Supra510

I just made a catch can based on a bunch of research I did and decided to run the crankcase vents to the catch can, through some filtering media to give more surface area for the oil vapor/mist to condense on, and then out to the inlet before my turbo to create the vacuum. A lot of catch cans have no baffle this limits their effectiveness in keeping the oil/mist in the can and out of the intake. Mine is not a pretty polished can, but it will be effective. Link to pix and write up: http://www.cardomain.com/ride/674663/6

I think the thing people don't realize in the 17 vs. 18 inch comparison is that for the width you can get a tire that's quite a bit shorter when you go 18's. Here are approximate heights for the following sizes. A 285/30/18 is the shortest/widest you can get. 245/40/17 24.7 inches 275/40/17 25.7 inches 285/30/18 24.8 inches 265/35/18's 25.3 inches tall 255/35/18's 25.1 Basically if you want any common width in a 17 inch tire over a 245/40/17 you're better off going with 18's height wise. Nice wheels by the way

I just bailed on the Supra alternator altogether and went with a GM one wire alternator. Of course you then have to fab a new mount, but what's worse cutting and welding or trying to figure out wiring? You can pick them up for under 100.00 at Summit, Jegs, etc.

http://www.mototuneusa.com/break_in_secrets.htm http://www.supraforums.com/forum/showthread.php?t=56491&highlight=engine+break I did this "flog it" method as outlined in the first link , no regrets. Some guys on Supraforums with some pretty high end machinery used it. I'm not sure if you have to be a member to read the 2nd link, if you do it's worth it.

If they just have play you may be able to rebuild them with new bushings. Here is a link to a write up for 510 hinge repair, I imagine the 240 would be similar. http://www.nwde.org/extras/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3605&PN=1

Awesome car. Very clean.

If you want some good info on metalshaping go to http://www.metalmeet.com/forum/index.php There are some pretty amazing projects on that site and some good info. I'm not too skilled, so I go with the cut, weld, grind method, not actually shaping it most of the guys on that site.

"and looks like it could fit on a fireplace mantle and no one would notice it's out of place." LOL Yes, the consensus seems to be it's too boxy. I happen to agree with that. We'll see how motivated I get this winter to make any changes.

Hey thanks. Good luck tomorrow. Re: the flange warping, some people say you'll still have to surface it even if you weld it while it's bolted down. But I didn't have to do that and I don't have any sealing issues.

I made mine from schedule 40 mild steel weld els and straight pipe. It's really not that heavy, in fact it's lighter than the cast stock log manifold on the 7m-gte. The other thing is you can get pvc pipe that is exactly the same outside diameter so it's easy to mock up the length for the straight pieces. I bolted mine to a scrap head when I welded it up. Not the best pix but what I have. If you don't care about making the runners exactly the same length it's really not that difficult, a bit more if you do. The weld els come with the edges beveled already, I had no issues with penetration on one pass. Been through mutiple track days, thousands of street miles with no cracks or other issues

Tod Kaneko's turbo rotary powered 510 at Super Street's recent time attack. Engine shot http://superstreetonline.com/featuredvehicles/p100752_large+1972_Datsun_240Z+Underhood_Engine.jpg

"I think that you should do some form of sideskirt next, as it looks weird without anything to compliment the wonderfully fabricated bumper." Yeah, I've thought about it but I don't think I have the will to do it anytime soon. Probably easier to find some rocker mouldings from a newer car and adapt them. ------ What's up Gary? Last Viper was at a track day at PIR. He was getting loose in some corners I wasn't, so that was kind of cool. Do you have everything up and running with the AEM and such?

Thanks guys. I'm pretty much finished with the exterior. This thing will never have shiny paint, but at least it's all one color. For the winter I want to get some new gauges and seats, maybe fab a console. I just picked up 2 doors yesterday. I backed out of my garage with the left door open, caught it on a post and tweaked it beyond repair. At least the paint job will be easy.

Here are some finished pix of the bumper. Some angles are better than others. I'll probably redo it in the future to have it slope back more so it'll look a little less flat. The good news is it functions like I want. I haven't attached a splitter yet, but it's plenty sturdy enough to do so. The dual oil coolers in the middle worked great at Thunderhill this summer. Ambient temps were around 95-98 degrees. Ran 16-17lbs of boost. Oil temps never made it over 200 degrees so I'm really happy with that. When I redid the core support I also ducted the radiator better which helped coolant temps stay around 205 degrees.

