Now I should tell you that this is my second roadster. My first is spl311-08001, also a 67 low window. It followed me home about 3 years ago from the intake lot of a scrap yard. I saw it and just had to save it. 08001 is currently a body off resto-mod. It has an sr20det sitting in it's frame. The rear end is still a work in progress, i'm shortening an 85 rx-7 gls limited slip with disk brakes, a 3 link, coil-overs and watts link to keep it centered. The body is another story and now i know why it was in a scrap yard
. I keep telling myself "one thing at a time, it will be ok". The good thing about 08001, though I didn't know it at the time because it was missing a few pieces, like the carbs, dizzy, alt, starter, and the water pump had turned to dust, literally, was that the 1600 still spun freely.This brings us back to #09552, I bought it not for parts but to have a complete car to reference on my rebuild of 08001 and then I would restore it to almost stock. But after looking at the rods on #09552 a light bulb went off, "I have a whole engine from 08001 (yes I do refer to them by their #), and it's only missing the parts I now have from 09552". So I did what any sane peson would do, I made sure I had clean oil in the engine that came from 08001, pulled the spark plugs, sprayed some pb blaster and 2-squirts of 10w30 in each cylinder, chucked up an 1 1/8 socket on the trusty dewalt 18v cordless on super low, (break your wrist if your not careful) and did a quick 200 rpm compression check. And guess what, 110 psi on each cylinder (I know this seems low, but the drill doesn't turn fast enough to get a true reading, but the fact that they were all the same is what I was getting at) and the fuel pump worked too. So one week later, today, 09552 with the engine from 08001 barked to life and purred, then coughed, popped, then purred some more (I suspect there may have been some bad gas in the tank when I added the 100 octane race fuel just to make sure it fired on the good stuff), 50psi on the oil pressure gauge, 190 on the water (standing still, so little air flow, and I know the carbs and timing need adjusting) and no, I mean no oil smoke out the pipe, so all is good so far, knock on wood. Tomorrow will be the real test. I plan on driving it the 2 miles to discount tires for 4 new shoes. Oh, yes I did bleed the brakes, and yes they do work, the clutch too
. I'll post some pics when I get them off the camera, not much to see but a happy face on 09552, Oh and me too.Couple of things tho, I need a tack cable. 09552 didn't have one and I have no idea where 08001's cable went when I did the tear down 3 years ago. If I had to guess, I may have trashed it as un-serviceable. Also I need 1 mesh 240z Mag wheel, I have 3 in good condition, looking for the 4th to round out the set.
Thanks
Keith
