New World Datsuns...

I just read threw since February. Sucky on the headgasket. Also, bigger intercooler is more important than bigger turbo. Also, NO SILICONE ELBOWS, they create airflow restrictions. Yes the butt dyno can tell. Oh and box off your intake, hot air intake is no bueno.

Let me put it like this. The CA18DET can put out 200hp at the wheels with just Intercooler/Exhaust and like 15psi on the original turbo (above 12psi is asking for it to die though). I fully expect my CA to put out 200. My intercooler is rated for a little north of 360.

Also for reference. My BMW wagon with the 2.5 engine catless (making at least 190hp/180tq crank) I got to 135 before slowing down. With the 3.0 it should be at 220/220 crank. Everyone says the 3.0s can hit 150mph limiter.

That's a whole lot of reading! That's why I got the water to air intercooler setup. It should be good for 350 horsepower I believe. It'll have much less heat soak issues than the itty bitty side mount I currently have. And yes I should have a lot less plumbing restrictions with that setup.

What a giant pain in the ass. I'm super dirty too.

When I was starting out as a tech we would get the occasional 2.5 Chrysler head gasket job. My "mentor" was a veteran Jeep/Chrysler tech and had a method called the slip-N-slide. Pull the timing belt and head bolts, lift the head, scrape clean, reassemble.
When I got my first one he told me to slip-N-slide. I waffled for 3 days and saved no time either way.

Hey Matt, WTF took you so long?

Lol, so technically this only took me about 4 hours, not counting the 3 other hours I spent on getting all the intercooler tubing and the rest off prior to yesterday. The biggest issue is I haven't worked on an RB much. L motor sure, I know where every bolt is and how to get it out. Apparently there are 3 other head bolts on the RB, like the two at the front of the head into the timing cover. There's one hiding near the water outlet up front on the passenger side, and two little ones in back. The driver's side holds the bracket for the water to turbo tube, you'd think it would be innocuous, but no, it's important. And the passenger side rear is a giant pain to get to. A snaky 10mm on a wobbly on a long 1/4 extension. And the worst part was getting the stupid downpipe off. That was a bitch to get on, stands to reason it was a bitch to get off for lack of space and one bolt on the back.

Then I couldn't figure out which hose (and oil dipstick tube) was holding the head from coming off and I had to play underneath and remove the starter to see the back area. I could have undone one little bolt on the back of the intake had I remembered it was there and holds all the brackets on the back end for the water tubes.

So that's what took me so long, lol. It'll probably be worse putting it back together since I'm going to change nearly everything. Exhaust manifold had to be pried off too, gotta straight edge that. It may be okay to go back on, but it's definitely a little pissy.

Also, the RB dohc head is fing heavy! Like way heavier than the L motor. Makes me wonder why I don't just small block it. Because purist.

Hey folks,

Posting here as well due to this being the most recent thread i can find.

I own 2 1979 Datsuns
-1979 Datsun 210 Wagon - Rusted/Faded Green (daily driver)
-1979 Datsun 280zx - Black

I ran into a fellow a few weeks back in a residential area off Roosevelt Blvd.
He gave me a "surfs up" wave as i drove past on Nebraska and I backed up to talk to him a bit about our cars. He was driving a freshly painted White datsun pickup with black pinstripe, Nice wheels and deep throaty engine purr.
I don't know much about all the ins and outs of datsuns but he informed me about a local datsun club here in eugene with a few members and told me a story of a guy with a 210 Hatchback that mounted a jetted out lawnmower carb that outran some high performance hondas. I was hoping to get in contact with him or anyone else that would be able to help me do some engine work on my beater 210 wagon as it is my daily driver and I use it to commute everywhere i go.
I'm hearing some "pinging" or metallic rattling under the hood when i put the car under enough load to engage my accelerator pump on the carb.
I haven't really had time to go through and do a lot of maintenance or tune up the engine much due to being a single father and working a full time job. He did state he lives around the area and told me about a old 280zx sittin' in someone's driveway for a while. Informed me about a couple local meets that have happened recently and advised that I look up the group on facebook. Not much information was exchanged and wish i would have gotten his number for a text or something but I would like to get some help and get together due to being real new in the Eugene area (moved here July 3rd 2022). I appreciate any feedback and hopefully i can make some connections. New to posting on any forums of any kind so apologies if i am out of line on anything or am too lengthy in my post. Thanks all.

Hi there Hypnotiq,

Fortunately you're not on Ratsun so you don't need a flame suit here, lol. I'd say General Discussion is probably a better spot, though I see you have another post in Events or something. The only person I can think of for 210s is Pumpkin Dave, but he passed away a while back, sadly. This forum is fairly small. You may have better luck finding who you're looking for on a bigger forum like Ratsun or FB Datsun group. I'm sure someone will see this and possibly know, but you may wait a week or two to find out. I don't know much about A motors, but they're fairly simple. Pinging or metallic rattle is never good. I'd say it's best to jump in headfirst and read all you can, then start fiddling. It helps to have a spare car so you can test and tune without having to rely on it for transportation. Get the Datsun Bible (How to modify your OHC Nissan/Datsun by Frank Honsowetz) It's for L motors, but a lot of the theory applies to the smaller A and you'll have a lot of information for the 280zx as well, granted it's geared towards the earlier L series. You won't learn it all in a day, but be a sponge. All the information will come in handy in the future.

Got my cylinder head back for the wagon. Debating throwing in some cams. They're rather expensive, but I want some more....airflow....shiny.

