Last time on Roadkill, MotorTrend's Kia Rio 5
mopped up the autocross with the 'Rotsun' here today we get revenge.
We threw a turbo on this junk and headed out to the Goodguys Show the Spring
Nationals in Scottsdale, Arizona
where we are going to kill us some Kia!
Our '71 Datsun 240Z
came from the guys at White Flag Racing. This is a five hundred dollar
rust bucket of a Datsun. It's got a Chevy 4.3 liter V6,
a junk yard 5-speed also out of a Chevy S10, and the rear end came from a
WRX car that we found on eBay. We kicked the 240Z back into action
for the last episode of Roadkill because we were convinced that it was
going to just destroy
everything in our our autocross shootout but unfortunately
we only got a couple laps at the Datsun because it broke
and it didn't beat the Kia Rio 5. We just couldn't have that
and what's the best way to fix a beat up Datsun?
More horsepower so we decided to turbo this thing.
There's your guy. Off a powerstroke of some kind.
Normal people they call up the manufacturer and have them recommend
the right turbo for their engine.
But this is Roadkill we buy whatever junk is laying around.
So our turbo came from a 7.3 liter
Ford Super Duty Diesel. But that is the right turbo because it cost $250,
which is the theory that holds up until: You realize that cost about $300 dollars
and we have two of them.
And a blowout valve. Lipstick on a pig.
In the alternate world of Roadkill time our mind told us that we're gonna be able
to get this turbo installed in about two days.
That turned into about two weeks.
Finnegan ended up having to spend a couple days working on this thing by himself.
Most of which was spent running around town picking up all the little
nickel-and-dime stuff that kills you and slows you down.
But he also got a lost of things fabricated like the exhaust pipe and the cold air tube.
I have just created the world's first Datsun 240Z to Chevy V6 turbo header.
Ohhh....yep. I just did that.
Ok. Now the world's first Datsun 240Z to
4.3 liter Chevy V6 header for turbo is done.
I'm particularly proud of his bill
because I don't get to TIG weld that often
and turbo-ing this car meant I got to sit down for hours
TIG welding aluminum and stainless pipes together.
And I gotta say the welds don't suck this thing is actually a pretty sturdy build.
You know what I was thinking of? What are we actually doing with this car?
We're going to the autocross right? Yeah. Have we spent 5 minutes on the suspension? No.
We could use a sway bar in the back.. --but it will have a turbo (laugh).
That's choice! Dude right now people can hate on that 'oh why'd you put a 4.3 in here?'
But the moment you slam the hood and they see the hater pipe come through
then they just have to shut up.
This is the nicest things we've ever fabricated right now.
I figure the rear end blows up before the engine block ever breaks. Center section or axel?
Axle. Yeah?
Okay did the water pump thing hit the turbo is that what that was?
Didn't you hear a bang?
That's like the starter falling off.
that's something really gnarly. And it turns out that we had a
sunken floater something wrong with the needle and seat and the engine got
filled up with gas and we
hydraulic-ed the number three cylinder. I pulled the spark plug out of it and it just
gushed gasoline and now we've got gas in the oil as well.
So its 2:30 in the morning we're supposed to be in the dyno tomorrow
and we're about ready to have a really good time. Now I think we're both pretty
dejected. The only thing left to do is load it up take it our there, deal with it
at West Tech in the morning.
Change the oil there.
(sigh)
Normally when you take the car to a chassis dyno you wanna show up completely
prepared with the thing running, driving
ready to strap down to make power. I've gotta say that
we have more to do on this car
than any vehicle had ever taken to a dyno ever.
Talking with Steve Brulee at Westech we were scared we cranked
the starter over and
hydraulic-ed the cylinder, and he was saying if it didn't try a light off
so that it wasn't banging the cylinder under actual engine power
its fine so we'll take that.
as a 100% guarantee.
I think I estimated leaving here at six o'clock which means midnight so
we're exactly on target.
Time for the pay off!
Finally we had the V6 running better than it ever had.
Then it was time to make boost.
Come on, baby stay together!
All those problems fixed and now we have a
430 lb/ft, 387.4 horsepower
mule in that car.
That's about a 450 horsepower V6
and it sounds and smokes like a Mack truck. It sounds like a powerstroke diesel.
This is about the time we realized we were going to need a scavenge pump in
the oil return line out of the turbo.
We came back to Westech in the morning and put a tune up in the car
that would survive on 91 octane because
up to this point we've been running it on some118 that I had left over from
Bonneville.
God, this is the moment I've been waiting for all that welding,
all that grinding, all that work, finally get to drive the 'Rotsun'.
We made a couple trips around the block in the 240Z and what's amazing is
even in the rain this thing wanted to hook up hard. We tried to do some burnouts
but it just wasn't
smoking the tires. We tried harder and were
rewarded with a broken axle shaft. The shortened axle shaft broke
right on the weld we added in the last episode. Instead of hitting the road
it was back to the shop. I'm not exactly sure why but Finnegan got this
new used and beefier center section for the Datsun even though we didn't break
that we broke an axle.
