1982 310 Engine saga

[datsunaholic]

So, I bought this rust-free '82 310 last year. It was a running car but the radiatior was resembling Kilauea. The issue was clear- it was blowing exhaust or compression into the coolant due to a broken head bolt.

 

After pulling the head I found the exhaust manifold was cracked in 5 places, so the search for a new manifold- which was specific to the 1982 310 California Emiission model- was on. Finally gave up finding the right one and bought a manifold for a '83 Senta. Same casting, just without the Air Injection tubes. Then I took the head in to a reputable head shop, who fixed the coolant-leak pitting on the head gasket surface.

 

I reassembled everything over the last couple weeks. The weather has refused to cooperate, but I got it all back together. This included new spark plugs, gapped per the factory manual.

 

In trying to start it, I couldn't get fuel to the carb. My Mi-T-Vac was able to pull fuel TO the carb, but the fuel pump did nothing. Found several badly cracked hoses, replaced those, same problem. Finally force-fed the carb to fill the bowl, which primed the system enough to start, which got the fuel pump working.

 

But the engine only ran on 2 cylinders. Pulled the plugs, #3 and #4 were black afetr less than 5 minutes idling. #1 and #2 were dry and looked like they came out of the box. Cleaned the black ones and reasssembled. Managed to break a plug wire, so replaced it. Still, 2 cyls. Pulled plug wires one by one, revealed that if I pulled #3 or #4 it instantly dies. I can pull BOTH #1 and #2 at the same time, and it doesn't change at all. I know they're getting spark- I checked that. Good enough to bite me when I tried plugging one back in when it was running.

 

Popped the valve cover to check valve clearance warm- had 5 tight valves, but the crazy thing was the tight ones were on #3 and #4; the 2 working cyls. Compression tested- #1, 190, #2, 180, #3, 180, #4, 175. So the best compression is the dead cyinders.

 

Now, If I rev it up, at around 4K I can feel one of the dead cyls trying to fire. It's #2, because I tried it with those pulled and #1 shows up totally dead.

 

Checked dis cap- after a week messing with this in the rain, it was soaked. Dried it off, no difference. But I noticed the magnetic pickups are off-center, and one was hitting the reluctor. I was able to adjust the air gap, but when I went to start it got a loud clank noise and the starter siezed.

 

Thought I bent a valve, but the engine bars over with the wrench fine. But the starter is siezed up tight.

 

Lovely. I haven't pulled the starter yet, but even then it'll be back to why it runs on 2 cyls.

 

I'm out of ideas. I've checked, rechecked the timing. I 've verified plug order. Checked the valve lash. Yet #1 and #2 are clean and dry- no sign fuel is getting to those 2 cyls at all. Unless those cyls are getting air without going through the carb? There are an awful lot of vacuum lines.

[wayno]

It is likely the distributor, it is wore out if it is hitting things it's not supposed to.

Turn the engine backwards by hand, remove the plugs if you have to.

You said that it had exhaust blowing into the coolant because of a head bolt, are you positive it was the headbolt and not the headgasket, when the engine runs, it will force exhaust into the water jacket threw the bad headgasket, well it also can go the other way when the engine is not running, if a cylinder gets enough water into it, it can hydro lock, another reason to pull the plugs and turn it over, does anything come out of the spark plug holes, have someone else turn it over while you are watching the holes.

Now I realize you said it had good compression, so this does not make sense, but the only time I had exhaust going into my water jacket, it was because the headgasket was bad for one reason or another.

[ggzilla]

I noticed the magnetic pickups are off-center, and one was hitting the reluctor.

Usually air-gap adjustment won't fix that, but the bearing plate is bad (the ball bearings have fallen out)

 

able to adjust the air gap, but when I went to start it got a loud clank noise and the starter siezed

Maybe the pickup teeth are now locking up. Tap the cap off and see if that's it.

[datsunaholic]

I did mention I had the head off? It did have a blown head gasket, but that was due to the broken head bolt. With no bolt, the head lifted and hence the exhaust out the radiator cap. This was between #2 and #3 (center exhaust side headbolt). When I had teh head in the shop, it was welded (to eliminate the pitting on the gasket surface) and very lightly milled. The engine isn't hydrolocked- I can turn with a ratchet and socket. There's no coolant in the cyls, and wasn't when I pulled the head in the first place.

[datsunaholic]

Usually air-gap adjustment won't fix that, but the bearing plate is bad (the ball bearings have fallen out)

 

 

Maybe the pickup teeth are now locking up. Tap the cap off and see if that's it.

 

I can freely bar the engine over with a ratchet. I adjusted the air gap with the dist removed. It was touching before I did that, but not really sticking. It free spins now with no contact. There's virtually no wobble.

[ggzilla]

Yes, a bad bearing plate doesn't cause the shaft to wobble. It causes the pickup to move sideways slightly (instead of only rotating) whenever vacuum is applied.

 

My guess is the starter has died. The clunk is probably the solenoid pulling the gear out to mesh with the flywheel. But if the solenoid contacts have burnt, the starter will not turn over.

