Modernizing A Classic Datsun Engine

December 30, 2025 by Bryan Cockfield 49 Comments

Although Nissan has been in the doldrums ever since getting purchased by Renault in the early 2000s, it once had a reputation as a car company that was always on the cutting edge of technology. Nissan was generally well ahead of its peers when bringing technologies like variable valve timing, turbocharging, fuel injection, and adjustable suspension to affordable, reliable vehicles meant for everyday use. Of course, a lot of this was done before computers were as powerful as they are today so [Ronald] set out to modernize some of these features on his 1978 Datsun 280Z.

Of course there are outright engine swaps that could bring a car like this up to semi-modern standards of power and efficiency, but he wanted to keep everything fully reversible in case he wants to revert to stock in the future, and didn’t want to do anything to the engine’s interior. The first thing was to remove the complicated mechanical system to control the throttle and replace it with an electronic throttle body with fly-by-wire system and a more powerful computer. The next step was removing the distributor-based ignition system in favor of individual coil packs and electronic ignition control, also managed by the new computer. This was perhaps the most complicated part of the build as it involved using a custom-made hall effect sensor on the original distributor shaft to tell the computer where the engine was in its rotation.

The final part of this engine modernization effort was upgrading the fuel delivery system. The original fuel injection system fired all of the injectors all the time, needlessly wasting fuel, but the new system only fires a specific cylinder when it needs fuel. This ended up improving gas mileage dramatically, and dyno tests also showed these modifications improved power significantly as well. Nissan hasn’t been completely whiffing since the Renault takeover, either. Their electric Leaf was the first mass-produced EV and is hugely popular in all kinds of projects like this build which uses a Leaf powertrain in a Nissan Frontier.

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Two images side by side. One shows a laptop opened to a map view with a vehicle model showing a vehicles location. A transparent overlay shows various blue-ish buttons for sending commands to the vehicle. The image on the right is of the interior of a Nissan Leaf. Visible are the very edge of the steering wheel, the center dash including the infotainment display, vents, and shifter, and part of the right side of the dash. Passenger and driver legs are just barely visible at the bottom of the image.

Hack Turns Nissan Leaf Into Giant RC Car

June 24, 2025 by Navarre Bartz 29 Comments

As cars increasingly become computers on wheels, the attack surface for digital malfeasance increases. The [PCAutomotive] group shared their exploit for turning the 2020 Nissan Leaf into 1600 kg RC car at Black Hat Asia 2025.

Starting with some scavenged infotainment systems and wiring harnesses, the group built test benches able to tear into vulnerabilities in the system. An exploit was found in the infotainment system’s Bluetooth implementation, and they used this to gain access to the rest of the system. By jamming the 2.4 GHz spectrum, the attacker can nudge the driver to open the Bluetooth connection menu on the vehicle to see why their phone isn’t connecting. If this menu is open, pairing can be completed without further user interaction.

Once the attacker gains access, they can control many vehicle functions, such as steering, braking, windshield wipers, and mirrors. It also allows remote monitoring of the vehicle through GPS and recording audio in the cabin. The vulnerabilities were all disclosed to Nissan before public release, so be sure to keep your infotainment system up-to-date!

If this feels familiar, we featured a similar hack on Tesla infotainment systems. If you’d like to hack your Leaf for the better, we’ve also covered how to fix some of the vehicle’s charging flaws, but we can’t help you with the loss of app support for early models.

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New Frontiers For Nissan Leaf Motor And Battery

January 14, 2025 by Bryan Cockfield 9 Comments

Nissan started off with a massive lead in the electric vehicle industry — their Leaf was the first mass-market EV available and the highest-selling EV until 2020. But the company has begun to lag behind other automotive manufacturers and their more diverse, modern offerings. As an example, the Leaf still doesn’t have active cooling for its battery packs. On the plus side, though, these cars are pretty easy to work on and parts for them are widely available. This includes the battery pack and motor, which can be dropped in to other non-EV Nissan products like this Nissan Frontier.

For conversions using the Leaf battery pack and motor, [Paul] points out that it’s important to find the motor with the inverter and power distribution unit all integrated together, rather than sourcing them all separately since they don’t always mix-and-match well. There are several third-party parts available for getting these motors running in other applications, including a coupler to mate the motor to a transmission. However, this still needs some custom fabrication to properly attach to the Frontier’s drivetrain. With a new controller as well, the Frontier engine can be pulled, the Leaf engine dropped in, and the battery set into the bed and connected.

A followup video shows [Paul] driving his new EV down a neighborhood street, but it looks like there are still a few things to polish up before it’s ready to hit the open highway including a more robust housing for the battery. But, if donor vehicles can be found like a truck body and Leaf drivetrain components, this type of modification can be done for a surprisingly small cost. These EV batteries can also be put to work as home power banks as well.

