The Project
Up until this point, I had a nice 510 with an LZ22 and a 5-speed. I had already sorted out the suspension and brakes and decided it was time to move on to the engine. Believe it or not all modifications up to this point were made in the first year I owned the car... suspension, brakes, new seats, radiator etc. I even managed to make it to every single SCCA autocross in the 2002 season at Firebird raceway (I also made it to one in Tucson and one in Flagstaff). Pretty busy schedule for one year.
Over the course of the year I decided that I really hate carburetors. I wanted this car to be my daily driver, I needed something reliable, fuel efficient and clean running (we still have to do emissions in AZ). This meant only one thing to me... EFI. Originally I had considered fuel injecting my LZ22, but after looking into costs associated with that (efi manifold, computer etc.) I decided I could do an SR20DE swap for just a little more and end up with a modern DOHC port fuel injected alloy block 2L engine, and that's when the project started....
I managed to pick up an NA Silvia front clip from a local shop for a decent price and that set the ball in motion.
Shortly after that picture was taken, the engine, transmission, exhaust and drive shaft were pulled and sold to another 510 owner up in Prescott, AZ. Once the engine was out of the way I started making the necessary modifications to make the engine fit.
(front crossmember modifications)
I had to clearance the transmission tunnel to get the engine to fit how I wanted it.
Now that I made the engine fit I decided to clean up the engine compartment.
As you can see from that process I modified the radiator support. Shortly after I got my front clip delivered, I got power hungry and decided that since I was going through the trouble of putting an SR20DE in the car I might as well throw a turbo on it too. I had seen another SR swapee use the small Isuzu NPR intercooler and modify the radiator support to house it. I took this one step further and got the large NPR cooler from the local wrecking yard and set out to make it fit.
Since I decided to go turbo, I did some research and learned that 510's don't last very long at 200+hp. Apparently the torque tends to rip the seams apart. I had already seam welded from the firewall forward and decided that doing this to the rest of the car was not something I wanted to do. The only other option was a full roll cage.
Now that the roll cage was taken care of I turned my attention to the steering. I ceramic coated my steering box and installed all new seals. I also modified a 240SX tilt column to fit into the 510. I have to build a custom dash to go around the roll cage so I decided to move the turn signal, headlight, and windshield wiper controls to the column.
When I picked up the 240SX steering column I also picked up a 240SX gas tank. I used parts from the 240SX tank to modify the stock 510 tank for an internal fuel pump.
I started some of the body work, not much done so far.
That brings you up to date to what I have accomplished so far. I still have a ton of bodywork and painting (butterscotch) to do so that I can start putting it back together. I've been collecting parts for over a year now and I'm nowhere near done. Hopefully I'll have the car back on the road in time for Shasta 2004.