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Boy, that line at Autozone ain't no joke! ... But seriously. No, folks, you aren't dreaming, and this is not a test. It's time to begin again. Who are you? What's going on? Hello. My name is IronBlock. I have a Datsun. I've spent many years and many tens of thousands of dollars buying the wrong parts, getting scammed by losers and blowing up engines minutes before I wanted to drive somewhere. This thread is a twisted kind of therapy, mixed with a splash of performance art. I chronicle the history and the now, the logic and the outrage. The Datsun is one of Plato's perfect Forms - inexpressible save for the shallow mimicry it visits upon our physical world. In Thread 2.0, we'll journey into the deepest, darkest reaches of my psyche. In Thread 2.0, we will see a Datsun drive. Why is it "2.0"? Was there a "1.0"? Yes, you can view it here. Here's the tl;dr: In June of 2010, I took delivery of a totally buttfucked Datsun and some parts. It looked like this:  By 2012, I had spent a bunch of time and a bunch of money tarting it up, then moved to the Cayman Islands and let it sit:  In 2014, I had an awesome stroker motor with motorcycle carbs. It ran real nice, despite my best efforts  The oil filter spun off during its maiden voyage and lunched the bearings. Since then, my Datsun has been home to at least four other engines - a variable that's in constant flux as all other aspects of car-hood have slowly congealed around the chassis. Eventually, life got in the way and I stopped posting. I feel like that dog in Furturama. I waited for you. Oops. You're just going to leave us hanging for months on end and blow up more engines, never achieving your stated goal or giving me any sense of closure. If you're asking what the "subscribe" button looks like, I couldn't say. I'm not on this site a lot. What's different now? I have a great job at a company I really like. I have flexible hours. I live on the same ranch the Datsun lives on. I've decided that money is no object, and nothing short of my complete physical incapacitation, mental breakdown, or gruesome death will stop me from finishing this car the way I want it, as fast as humanly possible. I'm also building a shop.  The Story Continues As is thread tradition... To go forward, we must go back. Set your time machines for January of 2016. As you may remember, the last thing I posted in the old thread was a boneheaded expose on my desperate attempt to use my dad's junk U20 as a stopgap motor. It didn't work.   So it had to come back out.     Now I had an empty engine bay (again), and needed something to put in it. As we well know, I'm 0 for 1 on engines I've rebuilt, and like... 0 for 4 on "I'll just take this random piece of poo poo and install it, what could go wrong!" "So," I reasoned, "I just have to find an engine that's already running and then not gently caress it up." If only I knew some kind of sick, compulsive Datsun-collecting psychopath who'd never notice an engine missing from one of his many, many cars. Oh wait.  In Which IronBlock Robs Peter to Pay Paul Those with especially good memories may recall that I randomly bought another crappy '67 Roadster sometime around this time. It was no accident. While the interior was butchered and the car itself had a general atmosphere of "road hazard" about it, the original engine ran great.  For perhaps the first time, I reasoned accurately that most of my woes had come from changing/restoring/replacing every single part of the car at once. I therefore had zero ability to accurately identify what was screwing me in a given moment until, well, it had.   I was determined at this point to turn over a new leaf. There's only so much self-directed schadenfreude a person can withstand before they have to make changes. I'm not sure I'd recommend "ruining all your poo poo constantly" as the right way to mature and gain a better understanding of oneself, but... well... hope springs eternal.  Naturally, as my car was set up for a 5-speed, I decided to leave that alone, especially given my intent was to drive five berjillion miles to the Roadster show at Mt. Shasta, CA. Oh, did I mention that the impetus for this was a Roadster show? There's always a Roadster show. Why do all previous owners paint the engine Chevy orange?  And they wait until all the accessories are on, too.   Clutch and flywheel looked pretty good. I'm usually not the kind of crazy person that saves them, but this seemed like something I might need later.   Hastily, I re-accessorized the engine with my known good parts. Flywheel, distributor, new  NISSAN oil filter, starter.  Since I was set up for an electric fan, I decided to keep it, and not try to back-convert that either. Yes, definitely turning over a new leaf.   And in she went.    Loose Threads In early 2016, I was still in machine shop hell. The rebirth of my 2.0L stroker into a 2.3L super-stroker had vexed the otherwise competent (but very goddamn slow) machine shop I like to use. Keep an eye out for updates in that area. Let's just say that I've finally got something other than "soul-rending disappointment" in store.  NEXT TIME: IronBlock has installed yet another engine in the Datsun of Doom! Will it explode immediately, or will it wait a few miles? DON'T TOUCH THAT DIAL!