Ever since Finnegan fell in love with this car we've been trying to do things
a little bit more right on it and what do you do when you love something?
You gunk it. So I'm gonna clean the thing up instead of just
installing it as a complete scunge pit.
Ooh. Gunk.
Wanna see how late we are? That door won't stay shut
That's Freiburger's solution right there this is about to get welded
to the Rotsun.
You know sometimes you run outta time and have to butcher things together and
then
other times for the shear sake of style you've got to butcher them together.
It's really a theft deterrent anything about it. You can attach
a padlock to this,
but who's gonna see this thing and go 'yeah I want inside that car'? Nobody.
Alright it was nice knowing us.
See ya in about 10 minutes.
Gonna break an axel right here? No. (laugh)
You bolted everything back together on the rear end right?
Axles, sway bars?
Oh we didn't tighten the sway bar in place.
Really? Nope. So like the nuts are gonna fall off?
Right. Well that was a short trip. We lived so far.
It's not much of a life but we did live.
Would you like a car wash? Uh....
And now it's peaking all over the ground. Hop in
I'll push. Oh you want me to be in the car if it bursts into flames you're safely
out to the side? Yep.
Not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet....
okay.
Oh!
Oh oh oh! It doesn't wanna go into gear.
How fast are we going?
I will coordinate the exhaust noise to our speed
since I don't have a tach[ometer]. 75.
we only made it maybe an hour away from there and stopped in Cabazon, California
where there's this really good sorta
high end casino. We figured you know what
let's vallet this thing. Y'all build this thing?
Yeah, just put the key in the ignition right there.
The guy was completely unfazed he hopped in like it was his own and drove the thing away.
Goodbye Native American goodness. Ah that's a good sound.
That's like bacon for my ears.
As soon as we hit the highway we found out that this thing
cruises we thought the V6 was all gonna be shaky
and a big problem: nope. This thing hauled!
70 degrees out, blue skies.
Straightest road on the planet heading into the desert.
Got a turbo charged Datsun.
Best day at work ever.
Survey says: $1134.
We got out of the hotel this morning reasonably nice hotel and Finnegan's toolbox
is stolen.
Lots and lots of heritage there and lots and lots of tools so we had to buy all
of this stuff.
This all started with a five hundred dollar Dotson. We just spent more than that on screwdrivers.
So after all of this we finally arrived at the autocross at the
Goodguys Spring Nationals at Westworld in Scottsdale. The Goodguys shows are super cool.
But one other thing about him is that they don't allow import cars.
the exception is if you've got a older one that has like a V8 or
American power plant like our Dotsun does but when we pulled the 240Z
in the front gate
man did we get a lot of stares and a lot of hate. People did not want to see that
import car there especially looking like absolute garbage
and they hadn't even seen the Kia yet.
Alright chief what year is this? '71. Alright
I think you're legal.
He didn't wanna let us in. He didn't. He tried hard.
You don't have any paint on that thing I've never bet on this
side of the fence before.
All of a sudden I'm an import car guy. The best part about this whole trip
was that we had used Facebook to let everybody know we were coming
and when we arrived at the autocross course there were Roadkill
fan's there waiting to check out the Rotsun and meet us.
Is this the Datsun from Roadkill? Yes sir.
Oh no way! Dude I love your show. Thank you.
A couple of the Roadkill fans that showed up that day were Jake and Eric Roswerski
who saw that I had lost my grandfather's toolbox on Facebook and
generously brought me their own. Oh wow that's really generous.
You sure you wanna give this up? Yes. Eric and Jake brought me their
tool box. It's good car karma and I'm trying not to cry.
What are we going to do about the Kia I say one run and done.
Yeah we only need one lap in this and I don't really wanna drive it.
Oh no you have to. I'm no touching it. Ok rock-paper-scissors.
Ready? ....Oh. What is that?
It's paper. You were watching that's like a half paper
maybe I wanted scissors kinda thing. No cheating going down there look up.
Me in the eyes. Ready?
....smash! (laugh)
And it was super cool that our tent was set up right next to the starting line
so that we can watch all the action on the track.
But we didn't we decided there was even more to do on the Datsun.
First of all the tech guy said we had to have seat belts imagine that well
we threw some seat belts in we bought at Pep Boys and we also threw in some
guages, we changed the oil,
finally we were ready to go thrash this thing.
Look at that and tell me there is anything wrong with it.
And staging up next is David Freiburger from Hot Rod Magazine in the
Roadkill
'71 Datsun. I know what you're thinking
Hot Rod Magazine with a Datsun that's just un-American.
I haven't even watched out here which means I'm highly likely to get lost
this will be embarrassing. Announcer: they're ready to go they got their seatbelts in.
And they are getting in line I don't wanna say to do something awesome
because I don't want to lie to you all. He's never even seen this
autocross course so
he doens't even know where the first turn is and by the time we got here
the transmission really didn't wanna go into second gear.
