jfbrink

Regarding engine choice, I have a Miata drivetrain in my Roadster, and I love the driving experience. But, that engine is too long for the 411 engine bay. I've always wanted a V6, and the K8 matches the Miata BP 1.8L power output pretty closely. I really don't want more power than I want. With the output of this engine and the weigh savings, this Bluebird will fly well enough for me. As for the exhaust, it's actually pretty clean shot down and back. Jesse.

The engine is a Mazda K8 1.8L V6; the transmission is a Miata 5-speed. The engine was super-cheap, imported from Japan, probably because no sensible person wants the "world's smallest" production V6 when they can get a 2.5L KL in the same form factor. The engine and trans together weigh less than the R16 the car came with. I started a new job the week after I got the engine, so I've only had time to do a mock-up of the engine-to-trans mounting plate so that I could bolt the two together to test fitment. Actually, I also managed to modify the stock intake manifold so that I can rotate it 180 and bolt it on (otherwise the throttle body points into the firewall). I'm trying to work on the EFI wiring diagram at night, but work-work keeps getting in the way. This, by the way, is my 411 EV. The electric drivetrain is still mounted in the rear and fully functional, which makes moving the car around really easy. Jesse.

I'm very curious to know where you end up putting the intercooler. Have you made any progress with that since May? Best, Jesse.

ELECTRIC FANS, ALUMINUM RADIATOR, 1-WIRE ALTERNATOR AND NEW FUSEBOX I like to put aluminum radiators and electric fans in my old Datsuns, all of which came stock with solid-mount (non-clutch) fans. When the engines are stock, I like how it quiets them down. But, really it's my first step towards an eventual engine swap to modern engine without a belt-driven fan. Because electric fans are power hungry, I install a modern alternator at the same time. In this case, the stock fusebox was so ratty, that I replaced that as well, even though the fans, obviously, are not running though it. So, what we have here is the completed installation. I've put about 50 miles on it, and it performs well. I have not yet had the fan turn on while driving -- as long as the stop-and-go Los Angeles traffic has some amount of "go" in, airflow through the radiator is enough to hold the temperature. I have gotten the fan to turn on sitting still in my driveway for a while, and was pleased that it is very consistent. After the first triggering of the fan, the cycle is 50 seconds of fan off, then 30 seconds of fan on, over and over. My infrared thermometer puts the head at 200F. The components are: -Fans: (2) Spal 30100452 low-profile 9" fans -Radiator: VW Golf Mk 1 two-row aluminum aftermarket unit from eBay -Coolant reservoir: Volvo 740 -Thermo housing: 3rd Gen (87-92) Honda Prelude -Upper hose: Gates -Lower hose: Gates 20780, top; Gates 22094 for Y; Gates 22003 bottom -Fusebox: Blue Sea 5035, 6 circuits (need to buy 9217 jumper set also) -Alternator: Denso "mini" alternator (got mine from a Geo Metro) I had to make two custom brackets. The larger holds the new fusebox and the coolant reservoir, mounting to the car at the stock fusebox mounting points. The smaller allows you to mount the Prelude thermo housing and the stock Datsun upper alternator bracket. I made the v-belt pulley instead of buying one just because I was testing an app I wrote that allows me to do CNC-style turning with a manual lathe. It took about 30 minutes to do. The fusebox/reservoir bracket in place. The new fusebox is pretty nice and fits well; I did have to extend one wire by about 2". If I had mounted the box with the yellow latch facing the fender, it would have worked without extending any wires. You use the jumper set to create the BAT/IGN power input combination you need (in this case, 3 BAT inputs and 3 IGN inputs). The thermohousing and alternator mount bracket doesn't have a lot of clearance. I'm using a stock 411 thermostat and the stock VW thermoswitch together, as their temp ratings happen to complement each other properly. The lower hose has one more seam than I would like, but the way it fits in the space is lovely, and after four trips to the auto parts place with bent pieces of coat hanger, I figured it was the best I could do. A long 3/4" hose runs from that "Y" to the output of the reservoir to allow you to fill the system. The upper portion of the hose is chewed up because an earlier owner had done that, and I didn't replace it with a new version. The alternator bolts right up, with a small spacer between the upper alternator tab and bracket. I used the "3 wire" style of "1 wire" alternator. That is to say, the plug off the back provides a lead for: Light, Sense and IGN. I spliced the Light lead to the stock Light lead that ran to the stock regulator. I spliced the IGN lead to the stock IGN lead that ran to the stock regulator. I ran the Sense lead to a terminal on the output side of the fusebox. The alternator puts out about twice the amps of the stock unit and has no problem handling the load of the two hungry electric fans.

