mtngoat

With no engine, under a grand with the top end met only if it's straight and clean as hell. As others noted, you can't even drive it and ignore a funky engine while assessing the condition of the rest of the drive train.

Oops, posted on the other thread by accident. We're in, will be driving the 2000.

Hey folks. I've got a line on a 84 4x4 pickup and I'm wondering if I should take advantage of it. The deathmobile needs a 5 speed, and i prefer the truck ratios. If parts are still available I could redo the transmission. It appears to have the z24 block (I'm not up on non L series engines), and it has all the 4x4 drivetrain still in place. I've been eyeballing this thing in the back of a truck repair yard next to an offramp in The Dalles every time I use that ramp. It's been sitting there for years, no wheels, sitting on the ground on the brake drums/disks. Yesterday I had some spare time and decided to go take a look. I asked the yard owner what was up with it, he said he was planning on sending it to the crusher. The glass is intact, and the interior is surprisingly un nasty despite it's storage conditions. In fact, the seats are danged near perfect. When I went in I was considering asking if I could simply buy the transmixer. However, if he's going to scrap it I'm thinking I may just offer him a price related to it's scrap value, less some for him not having to deal with it and simply having it vanish. Then I could mine it for parts at my leisure. Heck, my l20b is kinda tired anyway...maybe a swap? I do know about the differing tilt of the block and those issues....but an entire 84 for a scrap price is kind of enticing, and I do have room for it. Thoughts? I've included the first part of the VIN, I'll have to do some decoding work to determine the year which I am uncertain of.

Been playing around with Grok. I've always wanted to do a new episode of Outer Limits, and now...I can! No sets, actors, hardware to pay for. Hollywood is in big trouble I think, when anyone can play the game. I'm sure fantastic creators will rise and blow them out of the water. In the meantime, I've been goofing around as I noted. I'm still learning how this all works, my controls over characters, scenes, and object permanence through continued iterations remain. But...way cool! To me, anyway. The goal is a black and white, period representative piece. I couldn't find a public domain BW version of the intro, but I can fix that later. I'm learning how to clone voices, I want Vic Perrin (the Control Voice) to read my intro and exit paragraphs. This is the start of a long process I expect to take a while, but I'm having a blast. Check out my initial experiment.

lot of 320 parts here? https://portland.craigslist.org/clk/pts/d/vancouver-datsun-320-parts-for-sale/7917813897.html

good point on fan vs shroud! keep em coming

Well, my better half took her E350 in for tie rods, and it turns out we have a broken motor mount, which has resulted in the pan rubbing on the crossmember. Yay! They want $4k to fix it, 12 hours labor plus parts. I looked through the quote and it seems that much of the cost is removing the intake manifold so they can use some bespoke ford tool to raise and hold the engine, from the topside. the intake manifold blocks how the tool sits above the engine, so it has to come out. This means the work can be done from the bottom anyway, which means no need to screw around with stuff on top of it. I'm thinking of doing itmyself and saving her a metric shit ton of $$ better spent on camping. Or anything else, for that matter. "What one man can do, another man can do" - Anthony Hopkins facing the ginormous grizzly in the Alaskan outback...with a pointed stick. (The Edge). So I'm thinking I pull the interior engine cover, have a look at the clearances. One need only raise the engine an inch or two to get clearance at the mounts for replacement, I think. Then I jack this monster up, get it securely on my oversized RV jackstands (garage sale buy, for precisely this kind of thing when she bought Moby). Then I grab a floor jack, and maybe remove the castors so it will stay put when I use it. Then I get a block of 4x4 or whatever, and gently jack up the engine from the bottom by pushing on the crank pulley. I've done this a zillion times for jobs on Datsuns, should work here, right? One interweb guy suggested a couple shims of 2x4 in a couple place between block and frame to keep it located safely. Then, I think i can get the rest done. they recommended a pan replacement due to the possibilities of leaks or crushes (pan gasket too) from the crossmember contact. As before, there must be a way to do this from below because that's how they have to do it. I'm thinking her cost would be pan (maybe or probably), gasket, and should definitely replace both engine mounts. So, assuming I can get the engine raised and safed in position, and get the pan off...is there any value in taking a look at rod bearings while I've got the pan off? 250k miles on this triton 5.4L. I'm not sure what would happen after a look, but at least I'd know if it was utterly toasted. Risks? The rod bolts are stretch bolts, right? so I'd need to replace them? thanks guys....

They won't. Just fun stuff.

I've had a unisyn.. for decades of SUs. Just wondering if tuning on the stand would be simpler with direct readings from the ports. Full disclosure...I already caved and spent another 14$ on a second vacuum gauge. Even if it doesn't provide any additional info, at least they'll look cool.

