alabama_lowlife's 70 521

[mrbigtanker]

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.

I got 4" blocks on my truck you will be fine.If you look under there you will see that your u bolt plate just sits on the inside of your wheel with the 18's.looks good keep up the good work.

[DaBlist]

Love the paint the way it is!

[alabama_lowlife]

It's been a few months since I've updated. I have replace everything in the brakes except the hard lines. I have replaced the clutch master and slave cylinders. Cleaned up the interior some and slapped a vinyl seat cover on the bench. That's all the good news!

 

Now for the bad news. I discovered tonight that the head is cracked. This is the front driver's side of the head, near the distributor. It leaks coolant. Do y'all think this is something I might be able to have repaired by a machine shop? Or should I just start looking on here for a new head?

[wayno]

I am having a hard time beleaving that that 10mm bolt could leak coolant as there isn't any coolant in that part of the head.

I suppose that the front cover could be leaking, but that likely isn't a head issue.

Is the front headbolt near the distributor tight, as I have had issues with that headbolt coming loose and having coolant leak in that area.

[alabama_lowlife]

wayno, it was leaking between the front cover and the head and I'm pretty sure that it was leaking from that crack as well. I'll run it again this afternoon and make sure, but I saw the coolant covering that area. I cleaned it up with a wire brush and some brake cleaner and it reappeared from those areas.

[alabama_lowlife]

Wayno, the more I think about it, you've gotta be right. The timing chain is up there in that area. If it's gonna leak anything it should be oil. I had replaced the thermostat gasket because it was leaking. But I thought I had cleaned up all the coolant mess. It HAD to have been leftover coolant I was seeing. I'll check it real close this afternoon.

[alabama_lowlife]

Ok, after closer examination its leaking oil. Which should have been obvious to me. However, I had just replaced the thermostat housing gasket so I was LOOKING for coolant. I guess I thought I found some lol. I'm not too worried about an oil leak.

 

I finally got the timing set correctly. It fought me pretty hard but I won. Then I got the idle adjusted.

 

At this point, I THINK I've got it ready to drive on the road. I'm pretty nervous about it since it hasn't been on a road in many many years. Maiden voyage is planned for tomorrow afternoon. My friend whose grandfather owned the truck will be riding with me. Wish me luck! And thanks so much for all the help

[ol'skoolrob]

i bet your friends grandpa is really gonna get a kick out of going for a ride in it again

make sure you bring some tools it sucks getting 20 miles from home and having a stupid problem and no tools :rofl:

[alabama_lowlife]

My wife and I took it down the road yesterday. I drove it about 1/2 a mile to the next road and she drove it back. All went well other than it smoking like a freight train lol. Later on I drove it on about an 8 mile round trip to the closest store to get some gas. Again, everything went well. It smoked all the way to the store but didn't smoke on the way home from the store.

 

I can't thank all of you enough for helping me get this truck back on the road. All the how to's and people willing to offer advice has made this go pretty well so far. A few months ago this truck was just parked under a shed wasting away with no prospect of ever moving again.

[mrbigtanker]

good job.nice to see you on the road.

[71datsuns]

Nicely done man!! Good too see that this truck found a good home and wont see a junk yard!!

[banzai510(hainz)]

thats a weird crack on that head by the 10mm head bolt.

I persoanlly would just clean it GOOD and JB Weld over that hole to stop any oil comming out.

The thermos state housing. if one tries to pull the sender out it could crack the houseing thus leaking all the time. I myself just put new ones in with new senders and the 16mm hex holder for the sender.

 

 

white smole could be s loose intake and its sucking water in thru the head water passages. make sure tight or the intake exhaust gasket is good.

 

datsun LLC has new Chinese made Aluminum Radiators . They look good

[alabama_lowlife]

The smoke, thus far, hasn't returned since that first long test drive. Since then I've driven about 20 miles with no more smoking.

 

The thermostat leak was due to the lack of a gasket. They didn't have a gasket in stock when I replaced the thermostat, water pump, and hoses. I used RTV and it waited a couple weeks to start leaking. Once I installed a gasket it stopped leaking. I bought one of those Chinese radiators for $206 shipped off eBay and it works great. Temp stays just over the 1/2 mark.

 

Right now, the only maintenance I see on the horizon is the timing chain. It's rattling. Having owned several newer nissans I know not to toy around with the chain (or belt) so I will be replacing it and everything associated with it very soon.

 

While I'm doing the timing chain, I'm thinking about putting on a KA oil pump. I read on here that it's higher flowing than the stock pump.

 

I would also like to upgrade to a matchbox distributor. The points are serving me well at this point, but the vacuum advance does not work. I guess the diaphragm is shot.

[banzai510(hainz)]

well I have vac adv dont work either and I just run them anyways. Just adjust so it runs best as you can. I wouldnt even worry about that one. But one thing is RTV!!!!!!!

Nissan were made to run gaskets on the water pump,themp and head ect.....

Felpro makes good front cover kits and gaskets. Just go to O rileys site and dial in your model Datsun and youll get kits or SKU numbers of what you can get and alsways get spares. Esp thermostat gaskets. head to housing gaskets also or make spares on sheets of the gasket sheets.

 

most time I run tha gasket dry or just a then film of RTV of black or the light blu from Permatex. I HATE RED!!!!!!!!!

[alabama_lowlife]

I like to run a thin film of black RTV on the gaskets as well, primarily to hold it in place while I install it.

[alabama_lowlife]

[mrbigtanker]

got to get the front end down.but it looks good.

[wayno]

I have found that cereal box sides make good gaskets, the thermostat housing to head application is a good example.

[alabama_lowlife]

Well, I've been SLOWLY doing all the body work to get this ready for paint. I'm not very good at it so I have to try 5 times to fix the things a real body man could fix on the first try. A friend of mine helped me paint the door jambs and interior a couple days ago. It was about 75/25 with him showing me what to do. Here are a couple pics of stuff in primer, then painted before clear and the last one is after clear. The color is monterey blue from a 370z. I still have a lot more to do, but I wanted to post some pics of where I am.

[datson4life]

Mora pics!

[wayno]

Good job  :thumbup:

[DanielC]

That looks good! 

Guess how you learn to fix metal on the first try.  You just have to learn it, by doing it.  you will get to a point where it only takes four tries, then three, maybe two, and finally only one try.  But there will also be setbacks, too.  But you are learning, and nothing can replace that.

 

There might be a local community college near you, that offers evening classes in auto body, tailored for the home hobbyist.

[mrbigtanker]

very very nice,cant wait to see more of the truck done.and welcome back. :thumbup:  :thumbup:  :thumbup:  :thumbup:  :thumbup:

[skyblue]

Great ptogress!

[alabama_lowlife]

I haven't worked on this as much as I should, but I have started recently to make some progress. I'm getting some work done on the bed. It's not even close to being paint ready but I'm moving in the right direction.