# Proud new owner of a 1980 Datsun 210 (120y B-310 ) 4 door(noob questions)



## Rainy_Day_Sunny (Jul 2, 2009)

So I found a 1980 Datsun 210 (120y B-310 ) 4 door at a garadge sale for 150$, and I'm madly in love with it, It's clean, 1 previous owner, decent paint, interior is dry but seats are cracked. I'd like to restore it as much as possible and/or try to get more power out of it. I've never been a classic car person before, and don't really know what the Do's and Don't are for this kind of thing. One of the front fenders has been repainted at some point and the pinstriping is gone there. It also has all of it's smog gear. 

So my question is:

What can be done to get more power out of it? Are these types of mods frowned uppon by classic car enthusiasts?

Can a full replacement of the pinstriping be done without losing value?

What's more important in your opinion, A powerful fast car with less stock parts or a unmodified car with no power and alot of cosmetic restoration?


I'd like this to be my project car, but I don't know which way to go here...




Also trying to figure out what exactly it is that I have, Plate pic included


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## Rainy_Day_Sunny (Jul 2, 2009)

Hmm guess flickr is not gonna show them, here's the links:

plate on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

1980 Datsun 210 (120y B-310 ) 4 door on Flickr - Photo Sharing!


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## king bee66 (May 11, 2009)

nice find. very clean looking. restoring a car usually implies all original parts. alot of people like giving datsuns more power because of their light weight you can do it without needing expensive heavy parts. personally thats what i would do because its a 310 and restoring it wouldnt really "increase" its value very much. there is a community online that deals with this; search google it should be easy to find


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## Beverly Stayart (Jul 13, 2009)

Wonderful find for just $150 at a garage sale! Good luck restoring it. Maybe you can do both -- increase the power while also doing cosmetic restoration.


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## pulsar86 (Aug 13, 2009)

You have got a great little engine in your car. I used to have a Datsun 1200 ute with the same engine. They can be modified but parts would be getting hard to get. The hot models of the engine used to run twin Hitachi SU type carbys and some of the Sunny models had a bored and stroked 1400cc version. They are a great motor, nearly impossible to kill. Have fun and do what you want, it's your car. The engine goes well with a set of extractors and a free flow exhaust. Mine was an 1982 model and in Australia didn't have a lot of pollution gear, only carbon cannister etc.


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## pulsar86 (Aug 13, 2009)

I had a look at the pictures of your car, in Australia they were sold as Nissan Sunnys, I think they had a 1200cc motor in the sedans and the 1400cc motor in the wagons. The 120y here was the model before yours and was a smaller lighter car with a 1200cc engine, It looks a good buy. If you need any imformation on your car put up a post and I might be able to help, because I still have a Nissan Sunny work shop manual. I check the forums most days. Best of luck.


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## ctech (Aug 5, 2011)

Hi
Being that this was the first car I owned, I can tell you a couple of things. One, don't worry about upsetting the resale value of this car from what you do vs stock: in short, this is no Mustang here and will never be considered a classic in that sense. Sorry to burst your bubble about that. Second, the two door hatchback that I had was rated at 95 HP. While I thought it was fast, that was only because of the HP to weight ratio. Don't forget, you have a virtual tin-can on wheels here. I found that out the hard way when I was parked outside of a party and two dudes got into a scuffle outside. All it took was one guy to trip and fall into the front bumper and that was enough to cause the bumper to crumble up in a tin-foil like fashion as if it was hit with an SUV doing 30 mph. Rather distressing to me to say the least. And, get this, all it took for me to get it back to shape was for me to push it out by hand from the inside well!! Aluminum foil power go baby go!

Second, if you really want more power the only thing that you can really do is to either turbocharge or get a different engine. No way around that. If you do any of this, make darn sure that you change out the drive-train to handle the extra power. Realize that this car was never designed to handle any real amount of power and the clutch, transmission and rear end won't be able to handle any more unless you address changing those out as well. In the present stock condition I must have gone through FIVE clutches in the six years that I had this car. That should tell you something right there. 

The only real pluses to this car is that it is sporty looking and has good gas mileage. Beyond that, don't expect anything else too stellar from it. Treat it right and it will be good reliable transportation. Mine, unfortunately gave out in six years. The engine seized due to lack of oil changes. 

A better Datsun is the 510. The 1980 had a NAPS Z engine = TWO spark plugs per cylinder and delivered both power and good mileage. Today, the way this is accomplished is with a DOHC; four valves per cylinder. Datsun was ahead of it's time then for sure.


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## SPEEDO (Jun 9, 2003)

if your local smog regs will allow, pull the emission bs off the car, that will give you some extra power. At the time, the purpose of that vehicle was cheap, reliable and good gas mileage...
I had a 72 510, I think peak hp was 96, but it was a lot of fun. Do what you will with the car, but enjoy it!


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## Rob E (Dec 18, 2005)

How has your project progressed?

There are many performance bits for the A series engine and I just wondered what you had come up with.


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