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I bought a basket case. Now what?


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So I did some horse trading and I got this '74 B210 Coupe for basically scrap value.

 

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I typically stay far, far away from basket cases as personal projects but I made an exception here. It seemed to be in pretty good shape and I have a soft-spot for small cars. It came with a lot of parts and manuals and, with something this old, I have no problem just rolling it over the hill if it gets to be to be too much of a PITA. 

 

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The interior isn't great but it seems to be mostly there.

 

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A lot of that is just dirt and dust from sitting around for years.

 

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The underside looks alright except for a rust hole in the tunnel and it looks like the previous owner drove it over a curb or went bombing through a field.

 

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The previous owner bought it off of Craigslist abut 7 years ago and it "just quit" on the ride home. They partially disassembled it in preparation for an engine rebuild and never got past the removal. I was in a garage and kept dry the whole time. Everything is meticulously labeled and the seller gave me a big binder with a bunch of pictures of the tear-down, the receipts for the parts, and a bunch of notes on the disassembly and parts interchangeability. He even printed the original Craigslist ad.

 

I noticed that my winch was struggling more than normal pulling it onto the trailer and it wouldn't roll back off with gravity alone. I found that one of the rear brakes was locked up and it had gotten real hot. I assume that the brake had been locked up for a while and the previous owner blew a head gasket trying to drive it home.

 

I took a bunch of pictures and they're here: http://s722.photobucket.com/user/The_Engine_Room_/library/B210

 

I'm not sure what I'm going o do with it. I don't really think it'll be worth doing a full-on restoration so I was thinking about fixing the rust and doing some kind of sleeper or full chassis. I have delusions about rebuilding the A13 and then boosting the living shit out of it since that's kind-of my thing. I really don't want to do a swap until I window this block.

 

I am open to suggestions... or offers to buy.

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Its really in good shape for its age and compared to some Ive seen on here.. DO NOT Scrap it!!! Its too nice. Someone will definitly buy that from you or parting it out would be another option. I would take the 2 front door inner panels from you as your first buyer if you deside to do so. But please dont just scrap it... Its too nice and a lot of these cars just rot away.... My 2 cents....

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Let's talk about this engine. I have enough documentation and evidence to believe that the 89,000 miles on the clock is a legit number. It's just too clean to have rolled over so I strongly doubt that it's ever been opened up.

 

Before I tear into it, I'd like to get some opinions as to how I should go about it. I have a NOS Volvo turbo that's been sitting on my shelf for years and I'd like to use it here..

 

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Also, is there a big difference in the parts availability or aftermarket support for the A13 compared to the A14/A15? How about strength? Is this a head that can be ported? Is there enough interchangeability or should I look for a different block or head?

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I'm having trouble finding good information on the best possible volumetric efficiency of a ported stock head; just a lot of speculation. I need to get it above .85 to make this turbo work. I'd be in really good shape at around .90. Looking at the dyno graphs of the few A-series turbo builds I can find, it should be possible.

 

What does the aftermarket valve spring situation look like in regards to float rpm? ? Is 8krpm feasible? How about 9?

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I've got an running driving b210 A14 and a Dogleg 5 at a shop in Comming GA right now waiting to get pulled for my motor swap. PM me if you're interested in any of that stuff and I should be down there in the next week or 2 if you want to see it run before pulled. Planning to sell what I pull. Its not for sale until pulled obviously. But honestly sounds like that car was way cheaper than my motor/trans will be. But its A14 and 5 speed. Dogleg is the expensive half. Motor wouldn't be crazy.

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I've got an running driving b210 A14 and a Dogleg 5 at a shop in Comming GA right now waiting to get pulled for my motor swap. PM me if you're interested in any of that stuff and I should be down there in the next week or 2 if you want to see it run before pulled. Planning to sell what I pull. Its not for sale until pulled obviously. But honestly sounds like that car was way cheaper than my motor/trans will be. But its A14 and 5 speed. Dogleg is the expensive half. Motor wouldn't be crazy.