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Mar 15, 2017 07:43
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Maksimus54 posted:Earlier this week I was wondering where the hell this thread went. Good luck! Whats the upgrade plan for after this motor blows up? It only has to tide me over until the hour of the Super Stroker (which will be assembled with maximum care and triple-checking). Seat Safety Switch posted:A fixation on G-noses is a bit of a problem though. I like G-noses.  Project after this is likely going to be a DOHC S30 based around this guy's head: http://forums.hybridz.org/topic/119641-twin-cam-head-for-the-l6-from-derek-at-datsunworks/ Ups_rail posted:also I dont mean to pry but how much have you spent on this project? I don't actually know. It's a lot. Estimate that just about any "major" thing you want to do to a car costs ~$1000. Suspension kit, 5-speed transmission set, engine rebuild, etc. Consider then that there are 10-30 of those things on a car (not all of which are mandatory), and that things like labor cost money but don't always make it onto the spreadsheet. There's also the uncountable money that you blow $20-50 at a time buying hardware, shop towels, carb cleaner etc. I did try to make one, once. A spreadsheet. It was a few years ago, and I was easily able to climb over $20k. I'd estimate it's closer to $30k today, but slowing down as I run out of things to buy. The last big ticket items I could concievably spend money on are an OS Giken LSD ($1800), and maybe a transmission rebuild ($1500). To give you some context, here's what I bought today: pre:Name Price Qty Side Molding Clip Set $44.00 1 Wiper blades $29.00 1 Glove Box Kit $49.00 1 Water temperature sender w/ Metric nut $26.00 1 U20 Fuel Pump $148.00 1 Fuel Tank Sending Unit O-Ring $4.00 1 Gas cap rubber gasket $5.00 1 160˚ Thermostat $13.00 1 Freeze Plug Kit $25.00 2 Timing Set $209.00 1 Roller Rockers $520.00 1 5 Speed Gasket Kit $79.50 1 Fuse Box Cover $79.00 1 Door Stop Rubber $15.75 1 Red Doe Skin Vinyl $36.95 1 Oil Pressure Sending Unit $111.00 1 In other words, in terms of monthly outlay, it's broadly comparable to buying a 124 Spider with no money down and a 5 year loan (except that the Fiat would have a warranty (which it would need)). In other, other words, it shouldn't surprise you that my other hobby is retro gaming. 
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Mar 16, 2017 20:40
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Well, the other way to look at it is that anyone could go out and buy that Spider, and it would have poo poo like the blind spot beepy system that they might not want. When you restore a car, you have something that ONLY you could have built, and everything is (hopefully) tailored to your exact tastes. If you've replaced everything with new, it should hopefully be as reliable as it ever was. If that's cost-competetive with a low-end, mass-market sports car, I'd say that's actually a bargain.
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Mar 16, 2017 21:27
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I approve.
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Mar 17, 2017 18:57
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I always underestimate how long it's going to take me to write one of these posts. Yes, I realize the irony in that. Boy takes a long time to post, boy takes a long time to fix a Datsun. Har har. It's always a fragile balance, though, isn't it? Call it anecdotal all you want, but it's been my experience that in any field of endeavor, the person who gets cocksure and thinks that they either know everything (wrong) or they know 100% of what they don't know (also wrong) is going to end up completely blindsided by reality. I mean, how often are you screwed over by something you saw coming? Certainly not the majority of the time. And now, dear goon, I sense that you'd like me to stop stalling and tell you if the engine blew up. Here is a cat instead  Mr. Kitty likes to help. He likes to hide under cars you're about to start. He likes to sit on your head while you're lying on the ground. He does not blow up any Datsun engines, he is a good catte. Disaster Averted But seriously, folks. This is the Datsun Engine Destruction thread, and I'm here to deliver the carnage. Remember the junk U20 I spent a shitload of time prepping to run? I tore it down, just to see if its eccentricities extended past a light watersports fetish. Boy, did they ever.     At some point during this whole debacle, my dad bought his 67.5, so it seemed only right that I continue breaking down his U20 and get it to the machine shop.  While I was there, I checked in on an old friend...   Still waiting patiently for its turn in the sun. But, they told me they were waiting for the crank grinder... So I went to see him, just as he conveniently just so happened to finish offset grinding my crank right when I showed up and asked about it.  So I brought it back to the machine shop, and told 'em to get a move on.  