pope_face

Has anyone ever replaced the back glass with a pop-out window? I mean one of those you see on some of the older vans... hinges on top and a couple clips on the bottom...

Wow... pretty nice shape. I like the emblem too... Fortunately mine aren't that bad that I have to replace them... they just need a good scrub and a little straightening.

Bah, that's sexy... why the larger volume? Are you trying to bring the compression down for a particular project? Or is this the normal volume on these heads... Ozdat says 41 cc, but the general concensus seems to be that the site is not as accurate as it should be...

Kiznook: Thanks, I'll check out the site and see what they say... Bleach: I'll keep my eyes open for one... How clean is super clean, and how much would it be worth to you? If we find one I'll split the cost with you, but I'm aiming to spend less than $300 on the engine... It seems that's what the average L-series goes for down there...

Wow... I like the look of the manifold... I didn't realize that you could get parts so clean just by using water and molasses... I'll assume that, unlike the acid, the molasses mixture won't eat away at the good metal, correct? I could leave some parts in there for a month and they'll still be there, sans rust? I suppose if you had the time and space you could put a head or block in there to clean them up...

Would anyone be interested in splitting a truck with me for parts? I'd like to get an engine out of a 620 or something, but I have no use for the actual truck... I'm aiming at picking one up in Washington somewhere because it'd be cheaper than getting one here, so I'd prefer to split it with someone down there, as it'd be too much of a hassle to bring it back across the border...

Hahaha, anybody else feel like driving the rest of the way from Portland to the Border? :D

Hainz: Thanks for the reply... I knew the inner/outer headlamps were the same size, but with inner lights on yours look smaller, probably because of the way the light hits them. I guess I was always too distracted by the hood to take a closer look at the lights... :D

Wow, thanks for the link Mike (it is Mike, right?)... I never realized it would be that easy to clean small parts... I always wondered about all the nuts and bolts and all that I wanted to clean... Now there's a better way! :D What is this molasses method, and how does it work? Is it essentially buy an industrial-sized container of molasses, insert parts, remove when clean, rinse, insert next set of parts, repeat as necessary? And I know this is potentially harmful, but assuming one did this in a very well ventilated area and wore proper gear, would it be possible to take an old towel or rag or something of the sort, soak it in muriatic acid, and then either lay it on top of larger panels or wipe the rust/paint off? Will the acid work on paint, or only on rust?

I vote for the second one... They're not necessarily the colours I would use together, but I take it they're the Aussie colours? I think they're too small and too close together in the first pic... it just looks like they're competing for space. The second one looks a lot cleaner...

Bah, that sucks... Save for some bizzare stroke of luck, it looks like I'm going to look closer to home...

What is that? I can't even really begin to imagine what it's based off of, other than that engine... While we're talking about stupidly large engines to fit in Datsuns, how about a Viper V10? Last I heard you could pick up a crate motor for some ten or twelve grand... I think something fun would be a Ferrari V12 in the bed of a 521 or 620... Especially if you stuck one of those fiberglass caps on the bed to hide it... Sort of off topic, but speaking of high performance cars, there's a gorgeous, white, (not so) little sports car in Vancouver... I think it's a Pantech, or some similar name... looks like an 80's Lamborghini. The thing is gorgeous... lower than the 521 and probably two feet wider... the rear tires looked like they were over a foot in width... Edit: Pantera! Pictures here... And I apologize for sending you to a Ford site... Apparently Ford imported them. But, it looks like the pictures on the right, but in white... sexy sexy beast...

Kiznook: If you're getting the carbs, would you be going down to pick them up yourself, or are you hoping to get shipping on them?

Hahaha, thanks LeDevil... for some reason most folks seem to like the scallops... unfortunately, they don't look nearly as good in person... :rolleyes:

Bah... that certainly is one tricked-out ride... how long did you spend on that truck?

Those Z wheels are pretty slick... as for using the four lug on the truck hub, it's doable, but it'll require adaptors... most people are against adaptors because of the extra strain they put on the hubs, but it's really your choice. Just make sure that your replacement wheels won't rub at full turn... assuming everything else is kept the same, the new wheels will need backspacing that's equivilant to stock plus the width of the adaptor... As far as I know, you ought to be able to track down a reasonable set of adaptors for a couple hundred bucks... not sure if it's worth it to you. As for your steelies... you could strip the rust and paint off, clean them up, and repaint them, but you might still have pits from rust. It really depends on how rare stock wheels are in your area. Kiznook was giving a set of six away... I think around here people can't get rid of them fast enough. Not sure what it's like out there. You might be better off just picking up a decent set and repainting those.

