New Zealand Datsun Club

I have just come home from a very impressive test drive of my 6 month project, my a15 race engine build. I'm glad I stuck with the old a15, I love the sound, it has almost to much power now for the diff and braking ability but its fine. That means... Brake upgrades are not required, the diff and gearbox should be fine and I won't need a cert ( I do my own wofs anyway) but if I went to a testing station they wouldn't know it had much more power than standard making it more a "sleeper". Its going to cost you between 4-6K depending on who you know, what you can buy second hand, what you can do yourself and how fast you want to go. I would say closer to the 6K. I've been told it would be cheaper to fit a later model twin cam engine and its likely true? except my build didn't cost as much as 4K due to trade price, second hand parts, mates helping and finding stuff real cheap over 6 months. I think the cost of changing the engine would mount up if you need to change mounts, g-box, drive shaft loop, fuel supply and ecu set up, cert for wof, likely needing bigger brakes etc etc. Thats my 2c worth.

thanks for the help guys Ill look into both an see what's cheaper, I do like the idea of keeping the a15, 4-6k that's pretty price hopefully wont cost that much if I do it, luckily I can just leave it in my garage an spread buying the parts over time I guess

Good idea to keep it on the road as long as possible while buying parts and sorting stuff. I started with buying a spare A15 $200 Found the cheapest Dellortos i've seen (six months ago) with soft mounting kit, ram tubes and been reconditioned $650. Then inlet manifold $150 Got a12 flywheel $20 then machined it, brought extractors $250, spare air filters $100 etc etc. Brought die grinder and tips $250ish, tips and a dremel $150ish and ported my head, sent cam away for a grind $165 and springs $75.Sent block away for the big work $1600 and supplied parts myself, pistons rings bearings plus new clutch $700, took car off road for two months & got engine back and assembled it, then a week later its running. Lots of work done between the lines, painting parts and engine bay, changing things, making brackets, changing clutch bearing seat position etc etc but it gives you an idea. So its cost me $4300 trade price doing most work myself including head porting and i've done everything except all the bottom end work and machine work. Hope this helps as i started without a figure in mind and kept it tight on budget. I have not seen parts as cheap since.

cheers bud, that helps a lot I just wont let my wife no how much it will cost an all will be fine haha, where did you find most of the parts?

That looks awesome! I might steel your chin spoiler idea

Surfez wrote:Sent block away for the big work $1600

What did they do to it??
was this for the hole shebang pressure test and bigger bore etc??

mikey205 wrote:cheers bud, that helps a lot I just wont let my wife no how much it will cost an all will be fine haha, where did you find most of the parts?

haha
looking good bro, I hope that chin spoiler lasts ... it looks awesomely low

DylPhil7 wrote:That looks awesome! I might steel your chin spoiler idea

haha do it man, I got it from a wreckers for free because I didn't want the tail light an he said that's all that u pay for, but a mate said to me I should have done it an hooked it up to the lights.

Tony_Whenua wrote:

Surfez wrote:Sent block away for the big work $1600

What did they do to it??
was this for the hole shebang pressure test and bigger bore etc??

Bore block to oversize, in-large conrod little end by 1mm and fit Mazda flat top piston then deck block height to suit pistons, balanced rods, crank, flywheel clutch and front pulley. Dial in race camshaft...and set cam gear by Dowling it in position (otherwise I'd be buying adjustable gear at a few hundred anyway) Machine inlet manifold flat on head side. Pressure test head after porting, two new valve inserts, inserts cheap at only $25 each , seats had been damaged by porting as I didn't have spare valves to protect the seats and porting is hard work 30hours it took me including polish. Got mate to give it a valve /seat grind. Engine shop also got a couple of parts for it so chain tensioner, water pump and 30hours for them at $80 ph. It was a $2k bill minus mates rates.

I love the wheels too!

Just thought I'd mention someone has been trying to sell a manual conversion on trade me for awhile With pedals etc. Also someone had an a15 that needed some parts for $1, might be worth keeping an eye out if your thinking of a conversion.