Awesome car and swap. IMO the best swap out there (for a car in recent production at least), is an LSx motor into the FD. Light weight, an engine that's readily available, still maintains the handling.

I don't know about the auto driveshaft but the W58 shaft will not work with the R154 trans.

Slowly coming along. Have most of the grinding and welding done. Next step is figuring out how I will mount my oil and the intercooler heat exchanger in the big opening. (Grill fits better with the trim in there).

The rack and pinion isn't as easy as it sounds to get the right bumpsteer, geometry, etc. Dave Lum at http://www.datsuns.com did the swap and ended up using 240z struts, etc. There is a thread that addresses this http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=108113&highlight=510+rack+pinion You could contact Dan at DGR fabrication 408-982-9684. He has done a r and p conversion for a few people so would know exactly what's involved. Wish I had more info to give you but from what I've heard it's not a simple as it sounds. Looks like your main issues are the steering and exhaust. Once you get those figured out the rest is just fabrication. I have more of the cowl/firewall cut out for my swap than you have there.

I would try to keep the cooling where it is. The main reason is that the radiator sits on the lower tiebar. You are pretty much forced to have the crank pulley behind that tiebar unless you fab a new one to create clearance. If the engine's not far enough back then you can't get the pulley off with the engine in the car, or even get a wrench on the bolt. If the crank pulley is in back of the tiebar then you have enough room to fit a decent size radiator. I have a Griffin 16X29? in my car and it fits height and width wise. You can pick those up at Summit for under 200.00 and they are meant for a V8 to begin with. I was looking at qwik240z conversion, was the crank pulley under that tiebar?

Dennis is a good guy and a great asset to the 510 community, but take anything he says regarding engine swaps with a grain of salt. Not everybody wants an autocross car. His comments regarding the rear suspension are somewhat valid unless you look at Gary Havner's (SSS510 on this board I believe) 10 second IRS 510. Seems like he got the power down. If you want to build it, do it and build it for you not anyone else. I see more people get bent out of shape because someone criticizes their car, or engine choice, etc. You're the one that has to live with it so build it how you want. Are you going to have a great autocross car? Probably not, but it will be fun. Are you going to have a fun and quite fast trackday/drag car? Yes, if you build it right. Dennis sees the charm of the 510 as a light little car that dances around orange cones. That's not everyone's idea (frankly not many people's idea nowadays) of what this car is about. You should cut the firewall out enough to get a radiator in the front and go from there. The other thing you will face is that this will not be cheap. More power=bigger brakes (though JMort will disagree with me on how big)=bigger wheels=body mods, etc. Plus you need a good suspension as a starting platform.

Awesome to see someone trying this. If it goes well and I ever blow up the current engine, an LS swap is next. Good luck.

The boxy shape does come in handy sometimes, at least for fabrication. There is a website called http://www.metalmeet.com that goes into actually shaping metal and has a cool project thread called the McBearan. If you knew the techniques and had the tools you could create just about anything. My mom bought me a 3 piece set of those ratchets for Christmas. They are pretty handy with the 3/8 inch drive on one side and the 1/2 inch on the other. Haven't had an issue yet (and yes, I think they are from Autozone) Hopefully I'll have some completed pix by the end of next week. It should look mean if nothing else. The positive comments will help me get through all the grinding I have left.

I just finished most of the welds, now on to my favorite thing, grinding. It's coming out pretty well. Thanks again for the comments. The wheels are 18x8.5 in the front and 18x10 in the back. The nice thing about 18's is that you can get a wider tire without it becoming way too tall. The 285/30/18's in the back are still under 25 inches tall which is roughly equivalent to a 245/40/17. You might try looking on ebay for BMW wheels. I've seen some on there for pretty cheap, at least for 18's.

I've done the chunks of fiberglass thing . The flares are.........................................240Z ZG flares. They fit pretty well although there is a gap that's a little wider than I'd like near the body line, though nothing that the fender welting some guys are using wouldn't take care of. Luckily this car's not about the show so it doesn't bother me, but if I had a nice paint job it would be something to consider. 2 sets of rears would work better as they are more symmetrical and I get a little rubbing with these.

Thanks guys. The center section is 18 gauge, the outer pieces are 20 gauge as are all the opening lips. Would be nice to have something lighter, but like you said steel is easier to work with (for me at least). This car is a pig anyway so the extra 10 lbs it adds over what I had on there before won't kill me.