What did you do TO or FOR your Datsun today?(Roadsters only)

[DCooke]

Foamectomy complete...that was easy.
Now on to cleaning 20 years of grime off the seat fabric.

[Down under 311]

changed over to polyurethane bushes on the front sway bar... 30 min job.....



wow what a difference... front stance / handle so much better ... strongly recommend

[Mike.reid]

DROVE IT. Only to have my radiator cap on the valve cover fail and spray fluid everywhere! I was also grinding while downshifting so no clue there. Anyways. Atleast I finally got to drive it after almost a year!

[carlkaty]

Drove it. 520 miles 2days ago, 320 yesterday. ( fixed cooling issues yesterday.)

[Mike.reid]

Carl-that's a lot of mileage! I'm so jealous.

[Curtis]

Taking the short block to the machine shop today for balancing, etc.

[Gregs672000]

Dropped the Roadster at the upholstery shop to get the bikini top done. Was supposed to be a day job, but his fabric guy was delayed. With my work schedule I won't be able to pick her up until Saturday. Bummer, but I'm still excited. On the way to the shop I had a guy hanging out of his truck taking pictures of the car. My wife, who was following me, said he had been chasing me for awhile. Really funny how these cars just grab some people. Oh wait, I'm one of them!

[Mainer311]

On the way to the shop I had a guy hanging out of his truck taking pictures of the car. My wife, who was following me, said he had been chasing me for awhile. Really funny how these cars just grab some people. Oh wait, I'm one of them!

When I bought my car, I thought it would be a chick magnet, but the only people who are ever interested are old men...

[Curtis]

On the way to the shop I had a guy hanging out of his truck taking pictures of the car. My wife, who was following me, said he had been chasing me for awhile. Really funny how these cars just grab some people. Oh wait, I'm one of them!

When I bought my car, I thought it would be a chick magnet, but the only people who are ever interested are old men...

When I had my first one in my 20's it was a chick magnet. Now it's a nice car or I used to have one of those magnet.

[RCMike]

You guys are doing it wrong..lol




(remind me to get this thing running again soon..lol)

What I did today was to rehang the rear axle.. Going to try to get the front suspensions back together today as well..

[Curtis]

You guys are doing it wrong..lol




(remind me to get this thing running again soon..lol)

What I did today was to rehang the rear axle.. Going to try to get the front suspensions back together today as well..

The car may still be a chick magnet but we are not. The old guys with sports cars and gray or no hair.

[amazgjoe]

I broke it. Transmission made a growling noise when I took it out today. Third gear .

[KenSmart]

Well wasn't really today as it was yesterday and the evening before. As part of my planed restoration and return to original configuration I removed the SR20 and 5 speed after 16 years. Never really got 16 years of use out of it but these things happen when you get married have kids then decide to get an engineering degree, it sucks up time. The transplant was fun when I did it and I expect the next phase to be fun as well.

20140712_121826d.jpg

Striped out the rest of my centre console and capped off the transmission after removing the shifter.

20140712_172844d.jpg

Here it is coming out, had to use some WD to get engine mount bolts and exhaust manifold to let go.

20140712_172908d.jpg

Bit tricky doing it by myself but the mobile A frame gantry crane I made worked a treat.

20140712_180311d.jpg

Out and on the floor.

20140712_180323d.jpg

Just a couple of cables and the fuel filter to go. I removed the left and right side engine harnesses + engine bay fusebox out last week.
Then I removed the ECU / dash harness and internal fusebox. The last phase was to part the original and SR20 dash harness that I was running together this was easier than I thought.

[Skyman]

I noticed that center section has not been notched for the SR20 conversion. Do you have any details of the swap?

[KenSmart]

I noticed that center section has not been notched for the SR20 conversion. Do you have any details of the swap?

I just reread this and maybe it's to much information?

Some details about the swap: I also found this thread here on 311s from 2006, 8 years after I finished, it seems to have got a bit heated; I was not part of it so I will also try to address some of the things brought up in that thread.

http://www.311s.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=3880

A. My intention going in was to always be able to return to the original, so if I could do it with little structural changes that would be good.
B. I did it 16 years ago and had no one to follow, I saw a business card sized photo in a magazine of a car in Japan with an SR20 so I guessed it could be done, I wrote a letter to the magazine asking for something information probably (still have it somewhere must look up what I asked) several 510 people contacted me with lots of invaluable SR20 swapping advice and workshop manuals that were not readily available at the time + over the phone advice for a few years.
C. I spent the better part of 9 months from start to finish working in the garage after work till midnight then weekends tinkering. Engine mounts alone took some time to get just right. I found the wiring relatively simple but still took time. Using the factory ECU allowed me to use the Consult port and "Nissan DataScan" software to monitor all the sensors and record them if desired.
D Positioning of the engine is tight, ok its shoe horned in there. The "denting" of the cross member with a hammer referred to in the thread is not as dramatic as it sounds and probably didn't move that much or help that much. The transmission has very little clearance to the handbrake lever that goes across the transmission tunnel.
E. Did it rattle by contacting the frame? Good question, being right hand drive and having a low entry plenum, couldn't afford $400+ at the time for high entry, meant the plenum contacted the steering rod/column, so the plenum was modified right at the very back to allow everything to fit. This didn't solve the problem fully because if you "really got into it" 5.5 to 6k engine torque lean would make the plenum rattle on the steering shaft.
I addressed this problem by adding an engine stabilizing mount on the exhaust side, I have a picture somewhere of that. This kept things quite for the most part unless you dropped it down and mushed your right foot into the carpet.
F. The transmission tunnel was adjusted to fit the lumps and bumps of the tranny but there is a position right at the back that may have been a contact point under extreme conditions, it was a daily driver so it didn’t get wound up that often. I used a -/_ shaped transmission mount bracket that has to be seen to understand this may have been the cause and could have been finessed.
G. In the state I live in an engineer’s certificate is required to modify cars, within certain limits so the whole project was engineered and registered for the road.
H. Having just taken it out I can see no evidence of frame contact at the front I will hve a close inspection of the rear mount latter.
I. Would I do it this way again now there is a wealth of knowledge from people like Spriso out there? Hard to know because of reason (A) it was easy for me to decide now was the time to restore to mostly original, but I could have done that regardless. It was a fun engine to drive quiet as a sewing machine at idle but spun up quick to red line.