1967 1600 "Ginny"

[CART418]

Over the past 5 years I have found this forum to be the most valuable resource for my Datsun. I do not post much but believe me I spend more time on this site than any other, well maybe 2nd to Youtube. I decided to start this thread to show current details and pictures of my build knowing that all of these things from the rest of you typically made roadster owning/modifying that much easier.

I will pick up from where I started a few years ago:
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Since this timeframe I overhauled the suspension with complete kit from JT (Bilstein Front and Rear, FlexForm Leafs and Mike young Springs). This has been the 2nd best modification I have made to the car. Handling/ride was significantly improved. The wife even enjoyed riding more. At the same time I also installed a set of 16x7 Rota RB wheels with 205/45/16 tires.

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Next up was a complete set of Speedhut Gauges. GPS speedometer was great. I can no longer claim a ballpark speed to the police officer when he pulls me over . Before installing I repainted the dash. What I chose to do is first use Krylon Texture spray paint. Then I went over this with a Flat Black color. I liked the finish product better than using Wrinkle Black.

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It was at this point I drove the vehicle for a year. Maintaining the various leaks and wanting more power/fuel injection. I am no stranger to tuning carburetors but at the same I appreciate modern day fuel injection. Enter Stage Right SR20DE Swap

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Like most engine swaps you start with a budget in mind an then half way through it all goes out the window. I have read just about every thread on all of the different engine swaps. With the material and information SPRISO provides. The SR does not get much simpler. Shout out to "Jiggy", mounts and the alternator kit. I also wanted to stay with Nissan. With ridiculous SR20DET costs I went with NA knowing that I will someday add a turbo. I feel the 200-250WHP for this chassis would be perfect. Even with the current NA power it is not too far behind my WRX STI.

I had the old engine out and the new engine bay prepped over the course of 2 weekends. Like I stated above, Spriso Motorsports paved the way and really makes this swap easy. The most important tool in this entire swap was the Plasma. I can imagine the additional swearing, cut-off wheels, saw blades that would have been required without it.

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While the engine was out I wanted to re-do the Brake lines to add bias control and Dual Master. It is nice when you have a bunch of room to work. I wanted to make it new but still keep the routing somewhat original. I like hiding the wiring but don't mind seeing items like the brake lines.

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Engine In

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As noted in my original Hello from Wisconsin thread. I hand made my own Stainless gas tank. To adapt a fuel pump I went the tanksinc.com "PA" unit. It was a straight forward install minus drilling all the holes in stainless and provided everything needed.

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Pictures of the Collector for exhaust from Michael made life easier. Few measurements and I made one similar to his. I added catalytic convertor to the exhaust as well. I have not noticed any additional heat with it being right below my seat.

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I will leave it hear for now until I get a chance to continue. Also why "Ginny"? My son asked what the car's name was going to be since I name all of by past cars. Before I had a chance to say something my wife piped in with Virgina, Ginny for short and from that point on it stuck.

[bajaroadster]

Thats some really nice work so far. Looking forward to the "finished" product. (Of course, we all know they are never TRUELY finished.)

[Gregs672000]

Very nice work, and I enjoyed the post. You will appreciate the suspension improvements every single drive... my wife said the same thing, and she's had a few back injuries. I went from comp springs and Koni shocks and the ride was night and day.

[CART418]

(Of course, we all know they are never TRUELY finished.)

My wife has finally come to grips with this.

Very nice work, and I enjoyed the post. You will appreciate the suspension improvements every single drive... my wife said the same thing, and she's had a few back injuries. I went from comp springs and Koni shocks and the ride was night and day.

This was one of those Items I did not tell her how much it costed. It was more about her commenting that it was more pleasant to ride in.

To continue:
Next up on the list was wiring. My least favorite activity and yet the one part I needed to spend more time on so I only had to do it once. I had already re-wired the dash when I did the new gauges. Using the wiring specialties harness for engine and fan left me with the front half of car (head lights, Fog lights, Turn signals, Brake light switch, horn. I also chose to add a new relay/fuse box to make it all more reliable. I went with the smaller Odyssey battery to the trunk and added a positive post on the firewall in the engine bay.

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For cooling I had a purchased an ebay unit, however it was damaged during mock up by me. . As a replacement I decided to go with Civic Koyo 2 Row and a SPAL 12" fan (VA10-AP50/C-61A). Future me regretted the SPAL decision with how loud it ended up being. Had to turn it off in the drive throughs at fast food places . I ended up replacing it with a OEM civic fan. Plenty of cooling power and significantly more quiet. I also want to give it the best chance at cooling so I made upper cover as well as a new lower diverter that hangs just below the front splitter.

