alabama_lowlife Posted June 28, 2012 Report Share Posted June 28, 2012 I've wanted a 521 since the first time I saw one several years ago. This particular one I've known about for about 3 years. I recently got my wife a 300zx so she secretly contacted the owner and negotiated a deal for me to get this for father's day. She's a fine negotiator, I got it for $200. It doesn't run and all I've done to it so far is unseize the brakes so I can roll it and pressure wash it. I plan to get it soda blasted soon and start on the body. It's got a couple small rust areas that I can see. But I don't think it's too bad. I think the original color was light blue, so I'll probably go back with that. 1 Quote Link to comment
metalmonkey47 Posted June 28, 2012 Report Share Posted June 28, 2012 That patina is epic! Pleaseeeee don't paint it. 2 Quote Link to comment
DanielC Posted June 28, 2012 Report Share Posted June 28, 2012 I can say that is a nice wife, and I have not even seen her! Truck looks like a good start too Quote Link to comment
Skib Posted June 28, 2012 Report Share Posted June 28, 2012 +1 for the wife. its dirty lol but it looks strait 1 Quote Link to comment
mrbigtanker Posted June 28, 2012 Report Share Posted June 28, 2012 I want your wife haha,i agree for some crazy reason that i love the way it looks to.Get it running first and polish the chrome and clean the inside swap out out a ka or sr20 turbo and race your wifes new car.Do you need a son you never had just asking. 1 Quote Link to comment
alabama_lowlife Posted June 29, 2012 Author Report Share Posted June 29, 2012 Thanks for all the kind words guys. I know a lot of people really dig patina but it's just not my cup of tea. I like it when they look brand new lol. If I can't get this engine going, I'll probably want to stick with something easy to swap in like another L series engine. I already have a HB with a tuned port injected 305 I need to get back together so I don't want to spend too much time under the hood of this one if I can avoid it. 1 Quote Link to comment
alabama_lowlife Posted July 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 1, 2012 It looks like I'm gonna need a radiator. The bottom of the core appears to be rusted out, the fins are pretty much shot in that area. I've looked around on here and there doesn't seem to be an aftermarket solution like a newer truck(imagine that). I searched on eBay and there is an aluminum radiator that they claim fits a 510 and 521, does this mean I can use the radiator from a 510 or does this one just have brackets that allow it? http://item.mobileweb.ebay.com/viewitem?itemId=150831929525&index=2&nav=SEARCH&nid=00007056163 1 Quote Link to comment
skyblue Posted July 1, 2012 Report Share Posted July 1, 2012 ^^Later 521's came with the same L16 as 510's. however that's not to say there aren't some small differences, like the oil pan for example. so other than the mounting holes i think it should work just fine. welcome. I see a lot of potential here. Nice to see another 521 saved. 1 Quote Link to comment
mrbigtanker Posted July 1, 2012 Report Share Posted July 1, 2012 ^^Later 521's came with the same L16 as 510's. however that's not to say there aren't some small differences, like the oil pan for example. so other than the mounting holes i think it should work just fine. welcome. I see a lot of potential here. Nice to see another 521 saved. here here 1 Quote Link to comment
alabama_lowlife Posted July 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 Well, after doing a bit of reading, I've discovered that my truck is actually a 70 lol. I just assumed that is was a 69 since it was made in July of 69. Gonna attempt to get it to fire off this afternoon or tomorrow. It belonged to the grandfather of a friend of mine. His grandfather passed away some time ago and the truck has been sitting for 13 years I was told. My friend said he thinks there was something wrong with the engine but doesn't know what it was. I found an eBay radiator that looks like mine, with the 90 degree outlet at the bottom. Would I need the same type of radiator with the stock L16 as I would if I ended up swapping in an L18 or L20? I don't want to spend $200 on a radiator only to find out the engine is truly bad and need a different style radiator if I swap engines. 1 Quote Link to comment
wayno Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 You don't need a radiator to start it, you just need one to keep it running for very long, a minute or two won't get it warm enough to hurt it, just fill the carb bowl with some clean fuel, hot wire the coil and pull the cap off and make sure the points have power, put the dist. cap back on, pour a little fuel down the carb and hit the starter, if it's going to try to start, it will jump/hit, fact is that I have done this and when I let off the starter it kept turning over, I thought the starter was jammed on and was still turning it over, but it turned out it was running and I didn't even know it, I grabbed the exhaust manifold to make sure, and it was getting warm. You need fuel, spark at the points, and enough power to turn it over, but the engine should turn over freely by hand before giving it any power, and have oil in it also. 1 Quote Link to comment
DatWifey Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 Good wifey!! :thumbup: Looks like you got a pretty straight little truck. How does that interior look? 1 Quote Link to comment
alabama_lowlife Posted July 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 The interior is ok. The seat seems shot. I haven't pulled off the cover to look at the original vinyl yet. The dash and all that is in good shape, I guess somebody recovered the door panels and top of the dash with some carpet. It's got some Datsun floor mats too. I'm not sure where he found them but I'm keeping them lol 1 Quote Link to comment
DatWifey Posted July 2, 2012 Report Share Posted July 2, 2012 Weird. I found a set of the exact same floor mats a few months ago in a Z car at a local junkyard and put them in our 510. That interior seems pretty clean. Looks like you've got a good base to start with for $200! 1 Quote Link to comment
mrbigtanker Posted July 3, 2012 Report Share Posted July 3, 2012 very good base to start with i would say.good find. 1 Quote Link to comment