Cool stuff! Good post. The more I thought about a pseudo dyno measuring RPM acceleration, I realized I'd have to estimate all the mass throughout the system...crank pulley, crank, flywheel, etc. That could get ugly fast! So i'll continue to ponder, but it's not on the schedule. Last weekend we got a lot done. We got the exhaust installed with respect to the pipes, haven't finished a bracket yet. We figured out where to place the battery, and I actually found some fat copper cable stock I knew I had somewhere (shop cleanout of packrattage paid off!) I even had four battery clamps, new! Red and black 2 gauge wire, it's pretty huge. (It was for a man lift battery at work) The cables even had ring terminals on one end already...the right size for the starter terminal! We roughed out how to use the existing engine bay harness for it's alt/regulator connections, and how to tap into the harness to get to the hot wire coming to the instrument cluster and ignition switch. Then we connectorized a bunch of wires to start plugging systems together. We now have the instrument panel hot, the run switch installed, the start switch installed, the voltage meter connected, and status lights. It's pretty cool to create something and get progress! You flip the master switch (with red fast kill cover), the green indicator turns on indicating system power and the voltmeter comes to life. Push the starter switch, and the yellow indicator comes on indicating start position. The wire to the starter is done, but of course will never be connected until the Big Day. We did test voltage at the solenoid end, it will initiate the starter just fine. We also tested the starter on the bench, it works. What does not work is the stock 4 instrument cluster ammeter. When wired in, we had nothing but failure on the panel. We pulled the wires, and did a check from terminal to terminal. Open circuit, when an ammeter should return zero or very low ohms. Nope. Infinite resistance...no connection. Damn. Ordered a ten buck ammeter. Connected both cables to one post to short them together and bypass the ammeter for now. We had another crazy idea after spotting capped vacuum ports on each intake runner pair. Would it be useful to have *two* vacuum gauges, one after each carb? Helpful for tuning? I dunno. I suspect the balance tube between the intake runners might keep the different paths from reading very differently unless the carbs are wildly out of sync, which is easy enough to determine anyway. However, for fine tuning the flow balance it would sure be nice if this wasn't the case. On the fence there, might be an interesting experiment, and who doesn't love more gauges on a test panel? We also implemented a simple hinge on the instrument panel so you can tilt it up from the designed 45 degree viewing angle to 90 degrees in order to access the wires behind the panel with ease. A big improvement. I decided to order an electric fuel pump so we could set up the float bowls without running the engine. I started messing with them years ago, then dropped the project half way. One float bowl has the brass float, another has a plastic float from some retrofit kit, it will take some messing around to get them back in shape. I don't want to have to try to run the engine to do this fussy work. Pump spec is 3-6 psi, which I think is about right, and I have a mechanical regulator in the parts shelf if I need one.

Did some reading. The mass of the existing flywheel should work, and a hall sensor sensor somewhere. Maybe on the crank pulley? This is all just spitballing, may be stupid!

We're a ways out on a run so we have time to sort that stuff out. Basic to-do list: - finish wiring harness - finish control panel gauges and switches - add more cross braces to stand - finalize exhaust and brackets - fuel plumbing and fuel tank (7 gallon marine tank with fuel pickup, for small outboard motors) - install battery position - radiator -> pressure tank hose - inspect upper tensioner - oil change and filter - transmixer oil change - fix choke cable (a kink in one of the two cables, in the box shaped upper housing means cable will not 'push' into sleeve when pushing knob in, it just bends and will not push into the sleeve) - come up with throttle cable system. Maybe the choke cable setups for a lawn tractor will work. - pull pan and retorque the bottom end? Includes slathering oil on journals while they're open. - coolant fill of course. Then I had some odd ideas about a possible ghetto dyno setup, using lateral thinking. Normally a dyno presents a mechanically resistive load for the engine to turn. This involves all kinds of large, heavy, fancy load mechanisms from mechanical to electric (turn a big generator which feeds a huge resistive load). I thought hmm, maybe one could get partway there via a simpler mechanism. I wonder if a flywheel style disk could be fitted onto a splined sleeve for the trans output shaft. Then you mark this flywheel, or print up some segments/teeth which go around the rim and act as an encoder of sorts. Then you'd use an RPM meter like the one I use for model aircraft propellors to measure RPMs. At this point, the idea is to measure the rate of change when you hit the throttle. You know the mass of the flywheel and it's dimensions, you should be able to figure out the moment of inertia, and thus calculate the power necessary to accelerate the flywheel at the rate measured. This would not of course measure static power at a given output, for that you need the standard dyno system. But you might be able to come up with some useful numbers during acceleration. Just an idea. How crazy is it? I guess I'd then need to add a clutch, since just leaving it in a gear during start would probably present all kinds of problems not present if you do the same thing with the output trans shaft free of added rotational mass

Good resources, thanks! I'll read up.

Race miles or road miles? That sounds odd compared to my other Nissan engines. I'm not seeing the wear. Regardless, we're going to pull the tensioner on top and evaluate it and get a better look at the big guide. A look in the parts cabinet shows I had some foresight when I worked at Nissan while going to school in the early 90's and had access to cost plus 10 pricing. Upper guide, upper and lower chains, NIB! When we do get it running and get to a compression test I'll be very interested in the numbers. I seem to recall 185 or better and even across the cylinders as acceptable results for a used engine, I wonder what peak numbers would be on a fresh one. Also, was doing more reading and one guy said to recheck the torques in everything on the bottom end, crank and connecting bolts. Not sure about this...do I get good torques breaking them loose to retighten them?