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https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/391441413251374 Perhaps in a few months somebody can talk reason to them.

Most of the drivetrain parts are the same between the B210 and the later B310/210, so those cars are a good source of parts for suspension and drivetrain in terms of a like-for-like swap. Of course all the sheetmetal is different, so it's no help for body or interior parts apart from things like perhaps seatbelts and strrering wheel.

https://theautowire.com/articles/report-california-looking-to-restrict-travel-for-classic-cars/ I'd be game for a personal emissions limit. That way I can keep driving my 40MPG Datsun and the 1% cut back on their commuting by private jet.

Seeing this doesn't make you feel great about using an old Datsun as a daily.

Your calipers are cast iron blocks with steel cups as pistons and a couple rubber parts to hold the fluids. They really just don't go bad in most cases, and if they do it's mostly failed rubber and perhaps a rusted piston, so you could buy a second right-side caliper and steal the piston and seals to rebuild your existing left. Of course, you can likely find a rebuild kit with those parts and it would be cheaper than buying a whole caliper.

I can't speak to installing an electronic dizzy on the 1200, but I know all the later A-series motors use the same one. You do want to use the newer coil as well to get the additional spark energy. Expect better idle, easier starts, and just generally better running with an electronic setup. The biggest improvement was seen on my '67 Jeep where a shift from the mechanical setup made a huge difference in the whole character of the vehicle, but other swaps have all made a difference, just some more pronounced than others. A swap to a smaller AGM or better still lithium battery will shave 20-30 Lbs off your car and do it up high and forward. It's enough to feel in a 1200 particularly, brakes, steering, and power all improve. Just saying....

If you are still getting too high a fuel level, I'd be worried that you needle and seat could be leaking. Degraded viton, a small sliver of teflon tape or other foreign object could both cause leakage. If not a leak there, are you *sure* there's not a leak in your float (shake it and see if it sloshes). Excessive fuel-pressure can also cause this, but it takes an electric fuel pump to manage that.

Well, plain steel wouldn't last *as* long, but would still be fine for years. After all, headers are usually just mild steel that's thinner than that plate would be. Obviously having the right part would be preferable.

If you are going to motor-swap, do the gearbox at that time. I think the starter is on the wrong side to even try to mate a CA box to an A motor. While you have a A-series, FS5W60 is the 5-speed for the 210. They are valuable partly because they can be fitted to MG MIDGET AH SPRITE cars, so expect to spend a grand for one, but otherwise they are a really good little gearbox. You'll need a master clutch cylinder, clutch slave cylinder, clutch pedal assembly, flywheel for a A-series motor, and motor adapter plate, along with the hardline and hose for the clutch. I think you need the transmission rear mount as well, but it's been a while. If you can find a donor car, it's not a bad swap at all, but if you have to do it part by part, it's annoying. I've done it in a 1980 210 and also a 1971 1200. The 1200 is vastly harder because the body is actually different.

One could make a usable replacement with just a flat plate of steel or stainless .062"-.125" thick and it would work. That said, I could be convinced to sell mine since I've gone to a header and separate intake manifold.

In engineering, the standard for thread engagement is a minimum of 4.5 threads worth of engagement will allow the rated strength of the fastener. This assumes both the make and female threads are of similar material. If you have a hard steel bolt in an aluminum head, you will obviously need more, or in the context of the OP comment, using aluminum lug nuts would need more threads than steel.

There is a corrugated metal plate separating the intake and exhaust gasses, so they don't quite share. The hope is the exhaust warms the intake and improves atomization and vaporization of the fuel/air mix, it also lowers the volumetric efficiency of the engine somewhat, so you get better mileage and worse power. If you don't have that plate, then yes, you are missing a part.

I wound up with a set of pistons made by ITM. Never heard of them, but they were cheap, available, and came with rings which claimed to be made in Japan. The wrist-pins all measured within .1G of each other, the rings did as well, but the pistons, well ouch. 2.6g from the heaviest to the lightest. That's about 1% of the weight of the piston and represents quite a bit of aluminum to remove on such a small piston. Still, after most of two hours now the pistons are also within .1g of each other. I'll weigh them with rings and pins to make sure I don't stack any errors on assembly. Next up, con rods. Factory rods and STD bearings. I have to build a little fixture so I can balance the big and small ends separately. All my aftermarket valves and guides arrived and they do check out in terms of meeting factory spec for diameter and clearance, which is more than I can say for the used factory parts I had, but even at that they are on the loose side of what the manual calls for. The guides might shrink very slightly once pressed into the head I suppose. I also spent many hours cleaning up the block preparatory to boring, honing, and coating. Hours with a die-grinder and detail disk sander removing casting roughness and flash, rounding holes, trimming down some lumpy bits. It's a silly and time-consuming way to shave a few ounces of weight, but sometimes you just have to embrace it I guess.

Then you have an exhaust leak under the hood. Do they test every eventuality, of course not, just the common ones.

They test it because it's so easy: disconnect the vacuum line going to the EGR valve, plug the engine side, hook a hand-pump to the EGR valve and while idling the vehicle apply vacuum to the EGR valve. If the vehicle dies then the EGR valve is working. AT least that was the testing protocol in California. There are only a couple counties in AZ that do smog checks of any kind, this leads to a lot of folks having vacation homes elsewhere in the state.

