Getting it to the track

[RoadRace]

been PO'd with not racing because there is always something the prevent the car from going to the track - i have decided to put the good motor aside and put in a stock motor just so i can do some laps this year. but i can't leave anything stock...

 

0) the car: 72 510 race car since new, full layer of dust...

 

1) the motor:

 

69 L16, mileage unknown and really dirty outside, piles of grease and crap - it came with a bucket of parts i got when i got the car. I took the 210 head off and it still had hone marks visible in the bores...good sign this might last more than one lap! its spun over really smoothly. took off the pan and front cover, all clearances were nice...

 

...i put my race head, oil pan and front cover from the good motor:

head is a milled and welded, race ported big valve U67 with 34 cc chambers. .525" lift/306 deg

and it hit the pistons...DOH! first obstacle, cut the valves. i REFUSE to spend any more money, so in the 'ratsun way', there's no league like the Bush league:

i JB welded old files to some old valves and unshrouded the chambers in that same old head and used it for a guide, i put the cordless drill on the exposed valve stem and Voila! - perfect pistons notches every time...

 

2) the second part of this is the oil cooler i've been trying to get installed. its a bit trickey because of the lack of engine bay, and i didn't want to cut out stuff from the front, i want the front of the car to look like its supposed to. i got a C&R liquid-to-oil cooler off ebay. it was in a trans am car and really is overkill for the application, but liquid coolers are the best, so to make it work i have to do some serious juggling.

 

coolant comes from the lower rad, through the cooler, back through a 180 deg mandrel bend (again from ebay) and through more silicone couplers to the engine. this is what i have done in the past week. i have a stainless bracket to hold the cooler in place, it attaches to the shock tower a little higher than what is shown in the pic. i can't 'final' anything until the motor goes in, then i have to mess with the oil filter and adapter:

 

i'll update this as i get the work completed, deadline is Aug 6/2011

[Wide14u]

you got plenty of time

[BJW's FiveTen's]

That is really cool.

I have an old mg midget race car I got and am sorting to get out on the track. I cannot afford to rebuild the race motor right now but have a mildly warmed over 1275 for it. Any who good luck getting back out there. I love old race cars.

[RoadRace]

i spent some time last night cleaning up the piston reliefs, degreeing in the cam and unshrouding the valves from the block:

i put on the flywheel and found that it was running out .045". so i got it to within .002" and tightened the bolts.

 

i was working on a 1275 mg motor last weekend and he wanted a datsun 5 speed for it, so i helped out with the mods and put the datsun 5 speed in it using an adapter plate and kit. the trans was from an B210.

[RoadRace]

well, got the motor in and the fuel pump didn't work, neither did the electric fan - during the 10 hours of trouble shooting, i put in the spare holley red pump, went through a few relays and fuses, replaced the fan switch and found one of the braided #6 fuel lines was leaking terribly (from the tank to the filter). then i found a bigger problem: the starter didn't engage. it spun fine, but didn't touch the flywheel. i tried 3 starters and the best i could get was 1/2 a revolution of the motor before it spun off. so now i have 3 starters that appear to work, but do not engage more than 1/8 of an inch on the flywheel. and the first 1/8 of an inch on the flywheel is worn...don't know what to do, can't think of another way to get the starter closer to the flywheel. might have to pull the motor again and put the super heavy stock flywheel on.

[RoadRace]

so i welded up the reduction starters drive gear:

 

and it was better, but still no good. so, flywheel replacement time.

 

i took the stock flywheel that looks like it was at the bottom of the lake, and i put it through "the treatment". i took it to a guy that works for beer and gave him the napkin sketch i made. 4 hours later it was 9.5 lbs lighter.

 

i took the opportunity to modify the shifter position as well, as it was not ideal.

 

now its much better and quite strong

 

going out to change the flywheel now...

[Master-O-Turbonics]

Just be careful with lightened factory flywheels and make sure the car has a GOOD STEEL scatter shield around the bellhousing... I'm sure you and nobody else wants you to have your feet lopped off.

The less material behind the wear surface of the clutch, the more that little bit of material will get on the flywheel. More heat in the smaller volume of steel= weakened material and thus fracturing.

[RoadRace]

thanks for the heads up master!! i've been running a factory lightened flywheel for 15 years and its been good. always careful.

well, i got the trans out and got a big surprise when i went to put the 'new' flywheel in...the teeth on the old flywheel were just fine, so i looked deeper into the problem. and i found this, a different crank output flange:

 

i never noticed this as being different or weird when i had the motor on the stand, it never 'clicked'...too busy worrying about camshaft and pistons and stuff...

 

turns out the L16 i put in had a crank with a flange that i have never seen. it didn't fit in the register for the L16 flywheel i had machined, it was too big. both of my flywheels have the same counterbore that fit nicely over the OD of the crank, this one was different - this is where the starter problems came from, the flywheel was sticking out .250 too far. away from the starter. so i didn't know what to do. change cranks...i had a couple with the 'correct' output diameter, machine the one i have, try to knock it off because it looked like some kind of cap upon closer inspection, or just machine the flywheel to accept the larger diameter...in the end, the latter was the path of least resistance. i took the flywheel back with another napkin sketch and this is what i got:

 

going to go to the garage and try this again.

