Best Small Light Powerful (potential) engine for a 510
 

Update: 8/3/2010
Thanks to Ron (technically Ron's dad) for the 30VGET at a great price! This will be on a back burner for a while as other things are cleared. But a Turbo V6 Datsun 510 is'a com'n.

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OP
My brother looks like he's going to get a 71' Datsun 510 and we're trying to think of good engine options. The SR20DET is an obvious, ubiquitous choice, but are there some other interesting choices? NA or FI is fine.

Ls7

Nissan had an l25 inline six that was good in the older GT-Rs.

At the scottsdale pavillions that has a newer maxima v6. Cool, but heavy.

A NA RX-8 motor would be cool.

The 370/350 would be a tight fit because of the manifolds.

We did think about the Rotary (turbo from an FD) since it can be packaged just about anywhere. The LS7 is likely too big and certainly too expensive. The RB25, like the 2JZ are fantastic, but probably too long as I6s. Mmmmm.

Of course sometimes, the obvious is obvious for a reason. Full SR20DETs with trans and harness go aroudn $2,500 +- and they can make awesome reliable power, it's just that everyone does that for a 510.

Here's some more stuf I'm finding.

Tiny, light, powerful. Cheap? Probably not. Affordable . . maybe.
Ford 2.3
http://www.esslingeracing.com/midget-short-track.htm

S.C.A.T. V4 (not cheap)
300+hp in a 210lb engine.


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Outer space

Hartley Enterprises.
Twin Hayabusa -> V8. $27k
http://www.h1v8.com/page/page/1562068.htm

That'd be fun in a 510

A ls7 is expensive, but ls1s and 2s are not ~3-5K.

Also, the h1 and h2 engines you are looking at are used a lot in SR radicals. They are fast, but maintenance is intensive and expensive.

I'll have to take a peek at the LS to see if it could plausibly be fitted and located in an intelligent way. The H1/2 would be fantastic for wow factor, but is way way WAY out of our league for TCO.

LS powered 510s are not exactly unheard of. With a little work with a BFH it fits. If i recall correctly theres a clearance issue with the steering rack, but a 240z rack and some 280z spindles drops the rack enough to clear for VG30s, and thats a big ass motor, so you might want to look into that, but you have to make some space in the trans tunnel, and I think folks usually move the firewall back 4ish inches. Ive seen it, and its about the coolest car/motor combo imaginable. :bigthumbsup::bigthumbsup:

What about balance? How much heavier is the LS combo than an SR? And is the Silvia rear end strong enough to blast around in an LS?

LS is a bit heavier than the SR ( about 50 pounds, from what i could gather, once you factor in the weights of the turbo set up for the sr and their respective transmissions ) as far as the durability of the silvia rear end dont know, nobody keeps it :P all the swaps ive seen have ford 9 inch rears.