2J?

 

I appreciate the offer but I think I've got the transmission sorted out. I have a pull-out from an S2k that wouldn't be good for anything else... From what I understand, the A13 and A14 use the same head and the A13 would put me in a better spot as far s VE.

 

Let me be clear that I'm no novice and I have a full machine shop and dozens of builds under my belt. I'm asking dumb questions because this is my first personal Datsun/Nissan.

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Yes 2j. Now I'm curious how you know of 2j. Its the car Joe was gonna swap and never had time to on the side. Fixing to happen now for me ;)

 

Figured you were close to the motor/trans so I'd mention it.

 

Sorry I have nothing to offer on your turbo build :(

I am a novice when it comes to your build. I'm new here too.

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Okay. So after much deliberation and input, I've decided to just put this thing back together as-is and see what is missing and see if I can get it to fire up. I feel like the head gasket is probably blown but the engine turns over pretty freely. Hopefully I can get it done before something else rolls into my shop...

 

I'll keep y'all updated.

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  • 1 year later...

It's been a while since I put this car back together. I'm a new father as of 9/2015 so I've barely had any time to work on this car; let alone chat about it on the internet. 

 

Let me give a brief run down:

 

I started by putting the car back together. Surprisingly, It went together without a hitch and I was only missing a single m10 bolt for the fuel line. Everything that I got from the previous owner was bagged and labeled; and he had included a full set of shop manuals.

 

I had a really hard time getting it started and it would only just start and then die. I did a compression test and cylinder 1 was really low so I assumed that the head gasket was blown. I removed the head and, after some degreasing, this is what I saw:

 

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The cylinders are at the factory bore and you can even see the cross-hatch. There is no way that the odometer has rolled over.

 

I didn't find a blown head gasket but the exhaust valve on cylinder 1 was really sticky and was probably causing the compression loss. I disassembled and boiled out the head, lapped the valve seats, and installed new valve seals.

 

I put it back together and it started right up but it would die after about 5 seconds. Long story short: someone had tried to rebuild the carburetor and had lost the accelerator pump check ball and some other parts. While I was working on it I cleaned out the fuel tank, replaced the fuel filter, rebuilt the fuel pump, replaced the points, plugs, cap, rotor, and various other components, and removed the adv pintle.

 

It was at this point that I decided that I had had enough of the carb/points and decided to convert it to EFI.

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I started by making the EFI manifold adapters. I cut some flat flanges out of 10mm steel plate to check the fitment. I made some adjustments and decided to design some flange adapters with built-in injector bungs.

 

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I already had some injectors and harness clips from a K20 Civic that are about the perfect size but I had to make my own fuel rail mounts in order to use them.

 

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I made some velocity stacks and fitted it up:

 

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I was welding it up and DISASTER!!

 

I accidentally picked up a stainless filler rod and didn't notice it until after I had pretty much ruined the piece. The more I tried to fix it, the worse it got:

 

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I threw it into the woods and went back to plan A:

 

I had picked up a manifold from a 1995 Mercury Tracer (Ford Escort) when I was getting the parts for the EDIS conversion. I cut it up and reconfigured it to this:

 

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I cut off the Ford mounting flange and threw it away. I cut the runners off of the manifold and milled them so the runners would slip back into their stamped pockets.

 

There are 4 runners. The 2 on the inside cylinders are slightly shorter than the outside ones.

 

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I swapped them around and they are within 6mm of fitting. I'll shorten up the inner runners and I'm pretty much ready to weld it all together.

 

The throttle body was within 20mm of the radiator so I cut off the throttle body adapter. The plenum is made of 60mm tube. I just happened to have some laying around. I added the 30` elbow to get around the radiator. I haven't decided which throttle body to use. I'm tempted to use the 56mm TB from the Civic but I think it would be too much. The Ford TB is only 40mm but I'm tempted to use it since it's got the IAC valve built in.

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