and opens them fully on the other. I have Nismo race oil pans for L-series engines as well as a Moroso oil pan kit and all are similar in oil flow area. For what it's worth, I've been producing this particular oil pan for ten years and the one in the last pics is #93 if I did my math right. These are built specifically for the Datsun 510 VG30 conversion kit that I produce. Space constraints limit it to 5 quarts while keeping the kit "bolt-in". ZR8ED asked: I don't but I'll try to shoot some and post them here for you. I'm going to be out of town for a week so it may be a while. The prototype Z31 competition pan I built uses the stock pickup tube. Again there isn't room to add much capacity in a Z31 if you want it "bolt-in". I don't actually know what the capacity came out to as I'm waiting on the customer to install it and tell me. I have parts for another one and I'm getting tired of waiting so I may build it up and stick it in one of my parts cars to double-check the fit and measure capacity. Here's a shot of the tacked-up Z31 sump: This is sitting level and you can see that the doors are not aren't fully closed. Here are a couple pics of the finished Z31 prototype before powder coat: I'm not real proud of the fitment where the stock pan meets the custom sump. If you zoom in you may get sick.... please remember this is a prototype! The notch in the front edge of the sump is to clear the power steering hard line on the rack. This is a drop-in oil pan requiring no mods to anything in the car. Here's a shot into the sump through the pickup tube slot in the factory windage plate: One thing to keep in mind if you build a custom oil pan for a street or rally car is that most "competition" oil pans as well as the Moroso kit are made from really thin material. They have beadrolls in the flat panels to reduce the amount they flex and "oil can" due to oil slosh, especially vertically. I ran a Datsun Competition steel road race pan on one of my L-powered street cars and it cracked three times in 50k miles! I replaced it with one of the original cast, finned aluminum ones with my very first diamond trap bolted into it. At my "real job" I design racecar parts for a living so I fully understand the importance of saving weight. I think saving a pound or two at the lowest point in the car, which gets hammered by rocks and knuckleheads with floor jacks is kinda silly. All the oil pans I build are .062 (1/16") steel sheet so durability is a non-issue. 200sxdatsun: I'll start hacking on your oil pan in a couple of weeks. I've got an out-of-town family emergency I have to deal with.

Hmm, I learn something new every day! I didn't even know Toyota had their own ATF... I guess I must be old. I've probably always used Dexron because that's what I had around. The Fuji hydraulic lifters in VGs are infamous for ticking. My guess is that it's because the cylinder heads run really hot. VGs will build up sludge in the heads like no other if you run low-detergent oil or don't change it often enough. The lifters get varnish build up between the bores and pistons and gum up. Most of the ticking VGs I've cured were also really slow to stop clacking on cold start up. That was significantly reduced or eliminated after the ATF treatment in every case. FWIW: I run Chevron 10W-30 in my VGs. I run them all hard, change the oil at 5k miles, and they look like brand new inside the valve covers. The only ones that have ever had lifter ticks had them when I got them. The VG in one of my 510s has gone 160k miles (it was new when I put it in the 510) and I still bounce it off the 8k rpm MSD rev limiter on a regular basis. Maybe it'll get mad and spit out a rod some day, I dunno?

Yes, Automatic Transmission Fluid. Any type/brand will do.

A lifter or an exhaust leak. If it gets louder under load it's an exhaust leak. There isn't usually any noticeable drop in performance with a ticking lifter, it's just causing a little valve lash that isn't supposed to be there. If it's a lifter this will fix it most of the time: Add half a quart of ATF to the oil, drive the car a hundred miles or so, and then change the oil and filter. I wouldn't run the car hard, just drive it. ATF is highly detergent and is great for breaking up the varnish that can accumulate in the hydraulic lifters. I've gotten rid of lifter ticks in several SOHC VGs this way. FWIW: If you take a car with a ticking lifter to a reputable Nissan dealer for service they will do exactly this first. If they are less than knowledgeable or honest they'll tear straight into the heads.

I was putting together a VG510 oil pan today and finally remembered to stop and take some pics before I tacked the sump to the trimmed Z31 oil pan. You can see that except for the trap the sump is only tacked at this point. This first pic is the diamond trap with a hinged trap door in each wall. Note the stops welded above each door so they can't open far enough to hang up on each other. This also insures that they cannot end up above the pickup screen bulb should you install the pan while the engine is upside down on your engine stand. The door toward the RR of this pic is propped open with a piece of SS filler rod. This is a close up the slots behind the hinged doors. This one is also propped open with a piece of filler rod for better contrast in the pic.

D'oh! The sump is 15-1/8" wide. Of course you need a little room for movement too. If this won't work I can do something one-off if you'd like. I could make the sump an inch narrower and move the back wall rearward to pick up some more capacity. The cost would go up a couple hundred dollars though. As far as placing an order, shipping a core, and payment go it's best to talk to Carter. He handles all that so I can focus on designing and building stuff.

Carter forwarded the pics to me. It looks like the 510 conversion pan would be a perfect fit. It's 9-3/8" from the back wall of the stock Z31 oil pan to the vertical wall at the front of my fabricated sump. It's also more shallow than the stock Z31 sump making the bell housing the lowest point. My website incorrectly states capacity at 6 quarts. (I really need to get the site up-to-date.) The earliest production version of this oil pan did increase oil capacity to 6 quarts but I ended up shrinking the sump due to "loose tolerances" at the 'Ol Nissan factory when they formed the 510 front crossmembers. The current version makes oil capacity 5 quarts. I build these oil pans on stock Z31 cores so I would need your pan in exchange. Yours being the less common turbo pan I would build it on your supplied core. I can leave the turbo drain fitting in the stock location or move it for you, depending on where your turbo is going to end up. You do have to use my modified pickup tube with the VG510 pan. On the Z31 competition pan the stock tube works. In your application I would definitely run a big oil cooler!