Montana Datsun Revival

[datzenmike]

Valve covers are cheap and easy to change. Take a close look at both mating surfaces for any damage the gasket might not seal. I think the tightening torque is around 5 ft lbs. Twist of the wrist tight. Drive several heat cycles and check for seepage and if any tighten slightly. Avoid RTV as it isn't needed and just makes a goddamn mess.

[banzai510(hainz)]

its a minor leak I would not worry about.

I have had OK results with the black Felpro Valve cover gasket. but dont overtorq.

 

on the timing cover sometimes they get pinched in the corners mear the headand thats where they leak.

 

 

Ps Im not in to the wheels but I LOVE the PATINA on this!!!!!!!!!!!!

Edited August 30, 2022 by banzai510(hainz)

[sick620]

[]2eDeYe]

Lookin good B)

[sick620]

took it to cruise night in our little town, they do it annually. Not very many imports but in a sea of old domestic stuff people were very excited to see it. I need to get working on replacing bushings and front brakes it’s pretty harsh to drive right now. Also plan on lifting front end a half inch or an inch.

[sick620]

3 hours ago, ]2eDeYe said:

Lookin good B)

When are you going to post a video of straightening your front bumper? I need to do the same to ours. It’s  bent the same was as yours more or less lol. 

Edited September 10, 2022 by sick620

[]2eDeYe]

I guess I know what I am doing next on that one haha

[sick620]

Replaced the steering wheel with a “fardi”fake nardi. Someone linked this adapter on Amazon and that it works on a 521 with the minimum gap. All 521 aftermarket wheels give you excess gap and unfortunately this wasn’t much different dang! The wheel looks pretty cool tho… then to make matters worse I decided to drive it to the gym for it’s first spring drive today. Forgot to tie down the battery, it fell into the engine bay and exploded the brake line and cought on fire! Luckily I was only going like 5mph when it happened because I lost all brakes! With no e brake. I popped the clutch to make it stop and stuck my foot out the door lol 😂… time to learn how to make brake lines I’ve never done it before.

 

Edited March 19, 2023 by sick620

[mklotz70]

This will help get you started.

 

 

[mklotz70]

Which adapter is it?

 

[sick620]

I watched your entire video, Thanks it gave me a good base of understanding. I will probably first just try buying a pre made line at the parts store since I am only replacing that one piece but this did help me a lot. 

2 hours ago, mklotz70 said:

Which adapter is it?

 

It is this adapter. I now read that I need to move the turn signal controls closer to the wheel and grind the shaft down a bit to be flush with the nut. I did not realize you could move the controls on the column. I will be trying this and see if it works better. 

[mklotz70]

There is some adjustment in where the blinker switch can be placed.  There's some info in one of my vids.  I've always thought that the slot could be elongated or a new hole could be drilled, but I've never actually tried it.  I started it at the 3min mark, but go to 13:45 to see the one on the 521 column.

 

 

 

 

[sick620]

 

we did it boys no gap. @mklotz70your video was very helpful. I just drilled a small hole near the end of column for that anti rotational bolt…then tightened everything down. I also had to grind a bit of the exposed shaft down that was hanging out past the nut so that the steering wheel nut was more flush with the shaft when snugged down… the turn signal cancel does not work tho.. on this adapter the two studs are a bit too inset  so they go right past the pieces they are supposed to be hitting to cancel the signal… next I’m going to try and tighten the shifter slop a bit 

Edited March 22, 2023 by sick620

[mklotz70]

I'm glad it helped.

 

[Slow Loris]

Just wanna say I’m really enjoying reading the history of this project—I think I’m like 1.5 years behind you and a lot behind in mechanical skill but I see a lot similarities between what you’ve worked through and what I’ve been doing on my 521. I even dumped my battery into the engine bay the other day…luckily no fire! Also I think I put the same Volvo seats in mine! Anyway, I just bent and flared all the brake lines on my truck and it’s not intimidating…though those pre-flared lines at NAPA are nice I woulda done that too if they had real long ones.

[sick620]

21 minutes ago, Slow Loris said:

Just wanna say I’m really enjoying reading the history of this project—I think I’m like 1.5 years behind you and a lot behind in mechanical skill but I see a lot similarities between what you’ve worked through and what I’ve been doing on my 521. I even dumped my battery into the engine bay the other day…luckily no fire! Also I think I put the same Volvo seats in mine! Anyway, I just bent and flared all the brake lines on my truck and it’s not intimidating…though those pre-flared lines at NAPA are nice I woulda done that too if they had real long ones.

and you are also in idaho! what part?

[Slow Loris]

Treasure valley. Truck came from CA. Don’t see enough Datsuns around here. 

[sick620]

On 3/30/2023 at 8:19 PM, Slow Loris said:

Treasure valley. Truck came from CA. Don’t see enough Datsuns around here. 

I sent you a PM. You'll have to come out to payette sometime. We got 3 datsuns at our house right now, picking up another one in a week or two. We used to have a little datsun truck club in the area in like 2010. There are still a few of those guys that get together for car shows and stuff but they have all long ago left ratsun.net unfortunately. 

[Slow Loris]

Ah that’s better I knew there had to be a stash of them somewhere!

[sick620]

removed the exhaust manifold to fix exhaust leak. Drilled out stripped studs, need to replace with bolts and reassemble with the new gasket hopefully it doesn’t leak anymore 
 

[sick620]

Working on fixing all the wiring issues. 
tail lights needed attention and needed lenses. 521 lenses are so expensive when available and hard to find I decided to just retrofit some trailer lights, should look pretty cool sequential lights. Just used stock brackets moved the inside bracket and tack welded in. 
 

also cleaned up the fuse box to stop all the electrical gremlins from taking over. 
 

wired in a stereo.

 

Going to make a better chassis ground and solder and clean up any of the connections I made when I installed the motor because I was in a bit of a rush to make sure it all worked, so I’m going to get everything wired up more permanently, ordered a small aftermarket fuse box to wire the stereo in and so it has more room to wire in aftermarket stuff in the future.

 

my son approved.

 

[sick620]

So this ground wire got fried when the battery grounded out. I’d assume I can just ground it to the frame or body instead? Seems like the rest of wires in loom are fine but this ground wire is fried the whole way through the harness basically. Or can I not just ground anywhere because this wire is needed to run the voltage regulator correctly? 

[sick620]

Well I’m assuming it is just a regular ol ground so I grounded it to the frame, plus added a ground from the valve cover to body hopefully this is enough grounding to help prevent such a catastrophic event in the future if battery ever arch’s out again. I also added an aftermarket fuse box for stereo wiring and any extra wiring in the future. 

 

I also welded up this extra unused heater hose outlet. It used to have a hose that was plugged with a clutch adjustment tool and hose clamp lol 😂also welded up a unused nipple on the intake.  

 

 

[sick620]

Ok so we are still having wiring issues after the battery grounded itself out. The only wire I can find that got fried was the small ground coming from alternator. I have added grounds, cleaned up fuse box, and checked all connections that I have made and I am still for some reason not getting ignition power. We have headlights horn etc. all of the constant power stuff is working, the truck turns over with the starter. But wipers, blower fan etc are not working… 

 

we removed fender, popped out dent and zero rusted behind the fender. And straightened the bumper out.

 

[sick620]

Straitened out the bent up core support. Not perfect but night and day better than it was. Going to clean and paint behind the grill and headlights black.