" it's a jungle of hoses" Actually that was more older cars with all the vacuum lines. That was one of the huge problems with hide away head lights, one leak, no lights haha. New cars are all wires and a sea of plastic as you said.
My GF had one back in the 80's. Same colour. The engine had a problem where it would run fine in first or second, but die when you were in 3rd or 4th. Guess what it was ... the distributor had a dual point set up where it advanced the timing in 1st and 2nd, but the second set was set to retard the timing in 3rd and Top gear. This is required for most any high comp engines to get the most torque. Found out the second set of points were bad. I replaced them, gapped them and it ran great. There was a mechanical switch on the trans to select the point set. Never seen that before, and never seen that again! Cheers! - Sandy
You need a residual pressure valve in the front brake circuit. 2psi for disks. That will stop the pads from receding too far into the calipers and reduce the need for "priming" or double pumping the brake pedal.
Borneoben autocrosses are actually the least of the problem. It’s the most annoying on the street under very light brake situations. In autocross since you stay in second for the majority of the time you can left foot brake, or even just use your left foot to prime the pedal before coming into a braking zone. I’m running a 280ZX master cylinder (7/8” 2 reservoir, single chamber) and have always had issues with proportioning and brake feel. There is NO space for a booster, the master is on the same side of the bay as the intake and exhaust. I have a feeling part of my problem is the proximity of the master to the headers, warm fluid is bad fluid. The next steps on this project involve a new rear end (LSD) and a pedal box with individual masters and a proportioning valve. During this process I’ll also be able to switch the rear lines to braided steel and unify the brake lines (right now they’re steel up front and rubber in back).
ive ran plenty of manual brakes (drum, discs, drums/discs) and the only times i had to double pump is when they werent properly bleed. Always bench bleed and us a proper brake bleeder tool. No issues since i started doing that. Fluid heats up from hard braking as well. I would recommend using as much hardline as possible and having braided for places that require articulation.
My 280zx has a phat heat shield in between the intake/exhaust and the brake master cylinder. Can you heat wrap the exhaust if a shield isn't practical? Might even have added benefits with lower engine bay temps
Man, nothing like the sound of an OHC 4-banger on carbs. I gotta get my GTI project moving again. Totally redone gearbox, Peloquin diff with preload, race steering ratio rack, heim-joint shift linkage, aluminum clutch bushing (no more rubber between pedal and clutch actuator), highest quality flywheel I could buy, stage 2 clutch, and more. It's getting Webers. Gotta love these old "economy" cars. You can build a very mechanically serious car for not a lot of scratch. The downside, at least where I live, is doing everything yourself. Very few people work on cars like these, or at least very few are willing to take the time to do it properly. Kudos to the owner and his dad on a very cool 510 wagon.
I visited Los Angeles the other month and took a day trip to these canyons with a buddy of mine. Let me tell you these videos don't do it justice when it comes to how scary these roads are in real life. The cliffs/lack of barriers are crazy!!
You need to cross the Sierra Nevada on Sherman Pass, Sonora Pass, or take one of the various drives down the Feather River canyons. LA canyons are sketchy, Sierra canyons are arduous. Lol
I found to get rid of that double pump issue you need to A; Bleed the brakes properly and B; pull the calipers off, put something smaller than the disks inbetween the pads and then pump the brake hard up against that, then pry the pads back open just enough to clear the disk, this usually cures it because the dust boots in most cases are causing the pistons to retract, if its the rears causing this, then you have bad adjusters...
The problem arose when I went to Wilwoods calipers up front. There’s a combination of problems including a master cylinder chamber to actual brake size mismatch as well as a heat issue because the master is so close to the headers. It’s all on the list, I’ve just learned to deal with the pedal for the meantime until I decide to go to a different pedal box/master scenario.
One of the absolute funnest cars I've ever owned was the 510 wagon. I've owned 15 510s in the past. I have done just about all you can do to them. The funnest ones are always the ones that are near stock. They really go to s*** when you overpower them. Have fun
TheDustyaman I totally agree. Nissan has committed to cvts seemingly more than any automaker. On the good side, they still do offer some manual transmissions, too but I absolutely hate their styling nowadays. It seems like their styling department has been taken over by a bunch of anime animators. Probably the last Nissan that I liked the styling of was the last 240SX.
brian5o they make the lower cars look like the upper car market from last gens. Like Altima looks like last gen maxima. Then the Sentra looks like the last gen Altima. They have lazy styling. They need to be fired and have someone that’s a Nissan nut to change their cars
Matt the reason why clutches in cars like the Hellcat, C63 AMG, etc. have light clutches, is because they were designed from the ground up to support that power and the diameter is much bigger to allow for a larger clutch, which means more surface area for the clutch to clamp down and hold the power. The SR20DET for example, was only really designed for 200-260 hp. So when you want to push 500hp out of it you would need an aggressive clutch to clamp down harder on it because the surface area is just not there to support the power.
