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Mighty Mouse Engine Rebuild & Upgrades


difrangia

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Very well could have been for a temp sensor, guys. I can't imagine what kind of temps a person would expect coming out of a stock 1189cc E1 motor.

 

Anyone remember a James Bond movie in the sixties with a red NL in it? If so, could have been the oil injection port for the 'escape & evasion' smoke generator system.     Humor; not.

 

At any rate, the hole is gone.

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Been bustin' butt over the last week gathering and prepping a box of parts to go to Jet-Hot Coatings in Oklahoma City this next week. Spent yesterday afternoon cleaning up the horns. The covers will get the silver high-temp coating and I haven't decided what color to do the horns in. I've got the horn bodies scraped, washed, blasted, and primed. Sure a world of difference with the fifty years of cooked-on grime gone and dressed up in new primer.

 

Before

HornsAsPulled_zps02e9712c.jpg

 

After

HornsCleanedampPrimed_zps3451741b.jpg

 

The inside horn mechanisms look almost new. The cover in the foreground had a caved in area about 1 1/2" X 1" X 1/2" deep and a little smaller one next to it just above the holes for the brass tag and the slot for the terminal. Guess someone dropped a generator on it over the years. Half an hour of pecking and filing and she's ready for Jet-Hot. A couple of cams are going up to a cam grinding service a few miles from Jet-Hot for a mild performance bump. I'll be picking up a re-chromed 64 grille in Tulsa early this week on another day-run. Forge on ahead.

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Excellent.  My horns look similar but don't have the round dome-like covers.  I wonder if mine disappeared at some point over the years.  I also didn't crack mine open, just painted them black.  Did you bench test yours?  If so, how?  I recall that one is a high and the other is low.  Which one do you plan to connect? 

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Conner,

  You need to advertise for horns or at least covers on here. They are quite possibly common to other Datsuns of the mid-60's period. I can't remember the manufacturer but I have the little brass tags that I'll clean up and put back on after they're coated. You don't want the working parts of the horns exposed to the fumes & crud in the engine room for an indefinite period. One horn is high-tone and one is low-tone. In the above photo of the cleaned horns, you can see the 'H' in the casting on the left horn at close to the top of the horn. There's also an H or L cast into the flared opening of the horn. The horns made sound before I broke the truk down and  I have just bumped the horns on a battery and they both make sound. Before I put them back on I'll adjust them individually and together for the optimum sound that I want. On the right horn (cleaned photo) the screw with the spring under it is the adjuster.

 

They'd look kick-arse with the castings painted red with the polished aluminum coated covers and maybe look too sweet to hide back in the engine room. Maybe mount them on the front bumper.....

 

NOT !! Just kiddin'.

 

Steve

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Conner,

 

Forgot to add to previous post; the covers just snap on. The punched oval cutout goes over the electrical terminal and there's a dimple on the opposite of the cover that snaps into the hole in a little L-bracket that's riveted or spot welded to the steel horn mechanism base. the 'L' bracket is visible at the left side of the horn on right of same photo. If the covers get out of shape over the years they could vibrate/bounce off and get lost under and out the back of the vehicle going down the road, Probably what happened to yours. The covers and bracket can be tweaked to get a good retention when re-assembling the covers to the horn.

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Not a lot to write home about. Been doing a few of the 'grunt work' tasks like cleaning various smaller trinkets and stripping the engineroom down for heavy-duty cleaning and touchup. The engine compartment condition is in surprisingly good condition for half a century wear & tear.

 

The block and head won't be back from the shop for a couple weeks and the cams will go out for regrind and a good sized box of parts will go to Jet-Hot for coating next week. Good time to get some of my least favorite chores out of the way. Gonna replace all the hard brake lines and update to dual-circut brakes. Anyone know if I'll need to add in a proportioning valve (Wayno, has your NL got one)?

 

EngineRoom2_zps00e336e6.jpg

 

EngineRoom3_zps1e8e11c8.jpg

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I just replaced all the round grommets in my engine bay this weekend.  I had to order minimum quantities of like 25 so I have extras of every size you probably need.  Shoot me a PM if you would be interested in a "kit" for your engine bay. 

 

I'm interested in what you have running through the two holes in your firewall and upper fender on the driver's side.  Something comes through the firewall above the upper shelf and then feeds back into another hole in the upper fender into the fender (back out of the engine bay).  Is that a wiring harness or cable?  In my truck those holes appear to be abandoned.  I haven't gotten there yet but I am afraid I'm going to have serious wiring issues. 

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Conner,

  It's the radio antenna co-ax cable. I'll probably take it out as I'm leaving the radio in but not operational. It's positive ground and the truk is neg ground. It looks historically great but I'd rather hear the little E1 anyway. It's gonna be interesting to see how that nasty looking corner is gonna clean up and touch-up. I'm hopin' for a great 'survivor' look with abundance of patina, but if it doesn't turn out like I want it, I'll paint all the sheetmetal in the engine room. The finished engine, as I envision it, may look out of place unless I go ahead and paint it all. We'll see.

