Kenny: Turbo Rotary Datsun 510

Turbo Rotary Datsun 510

Yellow Fever is featured in Mark Warner's new book Street Turbocharging

Engine

A turbocharged 13B Mazda rotary engine was one of the original and unquestioned aspects of this car's design. I had completed several other 510s with various engines and I had been planning on building a turbo rotary when I obtained this car.

The 13B engine was ported, blueprinted, and rebuilt in June 2007 by Cam Worth of Pettit Racing

The rotary engine conversion wasn't as straightforward as usual because this engine is lower down and further back than normal. The engine mounts solidly directly to the front crossmember. I had to make my own oil pan and pickup. I had to raise and enlarge the transmission and driveshaft tunnels and modify the firewall to make the engine fit.

Driveshaft

Custom made, gloss black powder coated oil pan with magnetic drain plug

Front engine mount bolts directly to crossmember

3-inch turbine outlet pipe

Exhaust tunnel, driveshaft tunnel, and muffler enclosure.
The aluminum muffler cover was later gloss-black powder coated.

Ron Davis Racing crossflow radiator with SPAL electric fan and built-in oil cooler

Installed radiator

The turbo system is designed to put the turbo in a position where everything is accessible and heat is less of a problem. It's a RotoMaster T04B turbo with a very large turbine wheel and housing, as well as a large compressor, sized to run about one bar of boost on the 13B rotary with minimal back pressure. The ceramic coated exhaust manifold is hand made from 1/8-inch wall steel tubing.

The exhaust system is 3-inch ceramic coated tubing all the way. It is carefully fashioned from mandrel-bent tubing to avoid any tight or sharp bends. The RotoMaster wastegate connects directly into the turbine outlet pipe. The raised area under the passenger seat is where the 3-inch Flowmaster muffler lives. The bottom of the muffler is no lower than the frame rails. On the outlet side of the muffler, I made a tail pipe that exits just ahead of the passenger side rear wheel. It has a short but wide outlet with a built-in, adjustable, Flowmaster-style baffle for a little bit of extra noise reduction. I made this tail pipe very easy to remove so that it can be traded with a special temporary tail pipe I made that can be connected to a metal dryer duct. This is for piping the exhaust outdoors while running the car in the garage.

I had the exhaust pieces (manifold, turbine, and turbine outlet pipe, and tail pipe) ceramic coated and polished. The above picture shows the assembled turbocharger with ceramic coated turbine housing and powder coated compressor housing, ceramic coated turbine outlet pipe, ceramic coated exhaust manifold, and ceramic coated exhaust tip.
The lubrication system features a gloss black powder coated custom steel oil pan with magnetic drain plug. Dual external oil filters mounted upright for easy oil changes without spillage. FL-1A oil filters. Oil cooler incorporated into custom Ron Davis custom aluminum crossflow radiator. All Aeroquip braided stainless oil lines with anodized aluminum fittings. Gloss black powder coated aluminum oil filter bypass block on engine. Oil temperature gauge on dash with sender in oil filter adapter housing.

The fuel system features an 8-gallon FuelSafe fuel cell which is clear, eliminating the need for a gas gauge (sort of). The electric fuel pump delivers adequate fuel flow and pressure but is small, light, quiet, and draws only a few amps. A billet aluminum filter is included. Aeroquip line is used throughout.

I decided to switch to a different carburetor because the one that I had initially selected, while good for power, was too big for good low-end, non-boost conditions throttle response. I decided on a 390-CFM, 4-barrel Holley double pumper. This is not an easy puppy to find! It's a race carb. I made a few modifications, had the fuel bowls, metering blocks, main body, and various smaller pieces powder coated gloss black, rebuilt it, made a few modifications, and assembled it with all new chrome hardware, high-performance floats, and anti-pullover discharge nozzles.

Because the carb is so low in the engine compartment, I was able to fit a very tall stainless steel velocity stack style K&N air cleaner housing with a K&N foam air filter.

