Turning a totaled out dirt track Datsun into a Hot Rod.(starting on page 15)

[Rustina 510]

Nice!! Now go kill some neons

[Dirttrack510]

That's first on my list! I'm planning to kick some neon ass.

[Dirttrack510]

Well, I got home from work tonight and worked on the ignition for a while and after about an hour of fiddling with 3 different distributors I managed to get it locked down and set at 40 degrees advance. I'm not sure on what plugs to run, but Greasemonkey says he runs NGK 6ES plugs and they work good for him, so I'm probably gonna try those in the motor. Also, the engine seems to be stopping smoking, my guess would be that the light rust on the cylinder walls is cleaning up from the few minutes I've ran it. I also finished putting my shifter back in and doing a few "nut and bolt" checks to get it ready to race.

 

Also, I'm not sure, but I think I'm going to have to cut a hole in my hood so my air cleaner will fit :sneaky: I'm hoping I don't have to, but it looks like the air filter is sitting to high to let the hood clear it.

[wayno]

Get a smaller airfilter for now.

[Dirttrack510]

We raised the back of the hood up a little bit, just enough to clear the air filter for now. I actually spent about 6 hours working on it tonight... I worked on tuning the carb, swapped spark plugs a few times (best plug so far is the "NGK" BR 6ES), finished up all the "nut and bolt" checks, and I also had to remove and install another intake gasket, because I was so tired when I installed the last one I forgot to clean off all the gasket crap from my intake and I had a vaccuum leak (duhhh). It's really running good now, I hope it does as well at the track as it sounds. It almost sounds like a lumpy cammed small block Chevy now. :thumbup: I had a couple neighbors come over, because they heard it and wondered what motor I had installed in there. The guy next door was like... What the hell? It sounds better than my Corvette does now! :devil:

 

Anyways, new vids should be up sometime late tomorrow on Sunday.

[Dirttrack510]

Well, I went to the track and the engine has way to much blow-by. It's blowing a lot of smoke and oil out of the crankcase vent... but it is faster than the old engine. At least the car was faster till I went into a turn and my right front suspension gave out and.... yeah I hit the wall again, putting my car on the trailer for the night again. I'm gonna get out there and work on it tomorrow and post the vids I got though.

[sedan20]

your a good man. lol... to hit a wall and live to see another day... just bang that fender out, and go kick some more ass!

[Dirttrack510]

I'm trying to fix whatever made my steering go all willy nilly and I can't seem to find anything. When I drive the car forward and backward the right front wheel wanders all over the place.... it leans forward, then back, then tilts in at the top, then out at the bottom,(all random like and in no particular order) but when I jack the car up it all feels pretty tight. I have a slight wiggle in the wheel bearing, but it doesn't feel severe. Is there anything besides the wheel bearing that would cause this?

[sedan20]

dude... sounds like a wheel bearing to me.... make a video.. do you have a gopro to mount to the car?

[Dirttrack510]

I thought it was a wheel bearing too, but we pulled it and checked it and it's fine, it just needed a little tightening. I think the tension rod mount has pulled back and broke loose again. If the mount is loose or to far back, will that let the control arm flop forward and backward? The wheel goes back when I pull forward and slides toward the front of the car when I back up. I also noticed that the bushings in the control arm, behind the crossmember look like they are about shot. When you look down at the crossmember, the control arm is not sitting strait, it's kinda pointing slightly toward the back of the car. :confused: I also thought the "top hat" portion of the strut might of gone bad, as it is 43 year old rubber, so I replaced that with one from another strut and it didn't help at all. :no:

[sedan20]

ooohh... seems like inner control arm bushings, OR some type of stabilizing bushing to control caster... like the one from this LINK that was replaced with the adjustable red setup... if that is slipping, it would cause this...

[Dirttrack510]

Ok, I think the mystery of my "mis-handling" issues are solved.... "I think"

#1 the bushing inside the right front L.C.A. is completely disintegrated and had fallen out of the L.C.A. which is what I'm sure led my car to quit steering properly and made my car turn into the wall. OUCH!!!

 

#2 When I hit the wall, the mounting bolt for the L.C.A. that passes through the crossmember bent!

 

#3 This one sucks!!! Also when I hit the wall, the crossmember bent slightly at the L.C.A. mount, cracked all around both the front and rear of the mounting bolt, and also partially tore loose. :sick:

 

#4 The front of the frame where the tension rod is attached is slightly crumpled. (I think I can fix that...Sort of :rofl: " At least I think I can get around the problem.