On the Subject of Automotive Professionals Independent garages, insurance-driven autobody, and major brand dealerships. Those are the three types of professional automotive entities that are at all capable of scoping out work and finishing it in a timely manner. Anything else, and all bets are off. That shop doing your engine swap? They'll have your car for a year and won't finish anyways. Previous owner slam jam'd your wiring harness, but this guy on "The Forums" does wiring? You'll never see the car again. Somebody has a buddy who paints cars? Call the cops today, he's pushed it into the back corner and is gonna dodge your calls until the heat death of the universe. What I'm trying to say is that anybody who does custom work is accepting every job they've ever heard a whisper of, and they finish them in the order of whoever shows up and bugs them most often. Not "first in, first out". Get that silly notion out of your head. On a good day, with no traffic, I'm 45 minutes and bridge toll away from the shop that was working on my engine. I couldn't afford to drop in on them ad hoc, so it took a REALLY LONG TIME to get my engine finished. In the end, I carved out some time that should have been vacation, and used it exclusively to call, drive, and pester everybody who had any of my poo poo. In the end, it took about two weeks to get everything finished, but I really had to make them sick of seeing me. The only way to avoid this problem is to do all your own work, but that's a different kind of hell. The Loaner R16 So, did the engine blow up?  Nope. Well, not yet...  Naturally, it was incredibly lean. The stock exhaust in these cars is like a bendy straw, and my 2.25" pipe was much less restrictive. So, after some light SU tuning, the loaner engine ran great. But, not everything was perfect. As you could see in that video, my oil pressure gauge still didn't read. I figured "bad crimp on the sender lead" or "dirty sender" were the most likely culprit.   Sadly, neither one did the trick. Disgusted, I sorted through my box of spares until I found a 240Z sender. It's a completely different design, but the bullet connector was threaded, so...     Getting Road Ready There were a few things left to do to get the car road ready. For one thing, I needed horns. The Datsun Roadster is smaller than a first gen Miata, and sometimes defensive driving isn't enough. I found these cute little Densos on eBay for  .  Totally not original, but they fit in the stock location and make a lot more noise. With the oil gauge functionality "repaired", I checked the others. Tach and speedo worked. Ammeter and fuel gauge both worked properly.   But coolant temperature... Not so much. The sensor was dead, so I tried to remove it.   gently caress. But, well, since that was really the last thing... I got to thinking about how bad it would be, I mean, really... for me to drive the car on the road with no temp gauge. Oh boy. NEXT TIME: IronBlock tries to convince the California DMV that the Datsun last seen in 1994 is not stolen or broken, and that one license plate is fine.
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Mar 29, 2017 07:37
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There's a practicality aspect of it, too. I don't really plan on grinding my own cams, decking my own heads, or polishing my own cranks. It would take me longer, and would probably cost more (time plus money) overall. Now, fabbing my own exhaust... That seems like a good time.
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Mar 29, 2017 21:06
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Preoptopus posted:How is it every little thing you tinker with ends up crumbling in your hands?! Well, in my defense, this engine was rebuilt by some idiot an unknown number of years ago, and the temp sender they used was the most fantastically cheapass Chineseium I've ever seen. I hit it with penetrating oil, let it sit overnight, got a snug fit with a good socket, and used some light hammer action to try and shock it free. It groaned, it budged, and then turned into shrapnel. Sometimes there's nothing you can do. It's also the case with a TON of this Datsun stuff that the parts in question were terrible when new. They were bad designs, and the new reproductions are usually worse than NOS, but you can't find NOS anymore. The good news is that every Datsun model has a skeleton list of parts that don't break, and it tends to be that the engines, drivetrain, and brakes are what keep going. In other words, best of luck replacing the three thousand cracked vacuum lines in the ~ Auto ~ Temp Control in your 280ZX.  I still love the S130 though Ups_rail posted:The old 22RE's are great engines. They ARE great engines. There's a '86 4Runner Turbo sitting on my local CL, and I'm so sorely tempted to go grab it up. So many cars, so little time. Ups_rail posted:I just let him know that I would be seeing him next week. Sadly, that's what it takes. I budget all my future projects around this need, and pick the geographically closest shop capable of doing the work.
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Apr 3, 2017 23:19
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