Hi Guys I have been reading through some posts regarding engine conversions & power to weight ratios but I am still a bit confused.
My dilemma is I need a car with a bit more power just for day to day driving and to be able to easily tow a motorbike, I do not want to buy another car as my Datsun is my dream car it just needs more power and I do not want to have two registered cars.
I have been talking to a local mechanics who does a lot of engine conversions and is pretty keen to take on my Datto.
So if I was to go ahead it would either be a CA or a SR probably leaning more towards the SR though, and I was wondering with the current NSW engineering rules would I have to make any modifications to the brakes in order to make it stop from a legal point of view?
I will upgrade them as some point anyway but just to get it on the road could I leave the brakes as they are? The car is a 78 120Y and has drum rear and Disc front?
Thanks
Andy

Mate my 2 cents if your gonna make it go its gota stop especially if your towing with it. I dont know the laws for it but youd be pretty annoyed if you spent all that money then crashed it cos you ran outa braking.

Brakes and suspension first and you have heaps of options for the 120y which is great.

Then you can also consider a cheap L series with a turbo, no pollution gear and suits the period of the car. Top to bottom they are more bullet proof than an L or CA. Here is just an example of why they can eat turbo porsches and commonhoe v8s.
http://ozdat.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=62&t=32113

So by the law do I need to do something with the brakes & suspension to run the SR?
Thanks

Unfortunately the answer will be depends.
Depends on your current brake performance and if your chosen engineer for the engine conversion agrees the brakes have the required performance. The engineer should consider the system performance and not how big/modified the brakes are. So it it meets the required performance, you should be ok.
It is however sage advice to consider increasing brake performance, you don't need to go over the top here though. Refresh the system, put in some decent pads and test it, just as important is the rest of the suspension, check shocks and suspension bushes too. Its not wasted money.

Good luck.

Bryan

What car are u thinking about doing this conversion on?if its a 1200 then u cant put an SR in it anyway,only the CA can be legally done now.Not sure about 120y though.

brakes are no 1 priority, for every car you touch it should be brakes, suspension, good front seating then engine

Thanks for the replies guys, Its a 120Y so sounds like the SR is out of the question if I went a head looks like it will be the CA.

an sr20de or sr20ve would be great. My 1200 was capable of 130mph+ with a ca18de.

you could get engine and loom for less than a grand. If it was my daily that's what I'd do. if you get another car later on, you could put a worked VE head and the would perform almost as good as a stock sr20det.

turbo is not always the best answer.

Sr20det or ve is fine for a 120Y. Talk to engineer about engine size. 2.7l turbo four hilux motor :) would be the bomb. Cheap to buy and make crazy power.