That sounds like it makes sense. And I don’t care at all about why it’s heavy. I just want it to be not heavy. Heavy clutches are stupid and suck, they should make them not heavy and then they will be better. And the Carrera GT made 610 Hp with a 6.5” diameter clutch that didn’t require any throttle to take off from a standstill, 15 years ago. So I don’t want to hear anyone’s excuses as to why it can’t be done now.
TheSmokingTire I agree with you on the new car part. Its just with modified cars its a whole new story and unless you want to fabricate a whole new bellhousing, etc, then you will have sadly to use a heavy clutch. :/ Thanks for the response btw
I really wish I could find a 510 in Florida. They are so rare to see down here. Maybe one day I could import one from Japan. They look like a blast to drive.
Matt, When you say SR-20 be clear as there is a big difference between an NA SR20 and a turbo SR-20 DET. A normally aspirated and tuned (read ITBs) 2.0 in a 510 is an amazing experience, and as you know, nothing like a big turbo motor. Love these videos! Keep posting and I'll keep liking.
I love the SR in all forms, I just don’t want one in this car (I have one in my B13 Sentra). If you built a 230hp NA SR you’d be talking about an insane amount of money - both in the motor and the swap. I can get similar power from an over the top L series build and spend less on it and less time swapping the motor in and out of the car.
Really nice build lots of potential few tips new seats with some racing seat belt's plus some Weber Side Draft 45's with 4 into one..man you would enjoy that...
I really like the owner of this car. Im a Subaru owner but Ive had a great past with Nissan with my Brother. He has fantastic taste and I loved my Brothers B13 SE-R that He turbo'd and really built out to an amazing autox car. I had a 1980 Corolla 2 door liftback that started my love for old Yota and Datsun wagons.
Love videos like this. I hope you'll feature more vintage stuff similar to this. I'd love to see a well done FB RX7, MK III Supra, an RX3 and some older Celicas/Corollas.
Hey matt, I know its christmas soon and do you know what i said to the santa at my local mall? I wish for a ONE TAKE with your V12 Aston Martin Vanquish! :) I do believe in christmas MIRACLES!
I can see where he's coming from. SR20s in 510s seem to be a dime a dozen. I like that he keeps his wagon old school. I've heard that an SR20 swap requires flipping the front cross member. I was thinking about getting a 510 sedan, but now, I'm rethining that and finding a wagon.
WikdSeafood Yes, you need to swap the crossmember and completely revamp the fuel delivery system with an in tank pump. Not to mention the wiring headache.
SERIOUS GOMES really you've never seen one? There's alot around NY NJ Virginia area, lived there a bit, although most well kept ones are from Cali. Just look around on Craigslist, they pop up often. As if you're taking on the street, go to the local car scene. Boricuas like old JDMs... Unfortunately I'm in texas.
@TheSmokingTire: I have a quick recommendation: As RU-vid's compression algorithm is very aggressive, usually videos that have a lot of movement (even though they might be of great original quality) have a lot of blocking or "pixelation". I have found that quite a good fix is uploading videos at 4K. It won't remove the pixelation, but it will introduce more quality in textuires suchas rock or grass or anything that's moving. Now, if you film at 1080p, the fix for this is upscaling the video to 4k before uploading. Doing that will also fix this issue. Other than that, awesome video!
With a hot cam I'd go with EFI the car sounds like it runs great at WOT and not so much otherwise. You can re-purpose carbs into ITBs with a MegaSquirt and you can have a decent idle and non WOT throttle response. Also there must be a fix for the brakes, all that palaver must cost a few tenths on the autocross track. Nice car though, fact that it is even comparable to a much newer E30 BMW is a testament.
I've owned a bluebird from 95 to 2009. I'm sick about it. I had to move to a new country, I bought one after 4 years! What if I make a vid on my 89 stanza? I drive it around and many love it.
Awesome you review these cars, the car of the people from the 70s are my cup of tea. Makes me hope you can do a Saab 99. I have one, from 1975, but I think the Netherlands is a bit too far away. Any out there in the US? Maybe some Turbo models?