Datsun tire and wheel combos that are factory-ish in profile are remarkably easy to change. That said, the factory steel wheels are also *very* easy to bend. I bent a couple using non-tire-machine removal techniques. You can get a wheel and tire combo that looks good and is in balance, but you've bent the wheel and the thing wobbles badly. A tiny compressor will, or won't work based on the width of the tire vs. wheel. You can fall back on the ratchet-strap or propane trick if you have to, but not storing tires horizontally and cutting them loose right away after shipment and letting them sit a couple days will help them seat more easily. You can also buy a bead-seating doughnut to help out. I use euro-paste rather than soap and water for my tire stuff, seems to work fine. Hair conditioner works pretty OK to be honest. Your air can be pretty wet with no issues whatsoever. I knew a guy who had so much water in his air that in winter it would freeze and the tires would be out of balance until they warmed-up from driving. Obviously that's extreme, but the point is the rubber in the tire doesn't care and if your wheel has intact paint then you won't have corrosion issues no matter how wet it is and most shops for most of the time we have been using pneumatic tires haven't had particularly dry air. If you wanted to be fancy, after mounting and on a nice hot day deflate and the inflate with bottled nitrogen, argon, or whatever from your bottled gas supplies. All that said, I scored an older tire machine off Craigslist for not much more then a HF machine and sometimes I've seen them at or nearly free, so snoop around. As wheels and tires keep getting more expensive and lower profile while labour, especially skilled labour gets more expensive, machines that work just fine for the likes of us are getting scrapped out in favor of fancy roller-arm automated ones. A bubble-balancer is better than nothing, but a dynamic spin-balancer does a lot better job and also helps you see how true things are running.

Many years back the guys were looking at stickers and routing, but now most smog guys came up after the age of carbs so really don't know what they are looking at. As long as it makes the numbers and looks pretty stock you usually get a pass. Expect them to check the EGR valve to make sure that works. In fact, on my 210 wagon, I swapped an air-injection motor out for an air-induction motor as part of a complete drive-train swap and didn't get called on it... yeah, no smog pump, no problem. I did put a nice new cat under it so it was burning really clean, which can't hurt.

I think I floated a valve on my Daimler Ferret at under 4K enough to drop a pushrod, but to be fair it had been sitting for years/decades and the valves might have been a bit sticky still. Luckily the rod itself was unbent, just the cup area, so while I look for a replacement I just chucked that one in a collet and pounded it straight. Now trying to keep under 3300 for the next hundred miles or so to let things get settled. Back in Datsun news, I pulled another 1500 out of another Datsun I have sitting and so far the bottom end looks like it might be good. If not, hoping that I might get a break on doing both at the same time. 🙂

Red line on my diesels and even one of my gas motors happens under 3800, so that's the band I'm most interested in. It's very hard for me to wrap my head around anything good happening north of 7K! I did reach out to Rebello Racing. After some searching, (no, that's too big like for an L... what's that tiny one in the corner under that stuff?) they do still have a torque-plate for an A-series. They are willing to do it as a side-job with bore+hone being $350-375. A little rough since a local shop said $200, but the local shop doesn't have a torque-plate, so I guess getting straighter bores while supporting Datto racers is worth a premium.

It's helpful, but not necessary to blast before PC. Old school hot-tanking would have been a good prep, but we can't do that in CA anymore. I'm still debating blasting with aggressive media and cleaning really thoroughly vs. blasing with crushed walnut hulls (or even crushed CO2) so I don't have to fear for a stray bit of errant grit getting into the oil galleries. In retrospect, it might have been good to blast the motor before disassembly, but here we are.

I'm pretty over enamel for it's smell, the mess it makes in the shop, and it's relative softness (both mechanical and chemical). Powdercoat has held up really well on engine applications for me so was going to do this little motor in that manner. Thing about powdercoat colors is while you can blend different ones to tint, they don't typically have the same pallet and naming convention as automotive paints, hence the question.

There were pretty much just two blues used for a huge range of models and years. In my case, I'm doing a 1500 A-series engine.

Just like that, I'm planning to powder-coat the block and several other parts small and large and thought it would be nice if I could come up with something like the original color.

Having a hard time with valve guide stuff. In an effort to not buy junk I'm trying to at least source stuff made in USA or Japan and in an effort to not go broke I'm working from online sites like a popular online auction site. 😕 I see on the wiki that there are different Nissan part #s for intake and exhaust, but they sure do seem *very* similar. I found some sealed power VG-914 which claim to be the same as TRW G1178 and I have reason to believe these are intake guides. The Perfect Circle 217-3996 I suspect are exhaust. Can anyone confirm those part #s or suggest alternatives?

Good to know. I did order some of the Cerakote for the piston tops, combustion chambers, runners in the head, not that I have trouble with an A-series overheating, but it will be interesting to see how the process works. I did reach out to Rebello, they said they might still have a torque-plate for A-series but to call back Monday since they were closed Friday. Fingers crossed!