Rear Suspension

Interestingly, the front and rear suspension were designed in different ways. I wanted to run the widest possible streetable, treaded (pronounced dee-oh-tee ... Not!) rear tires of the proper height that I could find. I did not want fender flares. These two goals dictated the design of the rear suspension (actually the whole back of the car). Since I obviously don’t want such large wheels and tires in the front, my primary goal in the front is to have decent suspension geometry - a pretty lofty goal, considering the ride height.

The first step in the Jaguar rear suspension conversion was to find a used rear suspension from a Jaguar XKE. I wanted a relatively short rear gear ratio, which was not easy to find. The next step was to disassemble the rear suspension completely so that it could be rebuilt and narrowed.

Shortened, ultra heavy-duty rear drive shafts

Radically shortened, gloss black powder coated control arms
with nylon bushings

Rebuilding the hubs. All roller bearings and metal
bushings were replaced with nylon bushings

Determining the correct height for the rear suspension.
This has a major effect on the suspension geometry.

Making the rear crossmember. Note the cardboard template
at the left, showing the rear tire size and position.

Same thing, viewed from the front.

Rear pinion mounts, connected at bottom to the outer ends of the front tie bar

Rear control arm mounting brackets

Rear anti-roll bar components

Gloss black powder coated anti-roll bar end links

Chrome moly tubing and aluminum rod ends and jam nuts

Adjustable aluminum coil-over shocks

One of many test fittings of the rear suspension

The rear anti-roll bar utilizes a straight bar with aluminum arms. This setup is ultra-light weight: the bar with the arms weighs less than four pounds! The long vertical links (chrome-moly tubing with aluminum rod ends) minimize geometry change during suspension travel. Each arm has three holes for adjustable stiffness.

Radius rods

Radius rod bracket

The rear radius rods are made from one-inch OD .095-inch wall mild steel DOM tubing. They utilize a double shear mounted aluminum rod end on the chassis end and a hand made double shear clevis on the outer end. The radius rod inner mounting points are located precisely in line with the control arm inner mounting points.

Completed rear suspension, at full droop

The size of the rear tire makes the suspension and brakes look tiny!

The ride height as shown can be lowered about another two inches, or raised several inches, with the coil-over adjusters so there is plenty of adjustability there. With four soft springs and four adjustable shocks, the rear suspension is very compliant. Camber change during suspension travel is minimal, which helps keep the wide tires in contact with the road.

Brakes

The brakes on a car with this kind of power-to-weight ratio and performance potential obviously had to be good. For the front I selected Corvette aluminum calipers which are lightweight and strong. A large Nascar-style vented rotor was selected and custom aluminum adapters were made to attach the brake discs to the stock Datsun hubs. A steel bracket was required to attach the calipers to the struts. The rear uses the stock Jaguar inboard disc brakes, which are a good bit bigger than the original front brakes on the 510!

Various experimental rear calipers

Bare struts with custom caliper brackets

Assembled struts with vented rotors and custom aluminum adapters

Installed struts

Here you can see what the brake rotors and calipers look like through the front wheels. The big discs really fill up the 16-inch wheels!

Installed brakes viewed from inside

Under-dash pedal bracket and master cylinders

Red powder coated pedal bracket, Tilton brake and clutch master cylinders

To help tune the brake balance, a racing pedal assembly with an adjustable bias bar was selected. A remote control allows adjustment while driving the car. An under-dash master cylinder assembly was selected to keep the appearance of the engine compartment as clean as possible. There is absolutely no sign of a braking system under the hood!

Chassis

The chassis and roll cage design were aimed at light weight results.

To begin the rear suspension installation, the rear wheel wells and the surrounding
sheetmetal was removed completely. This actually removed a lot of weight from
the chassis which would be replaced by aluminum wheel tubs and panels.
Note how wide a 12-inch wide wheel looks without a tire installed!