Datsun B310 turbo coupe, A15 project

[Atomic]

Have been cleaning the fuel tank, was scavenging some goop from the bottom, eww:

 

I was also finally be able to make the plenum ready:

Ready as meaning all the ends fixed. Still needs a lot of polishing and such.

 

Continued on the exhaust system too. Got the pipe ready all the way to the muffler now. I made some adjustments to the system and I have the V-clamp higher up to clear out some ground clearance:

 

[Atomic]

Welding more:

 

Welding stainless steel is so chill. I really enjoy the TIG, wonderful machine!

 

 

 

 

[Atomic]

More welding:

[Mattndew76]

keep the pictures coming. I love the progress.

[Atomic]

Detached the rear axle  and welded the crossmember holders and spring plates permanently to the axle:

 

Also opened the diff plate to clean up some sand that went inside the case while sandblasting it last time:

 

Welding and grinding of the cover plate:

 

[Atomic]

Ordered the rest of the intake piping from do88. Devcon epoxy putty arrived today, will be applying that to the intake manifold and finish the intake system later this week. Bought some exhaust hangers too and will be making exhaust support structures out of stainless steel. We're getting closer to the first start up !

 

[Atomic]

Applied the devcon plastic steel putty to the intake manifold set. The epoxy should be fully hardened tomorrow:

will be sanding out the epoxy tomorrow and see how it looks

 

Took the tires off to paint the whole axle::

 

also applied more undercoating while at it:

 

 

And here are some updates on the tank cleaning process. It's a bit cold in the garage so it takes time from the citric acid to remove the dust:

 

 

 

[Atomic]

New stainless steel fittings for the clutch setup:

Also moved the breather hose location on top of the valve cover to suit the new intake manifold:

I would very much like to paint the valve cover later with wrinkle red paint. Maybe when I need to check the valve adjustments after first run of the engine?

 

Painted the rear fender wells with same black hammer paint applied with brush. Will be putting undercoating on top of it when it's dried:

 

Seems to fit, also I will try the wrinkle black paint on the intake manifolds and see how it will look.

Wrapped the turbo oil outlet with stainless steel sleeving:

Noticed some rainbow coloring on the exhaust flanges after welding:

I went and added some heat reflecting tape to areas where the turbos exhaust side is near walls and components:

Also reinforced the clutch slave cylinder plate (stainless steel) a bit, will be rounding the edges and do some slight modifications to it

 

 

Edited April 11, 2019 by Atomic

[Atomic]

Does anyone have an insight for a good fancontroller for radiator fans that is not just on/off type?

[Atomic]

More stuff from Sweden arrived:

Did a quick mockup with bits in places, all the piping should be alright from now on!

Sanded down the metal epoxy from the plenum and intake manifolds:

 

Also shortened the SS banjo bolt and made a new flare fit:

And rounded some edges from the clutch slave sylinder support:

Edited April 12, 2019 by Atomic

[Atomic]

Bought some heat resistant wrinkle black paint for the intake manifold and plenum:

Still need to clean around the injector pockets a bit:

Quite smexy:

Maybe next time wrinkle red valve cover with silver nissan letters? hmm...

[Atomic]

Tried some of the liquid epoxy to attach the aluminium hose fitting for the IAC piping:

And then started mocking everything together:

Hammered the intercooling pipe holes to avoid sharp edges gnawing on the silicon pipes:

Added more stuff:

 

Then I took the rear axle shaft out because I need to change the beaten sand plate:

It was bit dirty inside, having some of the sand from sandblasting inside the tube, probably went in from the breather hole:

I was able to clean them all off and changed new greasing to the thrust bearings and installed new dust plate:

The old one was pretty beaten up:

 

I'm going to shopping tomorrow for the nuts for the exhaust system. Not sure when I have time to assemble everything together. Didn't take many pictures, but it seems that the old gas tank has only some old varnish inside that creates some droops here and there. I need to think a way to remove the old varnish somehow. Someone suggested buying E85 and sloshing it around the tank, hmm..

 

[Atomic]

Got the copper bolts. Intake- and exhaust manifold are secured:

 

We're getting close, really close. I should bolt the turbo and exhaust system to its place. I need to fabricate the exhaust hangers first tho. The gas tank is giving me a headache with some of the old varnish sticking to the sides. I really would just want to put the new coating on, but still I'm so close to have fully cleaned tank, ugh.. My initial though is that the E85 will eat through all the sealers in the end and the extra work went to waste, so hmmm...

 

Oh, and I have a working throttle cable system now, vroom vroom! bought some off the shelf random cable that I saw and modified it to fit.

