LTJ's 1981 DATSUN STANZA (A10) WANNABE RALLY CAR. SOLD and moving.

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I keep changing my mind on the direction of this thing as it goes along...

But maybe I should be staying away from the 'Datsun Classifieds' FaceBook groups if I want to stick to my plans...:21:

My great plans to keep that low miles L16/1600cc motor and keeping it looking fairly stock has suddenly changed tonight, looks like I will be picking up a worked (and it sounds lumpy! :43: ) L20b/2000cc over the weekend, and with that lumpy idle no one will believe it is stock!

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I also picked up a rare SSS six gauge dash insert in the last few days...

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With all that coming, I might be heading back to my original idea and doing brakes and diff too, with an eye to doing some track days at Winton...
 
Even my 240Z with a mild performance cam didn't sound like that!
 
LukeTheJoker said:
I keep changing my mind on the direction of this thing as it goes along...

But maybe I should be staying away from the 'Datsun Classifieds' FaceBook groups if I want to stick to my plans...:21:

My great plans to keep that low miles L16/1600cc motor and keeping it looking fairly stock has suddenly changed tonight, looks like I will be picking up a worked (and it sounds lumpy! :43: ) L20b/2000cc over the weekend, and with that lumpy idle no one will believe it is stock!

View attachment 41948



I also picked up a never used downdraft Weber manifold and a rare SSS six gauge dash insert in the last few days...

View attachment 41949 View attachment 41950 View attachment 41952 View attachment 41951

With all that coming, I might be heading back to my original idea and doing brakes and diff too, with an eye to doing some track days at Winton...
Click to expand...


Lumpy :) Love that tac dash as well
 
GuitarlCarl said:
THAT sounds like fun!
I'd love to do some road racing.

Carl.
Click to expand...
Being only an hour from a top level Circuit that runs track days is very tempting!
hammer mechanic said:
I watched your 7 sec video, and ended up watching a bunch of episodes of Engine Masters. Better than shoveling snow.
Click to expand...
Love that show! The one where they were beating on the headers was crazy!
Duchess said:
Even my 240Z with a mild performance cam didn't sound like that!
Click to expand...
kelvin hahnel said:
Lumpy :) Love that tac dash as well
Click to expand...
Yeah, she sounds like lots of overlap with that cam!
Tach dash is a rare find, hope it works, but even if it doesn't I will spend the money to get it fixed!
 
Got the motor home over the weekend, managed to get the original spec sheet for the cam, turns out to be the equivalent of a Stage 3, 70/72 degree, works rally cam, designed for power between 4,000-8,000rpm! :13:

Might be overkill for the street!

I doubt the fairly standard bottom end would rev past 7,000 anyway, but it will be worth it just for that idle lope... :nerd:

Tach dash insert arrived too, looks very good! :thumbsup:
 
I needed a break from bikes today after finding out I had ordered the wrong size tubing for my LTJ frames project, which sets me back in both time and $'s, so the Datsun finally got some love!

Welded up the hole I had cut out to repair the leak behind the dash at last!
Decided not to add the extra vents, figured that the less water down there the better it will be long term.

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It's not perfect, but with some high-fill primer when the time comes to paint the car, it will be...
 
I have been a bit slack on RRB lately, but here is why!

Figured before the new motor goes in it would be smart to do some preventative maintenance, starting with a new rear main seal and brass pinion bush:

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Flywheel back on with Loctite on the bolts:

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Pulled the front cover out of the 910 Bluebird 5 speed to replace the front seal which looked like it may have been leaking fairly significantly:

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Cleaned up and back together with a new throw out bearing:

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New clutch and pressure plate:

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Then bolted the 910 5 speed to the 810 motor, so awesome that Nissan/Datsun kept the same engines for so long that it is easy to mix and match parts, this will end up with parts from an 810 (block) 510 (rally cam) 910 (5 speed) and all going into my little A10 Stanza!

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Today I wired and plumbed it up on the stand to do a test run before installation, as I have never heard this motor run in person, only seen videos...



Yeah, it is lumpy! Good oil pressure and good fuel pump too, so looking good!

Now to pull the L16 and auto out of the Stanza!
 
Picked up the next piece of the puzzle this evening:

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4.3:1 limited slip centre for the Toyota G series diff I have under my work bench!
Ideally I wanted a 4.1:1, but the cheapest I could find one was $900 as they only came out with that ratio in fairly recent 4x4's, I only paid $300 for this one from the late '80's-early '90's.

Original diff is 3.9:1 so it will have lower gearing, but with the change to a 5 speed with 0.833 overdrive I will still be doing 300 less rpm at 100kph (62mph) and will pick up some acceleration and flexibility in lower gears along the way... Oh, and of course the limited slip should be fun!

Looking forward to building the jig and welding on the Stanza suspension mounts to the Toyota housing, probably more excited about that than the motor swap in all honesty!
 
Turns out the diff centre I picked up was a fairly rare 4 pinion open diff, not an lsd, they look almost identical, until you grab a flashlight and look inside and realise there are no clutch packs!
wacko.png
Should have tested it when I picked it up!

Pretty sure the guy that sold it to me was fooled too, he was very open and honest, even gave me his business card and email to stay in touch, so I will just take the hit and move on... Thankfully it was pretty cheap.

Managed to find an LSD carrier in Melbourne that I will drive down and pick up tomorrow, then I can fit the 4:3 gears from the open diff, put all that back into the new centre and then install it into my RN20 housing... Going to put in new bearings and shim the clutches while I am at it too, may as well while I am in there...

Aside from the extra 4 hours drive time, I will still be ahead on cost to buy a 4.3 lsd elsewhere, so no huge loss, and I am pretty sure I will enjoy stripping down and rebuilding the centre section.
 
Pulled the H165 diff from the donor car today, will be using it to build a weld jig and donate the suspension mounts to the Toyota G series diff.

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It is so tiny compared to what I am building, I guess I shouldn't be surprised, 165mm ring gear (6.5") versus 200mm (8") in the Hilux housing. Seems like just the centre carrier of the Hilux diff weighs the same as this whole diff!
 
Decided to check and shim the LSD before I fitted it up.

Measured the clutch discs and found that each one had 0.15mm wear, so 4 discs a side x 0.15mm is 0.6mm per side to get it back to standard, decided to run a little tighter than standard and made some 0.8mm steel shims.

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Biggest holesaw I have is 38mm, so I just filed the centre holes out using a clutch disc as a guide:

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Stamped them up 0.8mm

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Reassembled:

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Fitted the crownwheel up next, but could not go any further until I get some new side bearings, hopefully pick them up tomorrow.

Any progress is good progress! :thumbsup:
 

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