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Nissan 300zx Dash Given A New Language

June 8, 2023 by Matthew Carlson 6 Comments

You don’t have to be a car enthusiast to recognize that the 1984 Nissan 300x dash is a work of art. The graceful swoops and multisegment VFDs evoke an aesthetic that reminds us of a particular era. Rather than replace his dash with something drab and modern, [Evan] modified his dash to accept input from newer devices. Many of the sensors that feed directly into the dash are becoming harder to find as the years wear on, and rather than spoof every old device, [Evan] looked at each gauge.

Temperature and oil pressure are variable resistance sensors, and by removing half the voltage divider, it becomes a variable voltage sensor, as modern temperature sensors can output a voltage from 0 to 5. The tachometer required tracing the signal through the PCB as it expects a pulse every time a cylinder fires. By simulating cylinder pulses with a function generator, [Evan] found the filtering circuit and the microcontroller pin monitoring it. An optoisolator to protect the delicate MCU makes it easy to pipe the signal directly in.

Of course, not everything needed to be modified. A vacuum sensor provides a signal to the dash to indicate how much power the engine produces, which is pretty easy to spoof with a teensy connected to the CAN bus. All these mods are easily reversible and allow [Evan] to keep rocking the iconic dash with a more modern engine.

It’s an incredible hack that offers a view into how to trace, understand, and hack old electronics. Of course, if you’re keeping old built-in car bits, why not keep the carphone but connect it to your smartphone?

The State Of Play In Solid State Batteries

April 27, 2022 by Lewin Day 141 Comments

Electric vehicles are slowly but surely snatching market share from their combustion-engined forbearers. However, range and charging speed remain major sticking points for customers, and are a prime selling point for any modern EV. Battery technology is front and center when it comes to improving these numbers.

Solid-state batteries could mark a step-change in performance in these areas, and the race to get them to market is starting to heat up. Let’s take a look at the current state of play.

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New Cars Will Nickel-and-Dime You – It’s Automotive As A Service

December 30, 2021 by Lewin Day 230 Comments

Every few years, someone pushing a startup to investors comes up with an acronym or buzzword which rapidly becomes the new hotness in those circles. One of the most pernicious is “as a Service,” which takes regular things and finds a way to charge you a regular fee to use them.

Automotive companies just absolutely loved the sound of this, and the industry is rapidly moving to implement subscription services across the board. Even if there’s hardware in your car for a given feature, you might find you now need to pay a monthly fee to use it. Let’s explore how this came about, and talk about which cars are affected. You might be surprised to find yours already on the list.
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Nissan Leaf Zooms By with 110KW power after Inverter swap and hack

Open Source Hot Rod Mod Gives More Power To EV Owners

September 20, 2021 by Ryan Flowers 42 Comments

Meet [Daniel Öster]. [Daniel] is a self-professed petrolhead. In other words, he’s a hot rodder who can’t leave well enough alone. Just because he’s driving a 2012 Nissan Leaf doesn’t mean he isn’t looking for a bit more kick. Having already upgraded the battery, [Daniel] turned his attention to upgrading the 80KW inverter. Not only was [Daniel] successful, but the work has been documented and the Open Source code made available on GitHub. Part of [Daniel]’s mission is to open up otherwise closed ecosystems and make EV hacking and repair approachable by mere mortals.

To get an extra 50hp, [Daniel] could have just swapped in the 110KW drivetrain from a 2018 or newer Leaf, but a less expensive route of swapping in only the 110KW inverter was chosen. By changing out just the inverter, the modification becomes more affordable for others to do. [Daniel] expertly documents how the new 110KW inverter has to be matched to the existing motor by setting a resolver correction value in the inverter.

Swapping Connectors for the new Inverter — Not for the faint of heart, the inverter swap requires changing connectors to a later style.

Cutting into the wiring harness of a vehicle that one is still making payments on is an exercise reserved for only the most dedicated modders, but a change in connectors between 2012 and 2018 made it necessary. The only tools needed were wire cutters, a soldering iron, heat shrink, and perhaps some liquid courage.

Although the hack was successful, no performance gains were had initially, because the CAN bus signal going to the inverter never told it to provide more than the original 80KW. A CAN bus Man In The Middle attack was done by adding a CAN bridge device that listens to traffic on the CAN bus and bends it to [Daniel]’s will. By multiplying the KW signal by 1.3, the 80KW signal becomes 110KW, and full Ludicrous Speed is achieved! Excellent gains in 0-100kph times are seen, but [Daniel] isn’t done. His next hack will be to put in a 160KW inverter for even more go-pedal madness.

Be sure to watch the introduction video below the break. You might also be interested in Nissan Leaf hacks we’ve featured previously such as retrofitting a fast charging port, salvaging batteries from wrecks, and partly resolving serious charging flaws.

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