[RoadRace]

well, the good times never stop around here. i got the flywheel and clutch on, it felt better and torqued in perfect, it ran out .003". in the time honored tradition of all backyard mechanics, i lied on my back and bench pressed the the T5 into place. i ran into town and picked up a couple feet of stainless #6 hose and a couple #6AN hose ends because the tank-to-filter line was leaking so bad that the pump couldn't pull the fuel out. that was a 15 year old line, so it was due. i put the clutch slave cylinder on and hooked everything up. The ground cable was missing and i had been using vice-gripped 6 awg stereo amp wire (well, i used it for my DD last winter, in time of need, the race car always suffers...) so i dug around various parts bins and made a new 0 awg cable up. i then bled the clutch and it felt weird, then i bled it again, and i tried it again...then the seal blew out, dumping brake fluid all over the floor. now i have no idea where i'm going to find another one of those, as i don't have a spare...or a rebuild kit. i don't need it to fire the car up so after filling the trans and one more preliminary check, i hit the button.

 

.......it cranks over perfectly!!!Success!!

 

it had 20lbs of oil pressure cranking, the fuel pressure was 2 psi, lets give her a go!

 

after moving the distributor all the way advanced, it fired right up. awesome. it runs! so i'm thinking "i'll drop the oil pump and move the distributor driveshaft back a tooth and it should be fine...why is it ticking??? why is the oil pressure light on?? WHOLLY OIL LEAK>>>SHUT DOWN!!!!!!! "

 

well, i had a Category 5 oil leak - total crank case evacuation in about 30 seconds. i thought something exploded, it dumped 4.5 liters all over the floor:

 

 

after a good look around, i found the culprit, the oil filter!! the oil filter rubber o-ring let go. i can't believe it. i've seen that happen only once before, on a buick V6 turbo, when my brother was running 20W50 and it was -20C out...not his finest hour. but sure enough, here it is in my garage 28C and lovely out, using 10w30 for "wash-in":

 

honestly, i'm feeling pretty beat up by this process, everything is going wrong. not sure what i'm going to do. or if i can even get the clutch slave or a kit for it,. or if i should even go get more oil and another filter. If i do, then whats going to happen if i try and make the oil cooler work. it just seems like there is a black cloud over this project right now...

[lil89ram50]

take a break for a coupe days, the go at it again. sometimes all you need is a break.

[Sealik]

Thought I was getting most of the bad luck...

 

Apparently you are giving me 'a run for the money'.......... :D

[RoadRace]

yeah, i needed a break. i took a couple hours off and helped out my wife with the kids, then sat down and watched them play in the pool. i then went back in and cleaned up, what a mess! i used every rag in the garage, including the ones that 'really weren't that bad' that were in the garbage!! then i still needed more...it turns out that fiberglass insulation makes a good rag, i had some paint reducer and wiped the floor with that and the insulation and it cleaned up pretty good.

 

i took the slave cylinder off and apart, you can see the seal is blown:

 

i'm gonna make a few calls and see what i can find today - but it is a holiday in my province, so there may not be anything open.

 

i then went and fixed the phasing on the distributor and while i was under the car, my wife walked into the garage with the kids in the stroller and proclaimed "you are not allowed to have white shirts anymore! you don't do the laundry, you haven't got one shirt with out oil or dirt stains on it!" i agreed and she left...

 

content that it runs and will run again, i turned to phase 2: so I started to mock up the oil cooler. i cut the hoses off the adapters i was just running and got the coolant lines in place. the oil filter will go neatly under the coolant lines on the fenderwell, close to the frame rail, its not on in these pics, but you can see what the lower rad circuit looks like:

i was getting late, so i packed it in for the night.

[RoadRace]

going to find parts today. the oil filter adapter isn't going to work as i wanted. i'm going to try and find a sandwich style adapter plate, and other parts...this is how it sits now:

[RoadRace]

typically, i'm late for everything, this is no exception. i don't want to be late, but it just happens. the best laid plans of mice and men and all that...

 

to make a long story short, i had oil pressure problems the night before the race and i opted to leave it home. i went to the races and helped out anyway. i got the car running (after the 3rd oil pump) and i drove it for a couple miles in front of my house tonight for the first time in a very long time. still no fully functional oil cooler, parts store let me down.

 

so the car is ready, i was 2 days late, but i'm early for the next one...

 

sorry about the crappy picture quality of this video, i'm sure there is a setting i'm missing...

[datzenmike]

 

That will pop off! It'sa spacer for an automatic. I never mentioned it before because I was under the impression that the standard flywheel won't fit over it. Being out 0.045" should have rung a bell. The flywheel it sitting on there wrong.

 

Here are my collection of spacers.

 

 

 

 

 

Blown O ring is because you have a Canadian Tire filter. They used to be made for Crappy Tire by Fram! Yes, the worst filter makers in the world, but why not go even cheaper? Canadian Tire switched their supplier last fall to, wait for it.... wait.... CHINA!!!! Unbelievable cheapness. That was the last straw for me, I now run NAPA Gold in my Nissans.

 

You might want to check your oil pressure regulator spring in the pump. If it's shimmed too high or the piston is jammed the pressure will go through the roof when revved. I have blown the filter can off the threaded end from a jammed regulator piston.