Tana: You wouldn't be willing to spread the parts love, would you? :D

On the topic of bright lights... It's super foggy over here right now... Maybe not compared to what some people are used to, but for us it is. You can't see half a block in populated areas with streetlamps, and probably less than 100' if there were none... I was on the road, and the entire way back home I was thinking about the reflectors built into taillights. I always thought they were pretty useless and didn't want them on my truck, but I want a satin paint job, so if I don't put reflectors on you might not be able to see it all that well if it's parked somewhere at night... The possibilities are NOT something I want to wake up to one morning...

Nice... I like how clean it looks on the outside... very slick. I think the interior is a bit much for me, but it might just be the NOS mats and the stuff laying around. Looks pretty good though.

Anybody feel like taking that engine and driving it up to me? :D I need to find a decent L20B...

Bah! Thanks Mike... That increased my engine knowledge by about 15%... Looks like that'll be the setup I'll be persuing then... hopefully I can piece together the parts sometime over the next couple months... Then again, two weeks ago I was happy just changing the gaskets on my J13, now here I am planning a fully rebuilt engine and discussing compression and fuel octane and the pros and cons of various cylinder head and piston combos... I wonder what next week will bring...

I've never seen a courier, but that Mazda looks pretty spiffy... I didn't like the over-the-fender turn indicators at first, but they grow on you... and yeah, it looks a lot larger than it really is... I didn't realize how small it was until I actually took a good look inside the cab and saw the guy in it. Takes a good design to make something that proportional, I think. As for your next project... what kind of truck are you thinking of making? Something for speed, or something for cruising? Or are you restoring it? I don't remember seeing pictures of your 620, but from the avatar picture it looks like you've restored it... if you've already got a daily driver, and don't feel the need to restore another truck, then just build whatever suits you. Put airbags on it and drop it so low you can't get out of your driveway. Make it fun rather than practical... Then again, that's just me... I have so many different tastes in cars it's hard enough to commit to any one thing... I'd have a warehouse full of cars if I could...

Thanks for the response... I remember seeing pictures of "peanut" shaped heads, so I thought that might be what it was referring to... Always good to check though. As for the pinging... I might have read it somewhere, but I don't think I payed much attention as I didn't think it would concern me too much... I didn't really think about anything like bumping compression until today, to tell the truth. As for Ozdat, I have no idea how accurate it is either, but it's all I have to go on for now... But, if I switch to the closed-chamber head, I'll have the same setup as you, save for the overbore... so if you can run 87 without issues, I suppose I'll get pretty good performance with 91. As far as a turbo goes, I'm planning another engine build at some point in the future... a turbo carbed engine. I know it's been done, and there's writeups on it, but it's more for experiance and getting to brag that I have a turbocharged engine. As for superchargers, it'd be interesting to do one, but they've never been my thing... I've always preferred the sound of a turbo spooling up... :D

Nice, they look pretty slick. Are they metal of fiberglass? I wouldn't mind a front airdam, but I've got a 521, so I don't think it'll fit. As for the rollpan, I'm planning on making one up myself to clean up the back and mount my lights to... I remember I put a "Home Depot" airdam on my little Civic back when I had it... it was just a six foot strip of black rubber baseboard molding, screwed in to the base of the front bumper every four inches by chrome self-tapping metal screws. I had blacked out turn signals (bumper mount) as well, so it made it kinda look like a track whore from the front... it was pretty sweet... :D Edit: Bah, looks like I can't find any pictures of the car with the lip on it... Shame...

Ok, I'm hoping to get a good working engine in my truck, so hopefully I don't ruin your crazy combo thread... But does anyone have any recommendations for octane for a particular compression? I know it'll run best at the highest octane available, but I'm just curious as to how low you can go and still have the engine run well... from what I can tell, a CR of less than 10.0:1 will run well on 91, and any CR higher than that won't run as well unless you use 94+ octane, correct? Also... pardon my inexperiance with terminology, but can anyone tell me what the terms open-chamber, closed-chamber, and peanut head refer to when talking about heads? And which one is the U67 off the L20B? It seems to be the higher-volume head, which makes it open-chamber? The Ozdat gives me a deck clearance of 0.45 mm and a CR of 9.211:1 on a stock L20B with a 1.25 mm gasket, U67 head, and L18 pistons... is this setup feasible, and would it run well on 91, or would I have to run 94?