[datsunaholic]

Oh. I saw how it was affected by the vacuum, but it was hitting the pickup closest to the vacuum can at rest with no vacuum applied. I wondered why it moved away when vacuum was applied- now with it centered at rest it might have made contact with the opposite one when I tried starting it. Have to recheck again. The odd thing was when I loosened the 3 pickup screws, it immediately moved into a non-contacting position and stayed put.

[datsunaholic]

OK, It's always the simple stuff.

 

After thinking about it I started thinking it's GOT to ba a vacuum leak. There's no other explanation.

 

Started tracing vacuum lines. Found a big 4-way Vacuum port in #1 runner with only 2 hoses attached. Gee, the same side that isn't getting fuel... because it's wide open to the engine compartment. Nice thing about 1982 310s is the vacuum diagram is attched to the hood. The missing lines were for the AB valve- easy enough, as the hose was laying there tangled in the rest of the spaghetti. The other missing hose was the crossover to the carbon canister, which I found right where I'd tucked it behind the window washer tubes. Tiny thing was easy to miss, especially hidder under the air cleaner. This could be the problem.

 

But no way to know with a dead starter. Well, turns out Dave was right. The reluctor pickups were jamming the reluctor and stalling it, which put a big load on the starter. That in turn heated up the corrosion on the battery cables, which is what happens when the battery posts get rained on for a week. Cleaned the terminals and clamps AGAIN and it cranks over.

 

Back to barely running, but different sounding. But since I messed with the reluctor pickups the timing is now way off. The vacuum advance on the distributor is next to siezed (since the bearings plate has gone bad, as Dave said). Changed the ignition timing enough to get it started, and apparently the vacuum advance moved on its own after a couple of minutes because it smoothed out immensely all of a sudden.

 

So, now it idles at 1100 RPM in Park, 700 in Drive, doesn't die, but it's still loud as hell because I'm missing the manifold outlet nuts. That's an easy fix once I find some M8x1.25 Exhaust nuts, which NONE of the local parts stores seem to carry. There hasn't been a all-SAE car in the US in almost 30 years, Metric has been the standard since the 70s, but all the parts stores seem to have are SAE nuts. I may just have to do the old standby of hardware-store Stainless regular nuts and palnut them like I did on my truck (which kept losing the factory exhaust nuts, which is why I have no spares).

[ggzilla]

On the road again! Leave the vacuum advance disconnect and plugged and she'll run right.

[datsunaholic]

Well, not quite on the road. Tabs are 19 months expired, and the exhaust still needs to be hooked up. A few other small things. Wiper blades for one- January's ice storm actually broke the blades off the arms.

 

 

Eventually I need to find a driver's exterior door handle, as it's broken in half.

[datsunaholic]

Gave up trying to get the exhaust collector nuts on- damn studs are too short. and the collector is absolutely jammed in place.I'd have to get it on a lift to remove the exhaust, at least back to the cat. It runs fine, just a little loud.

 

Got tabs Wednesday (Halloween Renewals!), bought a new battery today (was borrowing the 510's battery which was way too big) and wiper blades. Drove it to the gas station, then tested it briefly on the freeway. Temp stays right in the middle, radiator fan cycles normally, only issue is it shifts into 3rd WAY too early and it bogs. Shifts into 3rd at 20MPH. Feels like it totally skipped 2nd. I can manually put it in all 3 positions and it finds all 3 gears, so all the gears in the transaxle are good, just odd shift points.

 

Lot of water sloshing around- trunk was full. Spare tire was nearly submerged. Pulled the drain plug, have to find the leak later.

[datzenmike]

20mph 3rd might be normal. My 710 goes into 2nd in about 2 car lengths unless you give it some gas. Third isn't far behind that. In fact I used to mistake the 3rd shift for the first to second shift till I got used to it. All this if just driving normally away from a stop. You hardly even feel 2nd. If I give it more gas the gears are much more spread out and there is a strong noticeable 2nd and 3rd shift.

[datsunaholic]

If I give it more gas it doesn't kick down, but I may not have the kickdown device hooked up. The throttle arm has places for 2 cables, and I haven't gotten around to figuring what the second cable (not connected) is for. It wasn't hooked up when I got it. It's not a kick-up for the A/C, that's electric and that's functioning (even though the A/C doesn't work). It's been a battle just to get to the stage where I could back this thing out of the driveway under its own power.

[ggzilla]

Yay! now it's on the road.

 

Kick-down only affect upshifts, not downshifts, right? Some Datsuns use an electric Kick-down.

[datsunaholic]

The oddball extra cable on the throttle definately is the downshift cable. It goes straight to the transmission. I hooked it up, but haven't driven since to see what it did. Spent the afternoon tearing my hands apart and the dash apart to try to change the cluster bulbs (the oil pressure light was out) only to find the bulb was fine. Sender was so oily the connector wouldn't stay on. Dammit.

 

Tried to see why the dome light doesn't work- door switches are missing, and the dome light housing terminals were corroded. Tried to remove to clean- housing disintegrated to powder.

 

Found maintenance records. Timing belt was changed in 1993 and 2010. But they didn't put down the mileage, just the date. Can't be much, since the owner sold it to the hulk hauler that I rescued it from in early 2011.

[ggzilla]

Nice, so the timing belt was just changed. When they were new I thought the 310 was cleaner looking than the Accord ... but I drove an Accord until I got my B110