1970 Datsun Roadster, Blown V6, Widebody

A small update. I have been crazy busy at work, so little time for the Datsun.

I figured out why the 8.8 I got was never used I think. The guy had it narrowed to 47in wms, 2 inches narrower than a stock roadster axle, I think to use a zero offset wheel? Anyway, the explorer brake caliper hung far enough inboard, that the slide bolt hit the corner of the frame rail on compression. I was going to probably wait and get wilwood fixed caliper kit, but am trying to get this thing to driving without spending another grand on brakes.

So, I did what any self-respecting guy with a welder would do, and made room for the caliper.

Doh. That not good.

better?

I also cut the rest of the boxed inner fender out and replaced with some tubing I had around. Doubled the sheetmetal with 18g where it hits the firewall and welded along the inner fender. Welded up a bunch of holed and cuts in the footwells, and finished welding most of the pedal/master cyl support. Still need to build a lower steering column support and a cover for the pedal area of cowl.

Just a little more and I can put the body back on for the duration.

This is the other reason I haven't been working on the Datsun as much.

Looks like you are getting pretty close to me!

This last weekend I got a little done.  Remounted the driver's seat that wouldn't slide back far enough. 

Made a little bump out in the trans tunnel to give the offset shifter a little room.

Made a mounting point for the steering shaft where it goes thru the firewall and finished closing up the rest of the holes. 

And, put the body back on. Again. With any luck, it doesn't come off again until at least I've driven it a season. Also,  I brushed on some satin black rust-stop paint from the hardware store on some of it.

Updates! Yay!

I've been getting some work done the last few weeks now that the holidays are past.

Finished all the wiring except for the starter cable and taillights. Got the dash and console back in car. Ecu and PMU secured. Got all my changes done in the pmu, so things appear to do what they are supposed to. mostly.

Next I got to work in the engine compartment.

Finally got an air cleaner for the TPI throttle and found I didn't have enough room for it. I carved a 3/4 spacer out of aluminum on the old mill.

Mounted IAC on the firewall on a mercruiser IAC block and ran a hose to the intake.

Bolted on the Blower for hopefully the last time, since I got all the gaskets for it. Got rad hoses, mostly from a 2k camaro and cut and spliced.

Figured out where the Radiator needed to be and got it mounted. I moved it back near stock again, but leaned back just a little. Yes, that's old bed frame angle iron.

Next I blocked off both sides of the radiator with some mudflap I bought 20 years ago. I was on a roll so I started building radiator duct from the airdam to the bottom of radiator. Opened up airdam for max airflow. This duct goes thru where the front fame crossmember used to be.

And that is where I'm at now. If I can get another of these weekends or two, I should be starting this up by beginning of Feb.

Looking nasty.  Love the rad duct arrangement!

Started it up today! 

After just a couple attempts, it fired up and idled. It died after a few seconds, and was showing a knock sensor fault after trying again, but to light off this quick on basic setup was surprising. 

It idled about 700 rpm and sounds so mean. 

Video below

First startup

Akbarratt said:

It has a wild Hot Wheels look to it.   

So that whine heard in the video was actually a wicked vacuum leak under the blower. For whatever reason, the metal gasket wasn't sealing.

I also found a little fuel leak and had to pull it off to sort that out. Rtv on every gasket now.  I've got it back together and started again, whistle is gone, but now it won't idle below about 1700 rpm, even if I block the throttle body and the iac.

I clearly have a vacuum leak somewhere. Ordered a smoke testing machine, something I've meant to get anyway. 

Ms3 is not happy with something in knock sensors. It wouldn't stay running until I turned of knock control. One of them looks like it might have got broken. 

The good news is it ran for a good ten minutes or so, got up to temperature and cooling system seems good. No oil or coolant leaks. Oh, and the belt stayed on! I was worried about that. 

Next is to get it to idle and start tuning a little, fill and bleed brakes and clutch, and see if we can move around a bit. It also needs a new tensioner. 

Bummer said:

Thanks for replying and more pics. I live in Bozeman and get out your direction on occasion. Are phone numbers allowed here so we could contact each other? I have two roadsters - one I'm putting a SR20DE 5 speed in and the other one I'd like to put my 3800 automatic in. Making battery tray behind passenger seat with 4 locking compartments. 

Looks like you could do a build thread on your Roadster. :0)

Found my throttle body flange is not real flat. Probably warped from welding. I'll mill it flat next time I have it all apart. For now a little gasket sealer did the trick. 

Smoke machine revealed that and a couple little leaks in the fabricated mid plate section, and a couple injector boss orings not sealing perfectly. I'll go back in to fix those eventually. 

For simplicity sake i changed it to batch fire and a single wideband, and had a lot better time getting a little tuning done. I did get it idling stable about 850rpm and where it'll free rev and not stall. Don't have the Iac on yet. Temp holds steady at 170 or so with the cooling fan on.

I need to work on belt alignment a little. It looks like my alternator is out a little too far. I'll have to mill the bracket down a little more. 

Bled the clutch out and it appears to work. The extended bleeder hose made that the easiest hydraulic clutch bleed I've ever done.