 

TopofDriverSideCowl_zps8c5e9c8d.jpg

 

TopofDriverFender_zps55eeb2ec.jpg

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Small update on this thread. I got calls from the cam grinding service and the high temperature coating business today and all my stuff in Oklahoma City is ready for pickup. I'll make a run at the end of the week and have some pics. Should hear something from the machine shop this week on the block and head work. The project is gonna move into a different and better phase soon, I feel.

 

Been cleaning up some of the smaller stuff that is not at the coating service and smearin' a metric ton of elbow grease around in the engine room this past weekend. Here's the product of about an hour and a half of Naptha solvent, Scotchbrite, soapy water, a dull 'Old Timer' pocket knife, and ultra contortional exersize in the left front corner of the engine room:

 

Before

FuelFilterAreaRaw_zps7ed5ee7d.jpg

 

After

FuelFilterAreaCleaned_zps2a1851ce.jpg

 

Another twenty hours of this, touch-up paint, rubbing compound, and wax and it'll be ready for the fresh E1.

 

Steve

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For a first time engine bay clean, I use Purple Power or Super Clean and a pressure washer. I have had exccellent results with this method, but it has had a learning curve. Either of those chemicals will remove the shine from paint and also can remove bright plating if left on too long or too much concentrate is used. And keep it away from glass.

 

Sounds scary, but the results are amazing.

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Today was the kind of day a gearhead just loves. Early in the week I learned that the cams and lifters at the grind shop and the box of goodies at the high temperature coating service were ready for pick-up. Scheduled Thursday off work to buzz up to Oklahoma City (120 mi. approx.) and retrieve the hoard. Thursday morining before leaving for OKC I called the machine shop that is doing the block & head work and he was right in the middle of working his magic and figured that he might be done by late afternoon. Retrieved the stuff in OKC and was heading back home. About sixty miles from home I got a call from the machine shop and the block and head were ready so I swung about fourty miles out of the way and snagged them too. The little SUV was filled up behind the back seat.

 

We ended up with .035 more lift at the lobe and he resurfaced a couple of sets of tappets. Actually I took four cams and 18 lifters. Half of the stuff was mine and half was a Datsun 320 friend in Kansas. Posting some eye candy here:

 

RegroundCamampLifters_zps0887a7dd.jpg

 

RegroundCamampLiftersClose-up_zps13015cc

 

HTCoatedPartsExample_zpsce46bfe1.jpg

 

CoatedExhaustManifold1_zpsa08d46e1.jpg

 

CoatedExhaustManifold2_zpse98f96d7.jpg

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Getting ready to chase all threads on block and head. Started digging into the hole in right rear of the block that the drain cock screws into for draining the block water jacket. The hole has 3/8 pipe tap and was filled up completely with rust and crud from fifty years of daily life. I took my dull 'Old Timer' knofe and dug most of it out . the hole is drilled about 1 1/2" deep. Hand drilled it out with 7/16" drill. Took a short length of bailing wire and bent about 3/8" over at 90 degrees. Used that to dig the approximately 3/16" hole out that goes straight up into the water jacket. Used a long slim punch and piece of 1/8" welding rod to work down from the top through the right rear coolant hole (approx. 1/2" diameter) that flows coolant to/from the head. Notice the welding rod going down through the coolant port and into the hole to the drain cock in this photo; also the bailing wire tool:

 

DrainCock1_zps266bf41e.jpg

 

Here's a shot of the rod extending down into the drain cock port:

 

DrainCock2_zpsf63428ac.jpg

 

And a shot from the top down through the coolant port in the block deck that shows the little hole that connects the water jacket with the drain cock hole:

 

DrainCock3_zps71ed7425.jpg

 

If you're building an E1 or J13 engine and want to be able to drain the block, you'll need to clear this passageway out. Otherwise, the drain cock is there just for a historical visual only. By the way the drain cock is totally stopped up also. I'll clear it out and polish the brass that it is made completely of for a nice visual on the finished engine. On to the next hill.

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It was ran through a regular engine shop washer twice. I should have cleaned out this passageway before taking it to the shop. I hope this will be helpful to someone else who is building one of these old pushrod motors. Earlier in the thread I posted photos of the removal of the oil galley plugs. I've got some other chores on the slate for this week and one is to chase all threads, grease the cylinder bores and cam bearings and hose everything out at the car wash. Then back to the house for a blow dry and regrease. Then I'll check crank bearing clearances (plastigage) and check endplay. Next paint the block & head and let that cure for a day or two and begin assembly.

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The shop I use hot tanks then it goes in to the parts washer then they then they wire brush all journals and passages water and oil. All machining is done.  After that it goes back into the parts washer then it is hand washed with dawn dish washing liquid and water just before assembly.  It costs more but I think it is worth it.

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The block had a good amount of the original paint when I took it to the shop. Two trips through the washer stripped all the paint and took everything to bare metal, inside and out. I've chased all the threads and will get a good car wash blast this afternoon. I would have done this anyway to insure that any grind wheel dust or machining dropoff is blown away in addition to any oil on surfaces to be painted to get a good bond. All machined and bearing surfaces will get a light coat of oil after car wash and blow dry. Time to start shaking the paint.

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