That thing is clean.
Go ahead and get them.
I’ve never seen a hearse pulling a u-haul so you can’t take it with you. Of course it’s easy for me to suggest what you should do with your money though.

Lol, yes, thanks Tater!! I'm so gonna get them now.

More airflow starts with a more optimized air path. A front mount IC will give more power. As well as getting rid of all Silicone bends, and welll as much silicone as possible. These will give the best results for any turbo or cam setup you have.

But also, a bigger turbo is probably better at airflow than cams.

I agree, but cams!

So I've been doing a ton of research tonight, and over the weekend. I've narrowed down the path I'm taking. Still building the KA24E for the truck, no worries there. But I am probably going to get an LM7 for either the race car or the wagon. I'm not sure which. And as much as I have a lot of cool stuff for the L28ET, I'm not sure I'm going to be retaining it. Either way, I'm going to have a V8 in the garage for one of the vehicles should something else break.

I started thinking about it and the RB20 (despite some slight issues) has been quite reliable really. Given it's history and the fact that I didn't do the head gasket the first time around, it makes sense it would start to slight leak due to the horrid condition it was stored in. But the engine has performed quite well, even with the dinky intercooler. What I realized though, is I want at least 300 hp out of it.

That prompted my search for reliable RB information (there isn't a ton) and I started digging through info tonight and though I ordered the new fuel rail for the L28, I'm almost certain those 440 cc injectors will fit for the RB and with some EV1 to EV6 adapters, shouldn't be a problem for making 300 hp. I'll still do the water to air intercooler and the head studs and the new turbo, but I also may ditch the under and get a top mount manifold and a blow-off valve. ECU will have to be reflashed by Enjuku (cheapest option) once I have all the parts together so I can give that information. I realize that's not as good as a programmable ECU, but I'm fairly certain then can tune it pretty close, or at least as close as the Nissan factory ECU is anyway.

Basically I'm going to continue with the RB20 instead of swapping it to V8, unless I blow up the RB. Provided I get it together and it makes the horsepower I want and is relialbe, then great! It stays in the car. If it blows up, it may get a V8 transplant sooner than the race car. I'm also going to ditch the stupid power steering pump that keeps throwing the belt, and the Quest alternator. I bought the LS1 GM alternator kit off raw brokerage. It should be a welcome improvement and much easier to find than the early Quest alternator I've been using with a bunch of little adapter dinguses for the mounting.

Power steering is going to be handled by Volvo. Specifically the 2005 ish S40 electric power steering pump. I've seen someone put it in a Datsun (maybe on here?) but it looks like a great idea for function, and to free up space next to the AC compressor I'd like to eventually get hooked up.

So that's the plan for now. Basically I need to start getting the wagon sorted. I think it's going to be the main priority besides the little bits for the KA for the truck. I haven't had a direction lately though, and while I wanted to race car going first, I don't even have the head back and I'm not sure if I'm going to continue with the L28 or not. But now that I've confirmed I'm going ahead with the RB, that's a good thing. I would really like to drive the wagon next spring.

https://mrbizzle.wordpress.com/2010/02/24/84/

And this is a really good article that outlines the oil issues for RB engines. Good thing I still have it all torn apart. Ordering more parts now.

Yay for the RB staying. 300hp should be effortless for it really. I will just need a turbo for the CA to hit that. Really looking at the G25-550...

And yes, the CA has the same oil issue as the RB. I opted for massive head drains.

I've been talking to the guys at Enjuku right now. I have to say, very helpful and nice, much like Raw Brokerage. Buying stuff from the both of them. And I may actually not use the Fleabay turbo. Might spring for something better, but I really don't want to spend $1000 or more for a turbo. But I also read a post on reddit about a guy with an Audi (Eww, I know) and he put in the cheap turbo about the same as I got and got 1000 miles and squeaking from the fins hitting the housing. Replaced it, another 1000 miles, same problem. Replaced with another name brand unit, no more issues. The guy at Enjuku said hit and miss, mainly miss. Sounds like I need to throw more money in a hole, lol.

The only turbocharger I would buy on ebay is an OEM turbocharger(used or new).

I would buy a used OEM wrecking yard turbo(check for play) before the turbos sold on ebay that say will fit the application.

I am bias, I hit the jackpot(was extremely lucky) for finding the turbocharger I have in my 521 turbodiesel, it came out of a 1985/86 Subaru XT which are very rare, it was made to spin up quickly which is not what gas turbochargers normally do, they are normally made to spin up at higher RPMs, it is actually the best turbocharger I could have found(I was extremely lucky), no other turbocharger has had the same result, my 720 turbodiesel has more torque(injection pump was messed with), but it is not near as nice to drive on the freeway, it has a different OEM used turbocharger, they both will do over 100mph, but the 521 turbodiesel is fun to drive, 65mph/70mph my foot is barely on the pedal, the 720 my foot is half way down at 65mph/70mph, but they are both almost floored over 100mph and are both at 3900rpms, reline is 4000rpms.

In the end you need to use what all others are using in your circumstances, as if it happened to you it happens to them also, and they likely have found out what is good/lasts.

I'm digging into the costs required for making 300-350 hp out of the RB. So far my excited kid self is thinking this:




However, my older, wiser self, is thinking this:

Can you believe they made a Hot Wheels Maxima? I'm so stoked, I bought some off ebay and plan to go to Walmart and a few other places to get a shitload of them, lol.