Great work, of COURSE ! Those headlights are wicked, could I ask what brand are they?

In reply to MuSTANK :

They were Opar? off amazon, for a jeep jk. I got them years ago for a jeep and never used them.

Today it came off the jackstands for maybe the last time before a drive. 

Today I took care of a list of little things. Fill the rear axle and trans, secure the battery cable and brake lines under the car, replace the coat hanger wire with actual exhaust hangers. Bolted on the shifter and tidied up wiring all around the car. Put a bunch of nutzerts in my radiator ducting panels to make easier assembly.

Started the car and made noises with it, tested the clutch, which works! It moved under its own power after only 3 1/2 years.

Tomorrow is bleeding brakes and trying out the driveway and some outside pictures.

Last weekend I was working on hanging the fenders better. Having it held together with Tec screws didn't seem very permanent. I forgot pictures of the reinforcement underneath, but it's not finished so I'll post those later.

I got a Nutzert tool. Why haven't I had one before? I'm using this thing everywhere! Between that and some countersunk aluminum washers, these fenders are never coming off.

Today was frustrating.

Bled brakes. Got decent pedal but it was dropping, found a drip at RR corner at banjo fitting. Pulled it off and cleaned up, reinstalled, still drips. grabbed a couple new washers, still drips. Removed caliper to inspect and find someone has gone ham on the sealing surface of the caliper. Remans, bought years ago when this project started. I looked at the other one and found it a little rough too. So I guess a new pair of calipers next weekend.

Going thru the car making sure everything is working/connected. Found Speedo needle and lcd backlight not working and left turn/brake light not working.

Pulled my dash again to investigate why the speedometer needle backlight doesn't work and found if I wiggle the wire into the guage it will flicker. Sent an email to Speedhut about getting that fixed. Depending on turnaround time, I may just wait until time to park the car next fall to send it.

Traced my no left rear turn all the way to my turnswitch.com module. Had no output on the left rear pin. Seeing as I bought it in 2017 for another project, and the three year warranty was up, I took it apart to see why. Found a relay pin on the circuit board had not been soldered. Fixed.

Pulled my Alternator bracket off and milled off another .15 or so. Shimmed tensioner with a couple washers and now belt alignment looks happy.

And lastly, I've now run it long enough to start turning the headers colors.

Sent my speedo back to speedhut to fix the backlighting. Should turnaround fairly quick. 

Traded my f'd up calipers in to the orielly guys and got the brakes bled finally. 

Got the car back on the ground and made sure it started and stopped, then took it for a long drive. Down the driveway and back a few times. 

I gave it a couple hits back up the drive. Spun the tires so easy I wasn't sure it was. 

Got a short Youtube video up. She sounds amazing to me. To the neighbors? Not sure...

3800 Datsun Lives!

So got home last night and squirted some smoke grey krylon on the doors and vent cowl/windshield area so I could put the glass in today. Went ok.

After that today, went thru my checklist. Torque wheels and spacers, put a couple cotter pins in. 

Put on my plates! 

And then, we went for a drive! Nice easy drive around the neighborhood. 

https://youtu.be/AoJCvnRotZc?si=SspalO-WIkppa1EU

Staying cool so far. Auto tune started working about halfway into the drive once it got to 160.

Discovered speedometer not working. (Got it back from speedhut on Thursday.  Broken wire inside) Probably a Vss or setup issue.

First drive went great other than that. 

Have a couple short drives in now. A total of about 50 miles on it. 

Chasing a noisy vss signal that keeps my speedo up around 10mph after I stop.  It's keeping my IAC from idling down,  so I've unplugged that. Been messing with idle tuning enough now that I'm not sure I need the Iac valve anyway. Might delete it.

Had to wire a pull up resistor to the speedhut input to make it work right. 

Learning the Tunerstudio software, and the whole tuning thing is a huge learning curve for me. So I'm going conservative and getting the tune figured out. Still haven't gone wide open throttle yet, but last drive was up to about 80% and around 5psi boost. 

I shortened a video to mostly the noisy bits. Sounds awesome and pulls hard.

https://youtu.be/qGO4JggfRXE?si=F_dykEgpleS1KpVv

Gutted the old bent hood for just enough to attach my fiberglass hood to it. Cut a giant hole for the eaton and got it on the car. 

outstanding!  congrats on successful first drives!

Trying to tie up my loose ends. Put her back up on stands. Got the tires out to be balanced, and now I gotta get the rest of the back end right. 

Did a nut and bolt of the back half of the car. Found both of my upper torque arm bolts loose! Guess I forgot to torque tight. Found one nut laying on the frame next to it.

Finally figured out why my timing light is wacked trying to static timing check. Wasted spark doubles what it shows on a dialback light, like a two stroke. I had to adjust my timing offset by 5 degrees. Which means I just took away 5 degrees of timing across the board. More tuning.

I made up for that by installing a smaller pulley. Since I only saw 5psi last time, I took the conservative 4.2in pulley off and installed a 3.6 I had on the shelf. 

Then I finally used my JMR bender I bought years ago, and bent a roll bar hoop. It has no style, but meets the requirements for solo. I'll practice and build a better looking one later. Probably. 

Not done yet.