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There are a hundred other details that happen in a engine swap. With those wrapped up the swap had been completed. From tear out to running engine it took me 1 month. Most of the work was done on the weekends. I had made a list and purchased everything ahead of time before the swap so if I did not have something it was at least on its way. The biggest issue I had was somewhat out of my control. Turns out I received the engine and transmission (S14) with a S13 ECU. I figured this out when my IACV, Fan Switch, NVCT were not working. These are all of the pins and features that are different between the S14 and S13. Now if this was a SR20DET, ECUs are really easy to find. Not so much on NA variant, especially S14. I ordered from salvage site in Japan. It took 2 attempts since the first arrived with 1 dead injector driver. 2nd attempt worked and it is still running. Hopefully it holds out until I standalone for turbo addition. Before and after.

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I cannot say enough about how all of this transformed the car. I put on more miles this summer (10K) than the previous 4 years of ownership combined. I daily drive it to work now because I know for the most part there is nothing to worry about. Hop in, turn the key and away you go.

As stated above by bajaroadster the projects are never truly done. I saw a picture by one of the members, not sure who of a Wilwood brake/clutch assembly. With the pedal ratio being off on both the clutch and brake, I figured why not. Took a little modifying but I was able to get it mounted. Added a new Wilwood GS clutch master as the same time since the previous was original. Finally clutch and brake felt like they should. I rate this up near the top of things that made the care more enjoyable as well. Great clutch, brake, gas, shifter feel are important to driving experience.

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I had about a 1k miles on the SR20 this summer before I wanted a little more out of the engine. I also needed to address a water pump as well. I went with JWT S4 cams. They will be a good fit for future turbo and at the same time wake the SR20 up a little more about 4K RPM. Cant speak in terms of real dyno, but my butt dyno says it pulls harder from 4K-7K were as before it felt like it made more noise than go. Installation of the cams was easy with JWT's installation instructions. I recommend this for anyone running an NA SR20.

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Unfortunately winter in Wisconsin has finally come and the datsun had to be put away into hibernation. All that means is time to address a few more of the "projects". The main one to be addressed is the open rear differential. It is way to easy to break 1 tire loose now and it will only get a lot worse with future turbo addition. I would have liked an RX7 GSL-SE rear end for simplicity but they are not easy to find. The ones I did find would have required $$ and one of my kidneys. I refuse to pay that much for an axle that old when I can build basically a brand new ford rearend for the same cost. I decided on the Ford 7.5. They are pretty cheap overall. I went with a 99 ranger axle. It will get narrowed, fully rebuilt, Mustang rear disk conversion, Posi rearend, 4.10 ratio, Moser axles to retain the 4 x 114.3. Should have no problem holding up with the weight of this car and power level. This thing it meant to carve the twisties and hang the ass end out once in awhile not launch at a drag strip. Currently this is where I am at.

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[Dreymar]

Nice project! Way to go

[CART418]

Progress has slowed due to Holidays, colds, and a few home projects on the honey do list. I did manage to carve out some time to pull the stock axle and take all of my measurements.

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Passenger side needs to be shortened 3.6875"
Driver side needs to be shortened 5.9375"

[Gregs672000]

What a wonderfully executed transformation!

[CART418]

Update: I have been slacking a little, ok maybe a lot.


I measured, re-measured, and then measure again before cutting the axle down to correct size. I am matching the original axle in length.

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I tack welded everything into place and fitted the shortened axles to make sure everything fit well. Not shown in the picture but I slowly grinded the ends as perpendicular as possible and then use c-channel with clamp to hold everything square and in place.

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I finished welded the axles once I knew everything look good. I placed the axle on a set of caster and had one person rotate the axle as I did the welding. That way each weld was in one pass and there was less start/stop cooling. I had one regret unfortunately. I wish I would have clocked the brakes up a little more. The e-brake springs are going to be close to the leaf springs.

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Next up was mounting the brake lines and e-brake assembly. Looks a bit messy but I should be able to re-use the stock Brake line drop and the stock e-brake location on the car.

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Now time to disassemble everything again so I can paint it. Probably go with Por15 and then top coat it in gloss black. I also caught this issue while taking some measurements. Glad I found it in it's early stages.

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[CART418]

A few new updates on the old girl.

