Graeme Suckling's P510
These pictures and captions were provided by Graeme Suckling and may only be used for private viewing purposes.

My little car at an Adelaide 1600 Club day at Mallala Motorsport Park. We spent the day doing 5 lap sprints getting to know your car and learning how to race(!)

I replaced the solid rotor, twin piston (ex 240Z) setup which suffered heat fade during racing. So much so the fluid boiled and the pedal sank to the floor after returning to the pits. Don't you just hate that! Mallala is notoriously hard on brakes so I wasn't the only one having this problem.

Head on view of my brake upgrade AFTER massive brake fade at track day.
Showing adaptor plate to mate Mazda S IV RX-7 calliper to 200B strut tabs.

Final mockup to check clearances to wheel etc.

LHS bleeding process. No, I didn't use Olive oil for fluid!

Showing rotor "hat" dimension which is only 6mm greater than rotor thickness. The calliper mount was machined in thickness to correctly locate the calliper over disk rotor. 		As mentioned the callipers Series IV Mazda RX-7 4 piston alloy, the brake rotors are new from a VW Golf 2.8 VR6 Mk3, adaptor bar designed by me and machined up by a local workshop. The rotors required redrilling to the Nissan 4 hole hub and the centre hole enlarged from 65mm diam. to 73mm to mate to the hub. Haven't tried them out in anger yet but I thik this combo will have to do. There is only about 2mm clearance between the callipers and the 15" alloys I am currently using.
The standard FJ20 sump comes with the bowl at the front of the motor. There are two options to make it all fit. Buy a fitting kit which reverses the x-member - $800, or cut and shut the sump - a weekends work & virtually free.

Shows the sump sections from underneath.
Shows the welds used to reposition the bowl in the sump to clear the standard 510 engine x-member and new dip stick tube - LHS of sump

shows the RHS of the sump. Unfortunately I do not have digital photos of the comparison with a standard L16 sump but the bowls now line up and the clearance to the engine x-member is approx 20mm or 3/4".
Following pics were taken when I re-conditioned the engine in March 2001. The head gasket let go and allowed coolant to enter no. 4 cylinder.



Various views of the FJ20 head.


The lower picture shows the extension welded onto the oil pick up tube to position the intake ito the re-located sump bowl.

Shows the engine bay from RHS front. The intake plenum left no room for the brake fluid reservoir so I mounted a remote unit to the side of the bay and used flexible hoses to connect to the front and rear circuits of the master cylinder. The radiator has standard 510 top and bottom tanks with a 3 row core and inlet/outlet pipes re-located to suit the FJ20 connections.

Shows the engine bay head on. It is easier to see the remote brake fluid reservoir on the LHS of the pic.


Shows the engine bay from LHS front. The air filter box is from a late model GM vehicle and has a 90mm cold air duct plumbed from the area behind the bumper bar to the intake at the base of the air box. This would have to be one of the most popular engine swaps in this country, turbo and non-turbo.
The rear disc conversion uses rotors and calipers from an R31 Skyline. Only minor clearancing was required to slip the caliper bracket over the hub and the mounting holes were redrilled to match that of the 510 control arm. Slight re-positioning of the rigid brake line was necessary to allow it to mate up with the Skyline flexible line. The hand brake cable was custom built to reach the caliper lever in a smooth curve. At the same time I replaced the under dash handbrake with a trans tunnel type from a Stanza (710). All control arm bushes were upgraded to polyurethane type to prevent undesireable movement. A dual circuit vacuum boosted master cylinder from a 200B (810) was fitted and bias is just fine.

shows the "disc over hub" in lieu of drum - fits nicely! Note flexible hose curves down to pick up rigid line.


Shows detail of hand brake cable attachment to caliper. Some innovative manufacturing required here.

Shows the R31 Skyline caliper bracket fixed to the stock 510 rear control arm. Minor surgery is required to the bracket to clear some flange welds on the control arm, the centre hole needs to be enlarged slightly and the mounting holes are re-drilled to suit the pattern of the control arm threaded holes.

Shows the caliper plate attachment. Some holes did coincide!

shows how the flexible pipe is routed to the under side of the hub and mates up to the rigid line which has been re-curved slightly. A "Z" braket was made to hold the standard brake hose captive nut arrangement at the rigid line junction. A flat bracket was made up to keep the flexible line from rubbing on any moving parts. The disc/caliper relationship was perfect once it was all bolted together!

Regards from Downunder.

Graeme Suckling.