John, If you have easy access to the new caliper pistons, do you think you could measure the diameter and height of one? I mean, really measure to +/- .001"? According to what I've found, the new Centric piston (P/N 14651009) is +.005" in diameter and -.435" in height. I'm worried about that -.435". Since I just need pistons, I'd rather grab them without the non-fitting caliper frames and metric-thread bodies. Thanks, Jesse.

John, Here's a question: are the inlets on the piston cylinders really 3/8"-24, like on the 411, or are they actually m10-1.0? Since either will screw into the other and seem like a good fit, this is sort of a question only a thread gauge can answer. Jesse.

Are you going to use the old carrier with a new ball-and-pin (if so, from where) or with a new press-in ball joint assembly (if so, from where)? Because, potentially that would be way easier than what I'm doing, and I am lazy. Best, Jesse.

Regarding lower ball joints for the 411, one could always follow me down a crazy path.... First off, as Erichwaslike notes, there is a real difference between left and right lower ball joints. As he notes, the top face of the ball portion of the carrier tips back, making the two joints mirror images of each other. I think this tip is meant to "center" the ball's range of motion when the suspension is neutral. I assume this centering is necessary otherwise Nissan wouldn't have bothered, but I am going to measure to make sure. Second, I am starting with an LBJ from a 1990-2002 Honda Accord, and I am building a custom carrier that I can press it into and then bolt onto the 411 lower control arm. The Accord LBJ is very similar to one in the stock 411, just with a .040" larger diameter pin. A slight reaming of the hole in the knuckle (with a 7.15 degree reamer) and it will fit nicely with ball center right at the stock location. The tricky part, which I'm just staring, is measuring the stock LBJ to get the mounting holes, ball center and the "tip" all correctly positioned in relation to each other. Once that's done, the fabrication will be relatively straightforward. I'll be reporting my progress. I will be going as fast as I can, because I can't drive my car until I'm done, but life and work get in the way. Best, Jesse.

@Mike - That's interesting about the RV belts. Neither my '66 nor my '67 SSS have any stock mounting points for seat belts, front or back. Your wife must have had pretty sassy nails back in '84. @GCMustang - Thanks, Greg. More to come.

I tried a lot of different ideas on paper for putting IRS under my 411 EV... I really didn't want to cut my car, so the only thing that worked from a packaging standpoint was torsion bars. I found a rear clip from a Volkswagen 411 (which I chose not for the name, but for the unique bolt-in torsion tube setup), narrowed it a few inches to match the stock 411 rear track and bolted it to pads I had boxed onto the stock unibody "frame rails". I really wanted to mount it within a sort of space frame using the stock leaf spring mounts as my pick up points, for a truly bolt-in solution, but it was too much hassle. I got some VW torsion bars with a non-stock spring rate, and the ride is better than stock. Granted, I'm not racing this thing, but the math suggests that the dynamics better than stock, as least. Jesse.

3 POINT SEAT BELTS I didn't take any process photos of this, so this isn't much of a how-to as an encouragement. These attractive, three-point retractable seat belts are about $65 apiece from Seatbelt Solutions, so I recommend acquiring them over time as birthday or holiday presents, which is what I did. The mounting hardware is inexpensive from WesCo Performance. 1. I had two mounting holes in the floor from the lap belts that were in the car when I bought it. I added one more in the floor for the reel and one high in the B pillar for the loop. On both the front and rear belts I used a mounting plate for each of the upper, "loop", mounting points. The plates can be held in place with 1/8" rivets so that you can bolt the shoulder bolt into them blind (that is, without access to the back face). All the other mounting points I could do with just the giant 2-1/2" fender washers and the 7/16" nuts and bolts. 2. In the rear, I located the hole for the loop in the hole that accepted the upper rear mounting pin for the C pillar trim piece; this give me the right height and made it easy to know where to put the hole in the trim piece. I then located the hole for the reel such that the belt would be parallel to the rear window line when the seat belt was at rest. To make the passenger and driver sides match I did a rubbing of the first side I did and then used it as a template for the other side. To place the lower hole in the trim piece, I installed the trim piece and reached up into the C pillar from the trunk with a 1" long pencil and traced the lower hole onto the trim piece from the inside. Worked great.