So pretty much he's hosed.
Wow this thing has power.
4.3 V6 low dollar at its finest and he is
running a turbocharger out of a Ford diesel pickup truck.
Yes it's as hideous up close as it is far away
I guess they're afraid their doors are going to fall off because they have a barn door latch
on the door on the passenger side.
My hat's off to the Roadkill guys as they're
washing the track for us.
I got lost.
Hey guys this thing is dumping fuel out of it.
The good news is it's race fuel and it's already evaporated. I understand but...
This thing has way more power. You lost to a Pinto.
Oh I got lost out there. I'm just kidding I don't even think they had a timer on
for whatever reason. They weren't really taking you seriously. This thing has
a lot more power!
When it takes off man it motors. The big part of it is just getting lost out there and
it's tough I took the
exit the first time and then had to dive back onto the track.
It's not a clean time.
The thing that made my performance
all that much better is that Finnegan was making fun of me for it the
announcer was making fun of me for it
and then when Finnegan lines up in the Kia
which is embarrassing to begin with
he goes out there and got completely
lost on the autocross making me look like I actually knew what I was doing.
Remember it's all-american Sunday tomorrow. Did we give him a sobriety test?
I'm going the wrong way. Did they have driver's ed
in California any more? No. I have no idea where I'm going.
We have a ran two Roadkill cars and neither one of those boys can figure out
how to run the autocross course.
Can you put some signs up or something?
I don't have not lost. Was I in the infield or something. Oh completely.
Oh so that you don't go there at all?
At this point we really hadn't gotten good numbers from the Datsun or Kia
because we got so lost on track but we had a good opportunity.
Rob MacGregor from No-Limit engineering is the guy who builds these
really radical gambling pickup trucks and who
dominates the Goodguys autocross series. He decided to put his butt in the seat
and he went out there and the Datsun pouring smoke have raw oil because we
didn't turn on the scavenge pump for the turbocharger.
He laid down a 77 second time which was pretty competitive with a lot of the
muscle cars and late models that were there.
After Rob ran I jumped behind the wheel to turn a lap
and I really blame him for breaking the car because I got about half way around
the track
before the fan belt came off, knocked the oil line of the turbo,
and covered most of the racetrack in dirty oil.
Smoke is not your friend on the autocross course.
Make sure it's not on fire.
Yeah that came off and hit an oil line we're pretty much out of your hair
for the day. Hey at least you didn't get lost.
I didn't get lost. So all we gotta do is
tighten it degrease this thing and put oil in it.
He was doing good looks like it didn't even lose his way right up to the point
where the thing
burst into billowing smoke. Due I was
friggin cranking out there until this exploded. We ended up putting a new
fan belt on the Datsun but ran outta time to make another pass on the
autocross.
But we were stoked to find out we get another shot at it on Sunday.
Well today I think we finally have our poop in a group
we're gonna get around the track with the Datsun we're actually gonna know
how to drive the thing I think we're gonna put Finnegan in it because
he's got more track time than me at this point.
And maybe we'll improve on that 77 second time Rob lay down yesterday.
Maybe not cuz he's a pro driver compared to us but what we're already seeing the
Datsun is out-running some of these late model cars.
So I don't think we'll embarrass ourselves today.
Alright here we go let's try not to suck.
C'mon, baby let's not get lost.
Hi-tech fabrication on the course right now.
I love how they made it so the
front turning signal lights come on every time they hit the brakes
not everybody can do that or would want to.
There's a nice lap out of Finnegan
A 75.055 actually have him in 8th
position for the day. Eighth place out of every car here?
Eighth out of every car here this morning. So the very first lap I didn't get lost
we ran a seventy five out of every car here.
You wonder how good is 75 seconds really?
Well it was good enough to beat a handful of nearly stock muscle cars
and a hand full of brand new
hopped up muscle cars so 75 was not at all embarrassing for us.
All that was left to do was to find out was it really faster than the Kia
and we didn't have a lot of time to do that because nobody around wanted that
Kia on the race track so I only had one shot at it.
And he runs a 78.8
and a one second violation. 78.8 lower than the Rotsun.
I'm the fastest man alive thanks Motor Trend
we beat your car finally and only took two tries and a lot more money.
So you might ask how impressed was it
really that are 400 horsepower Datsun beat
a brand new Kia Rio? Well what it comes down to is the Datsun is
way faster in a straight it actually hauls when it comes up on boost
and the Kia's gonna kill it every single time in ABS braking.
Fact is we took a Ford powerstroke diesel turbo
made it run on a Chevy 4.3 liter v6
stuffed into a worthless 240Z and yup we outran a new rental car.
So what do we learn: everything deserves a turbo
and the Rotsun will outrun the Kia
and autocross racing is a helluva good time.
I'm not gonna lie to you none of the other guys could have drove this.
I love the Datsun now I think we've never spent more money on a Roadkill car.
And that's probably why it works pretty well where did the zip ties go?