The Ford 7.5" axle is finally installed. It took some clearance on the frame, exhaust and small modification to the lower leaf spring plates but it fits. New ride height is approximately 1/2" lower then before. I was also able to get the parking brake to play nicely with existing linkage and everything works smoothly. I also fixed the gas tank mounting bracket crack. I cannot wait to test out the limited slip.

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While I wait for riding season to begin I also had time to knock out some misc projects as well. First was replacing some coolant hoses which also gave me the room to do a remote oil filter. After changing the filter last year I knew I had to improve the situation to prevent future swearing. I used a combination of the Tomei N2 and used P2M kit.

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The other addition was adding some heat to the car. The original heater core and fan where in terrible condition and beyond repair. I wanted to extend my riding season here in Wisconsin and an issue that I had in early spring and late fall was a foggy windshield around the lake. After some research I came across a small unit from T7Design. It will allow me to run some 2" ducting up to the vents in the dash. It is also compact enough to fit in the car.

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Overall the winter projects are coming together and I look forward to getting it out in the next few weeks!

[CART418]

Updates: Brakes and more power

Just before the end of the riding season I upgraded from Volvo brakes to Spriso's Big Brake kit. I got them used from another Datsun owner on Instagram. I cannot say enough good things about the kit. I paired them with a set of EBC red pads. I had to also change out the master cylinder as well to get the best brake feel with my 7:1 ratio Wilwood pedals. Here is a Before and After.

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And with that my riding season has ended and the datsun was put away on jackstands for it's winter updates. This winter I will be adding a turbo to the S14 SR20DE engine. I will be using a RS-Enthalpy Nistune ECU, Z32 MAF, 370CC Injectors and a S13 GT25 Turbo. Initial starting point will be about 7 PSI to run pump gas for a little extra fun. Although I could have just sold the engine and purchased a SR20DET, I instead wanted to see what could be done with NA+T. Part of the fun I guess. I have also not seen this combo in a Datsun roadster yet.

I have made some progress. I finished cutting the X-frame to accommodate 2.5" exhaust. This will be boxed back in once I am good with the fit for everything.

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I finished tacking the log manifold and deciding on position of the turbo. I had to split the difference (enough room to get intake on turbo with DE distributor) and (Enough clearance from the double master cylinder without it being recessed).

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I then got to work on the downpipe and EWG. To add a little clearance from the Master cylinder I did 2.25" and then transitioned to 2.5". Every little bit helps to make room for heat shield around Brakes.

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And that is where I am currently. A few head scratching moments but it looks like it will all come together.

[akara]

great job with all the fab work especially the exhaust, i have been trying to figure out what to do thru the frame as well, looking forward to seeing what you come up with. Good job on the brake lines, I want to simplify mine and mount them better like you have, inspiring!

[CART418]

great job with all the fab work especially the exhaust, i have been trying to figure out what to do thru the frame as well, looking forward to seeing what you come up with. Good job on the brake lines, I want to simplify mine and mount them better like you have, inspiring!

Thanks for the compliments. Nothing I have done to this point is really "new". I have reviewed everyone's builds on this forum and used different pieces that I liked. The rest is just made up as I go along.

I did get a little more time this weekend and finished mocking up the rest of the downpipe. I know others have went larger than 2.5" which I applaud. 2.5" is a pretty tight fit.

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[CART418]

Looks like I missed wrapping this one up with a nice little bow.

I finished up everything on the turbo swap and could not be happier with the results. I am running 10psi on the GT25 turbo and the car finally feels like it should. At this point I have put around 2000 miles on it. I think it is the right amount of power for the car assuming the pavement is dry. Or at least the right amount of power until I build the motor for some extra.

I do run into a little intake turbulence with distance between turbo and maf but for all intents and purposes it is not really noticeable. Just a touch rich sometimes when you jump on it.


This was the finished result on boxing the frame back in with 1/4" plate. Worked the best for me without taking the body off to get to the top side of the frame.

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I also updated the center console area with boost and AFR gauges. I added a android radio to run wireless android auto.

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And the final results.

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[Gregs672000]

Ya, nice little weekend project eh!?
Congrats on your successful journey... now comes time to enjoy the car, while you continue to play! We're never really "done", are we...

[drieseck]

Remarkable, as Greg mentioned------time to enjoy. Really appreciate your explanation(s) of the work (nice welding), details, trouble spots and photos. Yes, this site has been a guiding light generously provided by the community, Ginny now included.