 

It looks like I have a lot of work to do to get this thing fixed for Saturday night :crying:

[Dirttrack510]

Ok, so I got out in the garage tonight and got after it... I took out the motor mount bolts and raised the engine up with my cherry picker, then disconnected the steering etc. from the old crossmember and pulled it out. :thumbup: Damn that thing is FAWKED UP! Then I reinstalled the "new" crossmember and L.C.A.'s . I still have to hook up my suspension, but it looks like I'll easily have it ready to thrash on by the weekend. If I can get the suspension all back together tomorrow night, I might pull the L20B engine back out and install the " Project KABOOM!!! L16 Grenade engine build!!!" engine in, since my lash pads showed up in the mail yesterday. I guess time will tell, I'll be posting a few OIC's when I'm done with the suspension repairs. :thumbup:

[Dirttrack510]

Well, I got home and busted a lil' ass and got the front suspension all back together tonight. :thumbup: I even took the right front tension rod to work and had it modified in our machine shop, we turned it down to the smaller shaft size about and inch and a half, then threaded all of the smaller portion of the shaft, so I could put nuts on it and make it "adjustable", so when I put it on the car I was able to pull the right front wheel about 3/4 of an inch forward to make the car turn better to the left. :thumbup:

 

I didn't get it all back together till about 2am, so I couldn't start it up and pull it out in the street to make sure it's fixed, but I'm pretty confident it's ready to go. I'll know for sure tomorrow. If everything feels good, I'm gonna try and get the "grenade" engine installed tomorrow, so I can really kick some ass at the track. (hopefully)

[sedan20]

good job... yeah i knew it had to do with that rod that leads to the front clip.... hope its road worthy!

[sedan20]

err... track worthy. lol

[Dirttrack510]

It's track ready...

 

Here's what I did...

 

1st I took off the front wheels, undid the motor mount bolts and "slightly" lifted the engine off the crossmember

 

2nd I disconnected the ball joints from the L.C.A.s and removed the 4 bolts that hold the crossmember to the frame and dropped it out the bottom, leaving the engine bolted to the trans, but suspended from the cherry picker.

 

then I simply put the "new" crossmember and L.C.A.s back in place and bolted everything back up.

 

I did modify the right front tension rod though and made it "adjustable" the pic is pretty crappy, but you can see i simply machined down the small part of the rod and then threaded it all the way down, so I now have adjustment.

 

Here a few pictures of the damage on the crossmember, where the right L.C.A. used to be bolted to it. It's dented, bent, and although you can't see it in the pics, the welds are cracked all the way through on the front and back side of the crossmember mounting points.

 

 

Well, the car is all loaded up and ready to go to the track tomorrow, more vids coming soon :thumbup:

[Dirttrack510]

I went to the track Saturday and the car really handled good after doing a little adjusting on the "toe" for my right front wheel. I honestly think the car drives better now than it ever has in the three years I've been running it at the track. I still finished near the back of the pack, as when I hit around 6,000 RPM the L20 starts to sorta backfire, I think the valve springs are floating the valves. I'm hoping the new engine might be installed before this Saturday. Sorry no videos (my batteries died)

 

Here's the new engine pic though.

 

[Dirttrack510]

No racing for me this week, I got the new engine installed, but it has issues. :sick:

[mcmlxxxv]

What kind ?

[Dirttrack510]

It's in my Grenade engine page, but the head gasket started leaking as soon as I filled up the radiator. Needless to say, I'm pretty irritated about it. I guess on the plus side, I have an entire week to fix it. Also, I need to reposition the distributor drive shaft, as I think I'm between ignition terminals on my distributor. I have spark, but not so much as a sputter, when you try to start it.

[sedan20]

I have spark, but not so much as a sputter, when you try to start it.

:sneaky: i know that feeling.

[Dirttrack510]

Yeah, it seems like every time i put a motor together i install that pump/distributor shaft in the wrong spot. Lol

[wayno]

Yeah, it seems like every time i put a motor together i install that pump/distributor shaft in the wrong spot. Lol

 

Your not special, I do the same thing all the time.

Good luck next weekend, kick some neon ass. :D

[Dirttrack510]

Well, I got out there and got it all back together tonight, but... The engine has SO MUCH COMPRESSION the starter is to old and tired to hardly turn it over :devil: sooooo... It's off to Autocrap to exchange my lifetime starter for a new one tomorrow. Hopefully I'll have the race wagon running and ready to race again tomorrow night.