GAUGE NEEDLE REFRESH There's no real news here, but I just wanted to note that this is pretty easy to do and the results are delightful. 1. Buy some gauge needle paint from an Internet purveyor. 2. Make a small paper mask to slip over the needle to protect the gauge face from drips. Don't put too much paint on the brush and don't press too hard against the needle. 3. The after.

WIPER MOTOR SWAP I needed to replace the wiper motor on my '67 and didn't see why I should buy a 45-year-old motor when I might be able to use, say, a 20-year-old motor. The motor from a 1990-1993 Honda Accord works like a charm with minor modifications to the wiper motor bracket and crank arm. Oh, and a new plug since they won't match in the least. 1. Before you remove your stock Datsun wiper motor from the bracket, measure the distance from the face of the crank arm to the face of the mounting bracket. You will want to match this dimension when you install the Datsun crank arm onto the Honda wiper motor. 2. I drilled three new mounting holes in the stock 411 wiper motor bracket to match the posts on the Honda wiper motor. I got the holes' positions by doing a rubbing of the Honda mounting posts and then center punching through the piece of paper I did the rubbing on. NOTE: the crank arm has very, very little clearance to turn, so take care to position the three mounting holes so that the motor shaft is perfectly centered in the hole in the bracket. I was off by about 3/32" and had to enlarge the holes to get true center. Once I had the holes drilled, I was able to determine where to place the small notch I needed to clear the motor housing. 3. The photo above shows the stock Honda crank arm, which doesn't do us any good. All you have to do is drill out the hole in the stock Datsun crank arm to match the Honda motor shaft, then file a chamfer on the stock arm to fit the mounting boss. File until your crank arm face measures the same distance from the face of the mounting plate that it did with the stock Datsun motor. This takes only a few minutes of trial and error. 4. Here is is installed. My sense is that it is no faster than the stock motor; I keep meaning to see whether it pulls fewer amps. It does take up less space, will will be nice for the swappers out there.

SHIFT BOOT OPTION Just confirmation that a shift boot meant for a Datsun 620 pickup fits the 411 Bluebird well enough. The 411 transmission tunnel hole is about 1/4" too small in diameter, but the base of the boot deforms enough to fit and hold (well, I have had it pop out once during spirited shifting). The shift lever is also about 1/4" too small in diameter; I just filled the gap with the top of rotten old boot (after I took the photo). Perhaps not an ideal solution, but looks pretty good and the amazing amount of road noise and unwanted heat/cold it eliminates is well worth the low price. Update (08-11-13): Well, after less than 8 months and only a couple hundred miles of driving, this boot from Datsunland Socal has torn. That's pretty disappointing!

REMOVING ROOF GUTTER TRIM I have the same roof gutter rust problems as everyone else, and I was anxious about removing the stainless steel trim without damaging it. After a few experiments on my "parts car" -- AKA my rear motor / rear drive 411 EV -- I found that it was actually pretty easy with patience, a mini pry bar and a piece of wood. I started out with a 1/4" thick piece of wood, but soon found that a larger 1" thick piece was better. Specifically, it's necessary to avoid denting the rear window weatherstrip trim that you end up pressing against when you are removing the gutter trim above it. 1. Start at the junctions and work your way away from them. 2. Work the front piece from the junction all the way down the A pillar. Don't try to work up the A pillar from the fender unless you want to bend the trim all up. 3. Work the rear pieces from both junctions, meeting at the major curve at the C pillar. I didn't do that on the first one, and it was a bear. Also, I had to do some work to clear the putty/sealant and bubbled-up rust away from the upper edge of the trim to give it enough room to "roll" off. That made the job a lot easier. 4. The trim goes back on very easily with light taps with a rubber mallet.

Wow. How have I never heard of the MX520 until now? I put a 1994 Miata under my '66 311, as documented here. But, when I measured my stripped down 411SSS, I concluded that the fit would be too tight. I stand corrected!!! Really looking forward to see how this one unfolds. Jesse.