alabama_lowlife Posted July 3, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 3, 2012 Ok, i did the compression test today. First time through the results were pretty bad. 90, 180, 165, 180. I added a little oil to 1 and 3 and they jumped up to well over 200 initially. I did it several more times and eventually just let it sit for about an hour. Just went and checked again, this time I got 170, 180, 190, 180. The 20psi split on 1 and 3 is a bit out of tolerance from what I've read. Should have a max of 10% and this is just over that. I'll let it settle for a few days and see if everything stabilizes. It hasn't been turned over in many years so I'm hoping that it will even out once I've actually run the thing some. Now I've gotta look at getting it some spark, I had a bit of a dumbass attack and disconnected the plug wires without marking them. On my 97 HB you can't really screw it up, the wires are all very different lengths. If i found the right info, the firing order is 1,3,4,2. So I gotta read up on the points distributor. I've never messed with anything this old. I know my way around a HB like the back of my hand, but I'm a fish out of water on the datsun. Once I verify that I've got some spark I'm gonna try to get it to light off. 1 Quote Link to comment
alabama_lowlife Posted July 4, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 4, 2012 I checked the valve lash and the #1 cylinder, there was NO clearance on the exhaust side. The intake side was about .004, I got both of them adjusted to spec. The #3 exhaust was a little loose at .011. Adjusted the points to .020 gap. I think that's what I read it was supposed to be. I couldn't get it to start. It didn't even act like it was going to start. I had 12vdc at the points (open). When I poured fresh gas into the line going to the bowl, it just dripped right out of the bottom of the window. I poured a little inside the carb itself and still didn't get any sputtering at all. I pulled one of the (new) plugs and it didn't smell like fuel. Since there was plenty of fuel under the hood, I didn't see if the plugs were firing, that will have to wait until that fuel has evaporated. I'm guessing carb rebuild? 1 Quote Link to comment
wayno Posted July 4, 2012 Report Share Posted July 4, 2012 When you poured gas down the carb it should have hit/backfired if you have power at the points with the rotor and cap on the distributor, and wires connected in any way/any order, although it would be best if they were in the proper order. Remove the cap and check the power to the points by turning the engine so that the points are closed, put power to the coil, and manually open the points with a screwdriver, they should spark when opened, if they don.t, it isn't even going to try. 1 Quote Link to comment
alabama_lowlife Posted July 6, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 6, 2012 I got it to run for a few seconds!!! Thanks so much wayno! The primary cause of it not starting was some corrosion under the rotor on the distributor. I stayed with the train of thought that it was ignition related. Checked and had arcing when I spread out the points. Instead of trying to pull a plug to check for a spark, I just hooked up my timing light. Was getting an irregular, rare flash of the light. I cleaned several connections and finally got it to have a consistent flash. Once I had that I dumped some gas in and got it to run. It didn't run very long each time but it was enough. I guess next I need to clean out the tank, run some new fuel line, and rebuild the carb. I've never messed with a carburetor but there's a how to on here that I'm gonna attempt to follow. Worst case scenario is I have to buy a weber right? 1 Quote Link to comment
wayno Posted July 6, 2012 Report Share Posted July 6, 2012 Another happy ending. :thumbup: 1 Quote Link to comment
skyblue Posted July 7, 2012 Report Share Posted July 7, 2012 right on! i can just picture the smile on your face when it fired up. :D Quote Link to comment
alabama_lowlife Posted July 8, 2012 Author Report Share Posted July 8, 2012 Yeah, i had a pretty big smile on my face. I have another reason to smile now. I rebuilt the carb friday night. Yesterday and today I replaced all the rubber fuel lines, fuel filter, and cleaned out the tank and metal lines. I also "restored" the fuel level sender so it would work. I poured a couple gallons of clean fuel in the tank and now it will crank and run all on its own! Another bit of good news, the radiator is not rusted out after all. I thought it was empty, but it was just low. I flushed it out and filled it back up. Gonna make sure all of the cooling system is in good shape next. I'll probably replace the thermostat and water pump for good measure. 1 Quote Link to comment
wayno Posted July 8, 2012 Report Share Posted July 8, 2012 This is disturbing, some lowlife in alabama got his truck running good, and we helped him. very disturbing, very, very disturbing. <_< :hmm: :huh: :rolleyes: :D :lol: :lol: :lol: 1 Quote Link to comment
alabama_lowlife Posted August 14, 2012 Author Report Share Posted August 14, 2012 Haven't updated in a month or so, but I've made some steady progress....I guess. Lol The radiator didn't hold up so I replaced it with an aluminum 3 row radiator off eBay. I also replaced the water pump and all the hoses just in case. I replaced all the brake shoes and the rear drums. Still need to flush out the old nasty brake fluid bleed, and adjust them. I also need to replace the front rubber lines. While replacing the brakes, I discovered the passenger kingpin was shot. So with help from mklotz's awesome videos I replaced the kingpins. I was expecting it to be absolute HELL, but it was fairly easy. Of course, since I had watched all the videos I knew EXACTLY what to do with all of it. I lowered it with 4 inch blocks in the back and reindexed and adjusted the torsion bars in the front. I won't be able to drive with the 4 inch blocks. Even with the 18's they place the bottom of the shocks below the scrub line. I'll have to swap them out for some 3 inch blocks and pull a leaf I guess. Here's how she sits right now. 1 Quote Link to comment
DatWifey Posted August 14, 2012 Report Share Posted August 14, 2012 It's looking good! It's always nice to freshen it up a bit and be able to actually appreciate it just moving around under its own power :thumbup: I actually really dig the patina it has going on as well 1 Quote Link to comment
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