Edited April 15, 2019 by Atomic

[Atomic]

Added more exhaust tubing:

The anakonda has grown in size:

 

Got the turbo bolted down with the downpipe going nicely, avoiding all the walls and stuff:

 

couple random shots:

 

Cleaned the garage floor today a bit. Also helped a friend of mine to plug some exhaust leak holes from his Celica.

 

[Atomic]

Lot of stuff happening in life, broke up from a relationship and was feeling down all day. Got the rear axle piping mocked up tho:

[Lockleaf]

I've often found solace and therapy in the garage.  When life gets roughest that's where i go to.

[Mattndew76]

Total fan of this build. Cant get anymore "regular guy" makes a good vision come to life.

 

The work looks great!

[Atomic]

Good and bad news.

 

Good news:

I got the over axle pipe welded ready:

with heaps of room everywhere, I'm so happy how it came true:

And getting day by day a bit better at welding with TIG I guess:

 

Then tightened all the water and oil lines to the turbo:

 

Sloshed RE85 in the tank and sure enough the old varnish vanished in an instant, leaving me really black RE85:

 

some small rust spots were left behind, but all in all I was pretty happy with the result:

Then I proceeded to pour the POR15 in the tank.. And here begins the bad news:

I was sloshing the thing around quite long... And sure enough it got more solid as time passed, so the bottom of the tank started to look more like a sponge... So I scooped an 8 mm thick layer with a flat head screwdriver. I'm not sure if this will hold anything in the end... Atleast normal gasoline should be fine....? I need to flush the varnish again when switching to RE85 atleast. I will try to do some tests how long the POR15 can take RE85 too.

 

Well, when I was feeling adventurous I poured the coolant in and sure enough there is a hole in the radiator:

And some dumball had the thermostat slip when installing the thermostat housing, do'h!

 

To be fair, if there wasn't any water getting to cylinderhead, I wouldn't have noticed that the water leaks also from the old intake manifold water ports. So I will probably have to pull the intake manifolds (both) out and inspect what to do. This kind of indicates that the surfaces aren't straight and I would need to sand them down. Or would there be other possibilities? The intake/exhaust gasket should probably hold the water in even when it's fresh and correctly tightened?  

 

Edited April 18, 2019 by Atomic

[datzenmike]

21 hours ago, Atomic said:

Lot of stuff happening in life, broke up from a relationship and was feeling down all day.

 

 

Ten good reasons for a relationship with a Datsun...

 

1/ Your Datsun never minds if you drive her at 3 in the morning.

2/ Your Datsun never has a headache.

3/ Your Datsun doesn't mind if you drive another car.

4/ Your Datsun doesn't mind of you let your friends drive her.

5/ Your Datsun never gets jealous.

6/ Your Datsun doesn't need flowers in order to drive her.

7/ Your Datsun doesn't care if you forget the anniversary of the day you bought her.

8/ Your Datsun doesn't mind if you trade her in for a younger faster Datsun.

9/ Your Datsun doesn't complain if you drive her too hard and fast.

10/ Your Datsun doesn't want to snuggle and talk after being driven.

[Atomic]

Got the IAC valve working today! Now I will have adjustable idle speed, hurray! My throttle position sensor is being fiddly tho, when i slam the throttle shut, the sensor gives negative -% values. Have been trying to re-calibrate few times and same issue occurs. I'm suspecting a dirty TPS or defect one. I had the throttle body on when i was welding last time, so maybe it got too hot, oops.. 😄 

[Atomic]

I just need to install the fuel tank, tighten the lambda, fix the radiator, pour some gas in the tank, make a grounding cable for the fuel pump, add some coolant and then we're ready to start. I'm getting really nervous, I was thinking I would be more excited 😄

[Atomic]

B310 turbo coupe is almost ready to fire up. I contacted one of the local radiator shops and they said it would cost around 350 euros to get it fixed.. sigh. 

 

The fuel tank is ready, I would like to cover it with some undercoating on top of the paint layer. Today I picked up the braided hose for the clutch and got it all assembled:

 

No leaks so far, pedal feels good. I could soon start bleeding the brakes too while waiting for the radiator to get fixed. I might look if there would be a cheaper solution outside of Finland or something.

[Atomic]

Exhaust system currently looking like this:

 

It still needs the end muffler and hangers:

 

Pretty good ground clearance in my opinion:

[Atomic]

Installed the chrome front bumper while at it:

[Maschinenbau]

350 to fix the radiator? Is it an original brazed copper core or something? You can buy a brand new aluminum one for different models for half that. Like this ebay junk for example