As I work on renovating my Bluebird, I'm accumulating information that I will share here as not all of it is easy to find on the web. That said, much will probably repeat other posts on Ratsun and elsewhere, but redundancy doesn't really hurt anyone. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Custom Rubber Crank Seal (02-25-13) 2. Removing Roof Gutter Trim (02-25-13) 3. Shift Boot Option (02-25-13, updated 08-11-13) 4. Wiper Motor Swap (02-25-13) 5. Gauge Needle Refresh (02-25-13) 6. Three-point Seat Belts (02-25-13) 7. Electric fans, Aluminum Radiator, 1-Wire Alternator and New Fusebox (08-11-13) 8. Rubber panel plugs / custom grommets (12-26-15) 9. Fabricating Replacement Glovebox (03-20-17) CUSTOM RUBBER CRANK SEAL I'll start with my timing cover / crank seal project. I couldn't find any felt seals in stock anywhere, and I frankly didn't want one anyway. So, here is how I modified my cover to accept an in-stock rubber seal. 1. I removed the soldered-on felt seal channel with a propane torch. 2. I machined a piece of DOM tubing to serve as a seat for a 39.7 x 53.98 x 7.95 oil seal that I bought from Colonial Seal . I also machined a locator that would allow me to center the seal seat ring perfectly concentric with the hole in the timing cover. The locator also centers the timing cover hole on the crank shaft when it's time to install the cover. 3. I clamped the ring and locator in place, then drilled and tapped four holes for #4 size machine screws. I was worried about welding deforming the thin cover. 4. Here is the front face of the cover after the seal seat ring has been screwed on and sealed with gasket-maker. 5. And the oil seal pressed in (imagine there is grey sealant here; this photo is from my test fit). 6. Installing the timing cover on the car; perfectly concentric for the first time. My stock felt seal was so shot that the car sprayed oil at idle. So far, with the new seal, it is clean and dry. Here are the dimensions of the seals I replaced, just so they are handily available: Front crank (timing cover) seal: 39.7 x 53.98 x 7.95 Differential pinion seal: 35 x 64 x 13 Rear outer axle seals: 30 x 45 x 7 Transmission (rear) output seal: 35 x 50 x 11 Enjoy.

Okay, so the 1300 model has the H165A differential. I'm wondering why I can't just swap in an entire H165B center section from a newer car, like a '79/'80 200SX. Every indication is that that the only sticking point would be axle splines. Other posts here on ratsun seem to indicated that both H165 A and B have 23 splines... But, there is silence on axle diameter. Worse, there is a single mention on the 1200 site that the spline counts are the same, but the angles differ: 60° for the A and 90° for the B. My problem is worn side gears, so even if I could swap them into the newer diff, I wouldn't be getting myself to a better place. What does the group have to say about all this? Best, Jesse.

I have a "clunk" from my differential when taking off from being stopped. It looks to me that the problem is too much slop in my side gears. Unfortunately, Nissan shows the thrust washers as NLA. This surprises me, as they are the same thrust washers as the 200SX with the H165. Does anyone have any thoughts on alternate thrust washers? The rear end rebuild guys I've talked to all basically hang up the phone when I say "1966 Datsun". I was, of course, just logging on to ask Erichwaslike if he had a good one. Obviously, I was a couple days too late on that one. Jesse.

Okay, once again with a weather strip question. Is the consensus that we 411 folks can use 521 window felt and squeegees, such as those offered by DatsunlandSoCal (http://www.datsunlandsocal.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Store_Code=ds&Screen=PROD&Category_Code=PL521WeatherSeals&Product_Code=G005)? I don't see why not, but I want to get confirmation from those who know. Best, Jesse.

@ggzilla - Via eBay: http://www.ebay.com/itm/DATSUN-411-520-521-620-710-J1500-1600-Engine-Gasket-Kit-/221165414731

@69srl311 - That thread lists three options. Did you get the felt seal from the dealer, the engine seal kit from NAPA, or the single rubber seal #15846 from NAPA? As far as I can tell, the first two are NLA and the last one seems to be the wrong size. I ordered the kit from Mexico; it should arrive in a week or two. I'll post back re: quality and fitment. Jesse.

Ok, so the Internet votes "no" on changing the timing chain and votes "maybe" on an engine seal kit made in Mexico. I can work with that. Jesse.

Hey, I picked up a sweet '66 this week. Runs like a top, but I'm leaking out the front crank seal something fierce. And, I'm thinking I might as well replace the timing chain if I've got the crank pulley off to replace the seal. So, I'm looking at an engine gasket kit on eBay and a timing kit, both from an aftermarket manufacturer in Mexico. I'm inclined to believe these kits will be fine and dandy, but I would love to hear from anyone who has purchased and installed one. Jesse.