1970 SRL311 Resto-mod - SR20DET (Lucy)

[beebo]

glad I broke this up into two posts.... I had the second one almost finished, and closed out of it by mistake. So I ordered new shim guides per the recommendation of the FSM. when through several different vendors before I finally got them in. I then made a shim height measuring tool by removing the magnetic base on a dial indicator, and epoxying it into an HLA body. What you do is insert that into the HLA hole, zero the dial indicator on the shim guide, then move it over to the top of the adjoining valve. the difference from zero, will tell you the thickness of shim needed for the rocker to sit level, and parallel to the cam lobe. I got lucky, and two of the shims I had from the two heads fit perfectly on the same cylinder.

20171004_172551.jpg

20171004_172844.jpg

20171004_174431.jpg

20171004_173054.jpg

20171004_174153.jpg

20171007_104307.jpg

20171007_104316.jpg

The other shims had to be reduced. I put sand paper on a flat surface, and just ran it in circles to take off the excess shim material. I started on 400 to get in the ballpark, and then finished up with 800 grit. When the shims are the correct thickness, the dial indicator should be zeroed on the shim guide, and then moved over to the shim. It should read zero.

20171007_104356.jpg

20171007_104431.jpg

20171007_104445.jpg

20171007_105505.jpg

20171007_105526.jpg

Finally, the rockers can be installed, and the cams are finally IN!!!!! assembly lube on the journal surfaces, and motor oil on the rockers and lobes.

20171007_123342.jpg

20171007_134941.jpg

20171007_161525.jpg

20171007_161534.jpg

Also, I picked up an oil filter relocation kit.just cuz :)AND an S14 oil pickup strainer. it has an increased mouth and no random metal bits from the previous blown up motors. Also a t25 rebuild kit.

20170918_224539.jpg

20170929_175734.jpg

20170929_175741.jpg

Thats all for now!
Cheers,
Wade

[beebo]

I had promised my folks that I would have this car off the side of their house before 2017 is over. With that said, I asked my father what he wanted for his birthday (Nov 18th) and he responded, " I want you to come over and make some damn progress on that Datsun" That's just what I did

So I've had all of the front suspension pretty much ready to go sitting in my garage, and I just finished up rebuilding the three piece wheels for my 240sx missile. The plan was to take the all of the front suspension, the old wheels that came on the 240sx (R32 GTR skyline wheels 16x8 +30 with 215s in the front and 225's in the rear), and get them put on the car. I want to get this thing rolling and steering so I can get it on a trailer and remove it from where it has been since Jan 2012.

The front suspension installation was a breeze. A quick trip to the hardware store for some grade 8 bolts and viola! The front of the car is now supported by wheels instead of jack stands

20171118_141221.jpg

20171118_141226.jpg

20171118_141232.jpg

After a quick wire-wheel and paint job for the steering boxes and steering shaft, they went in as well. I do pln on replacing the painted over hardware with shiny new stuff on the steering box though.

20171118_142316.jpg

20171119_150857.jpg

20171119_150908.jpg

20171119_150916.jpg

20171119_150921.jpg

20171119_150925.jpg

20171119_150944.jpg

Unfortunately, I had left the little steering linkage pieces that bolt to the spindles and connect the steering tie-rods back in Austin, so the steering completion checkbox remains unchecked.

20171119_151128.jpg

The plan for the rear end was just to bolt the wheels to it, block it up from the frame, and secure it place with a few ratchet tie-downs for the time being. An unforeseen problem revealed itself. The center hub bore for the ford axles is somewhere around 71.2mm, and the nissans use a 66.2mm hub bore. Therefore neither the brake rotors or the wheels would fit up. No problem I thought.... I remove the axles and bring them with me back to Austin. I was simply going to hammer out the studs, chuck them up in the lathe up at TechShop, and turn them down to 66.2mm. I did just that, and today took them up to TechShop. What Tha!?!?!?!? Closed?!?!? Apparently The company went bankrupt, and I have lost all access to an assortment of high-end tools and equipment.

20171120_193010.jpg

20171120_193014.jpg

I'm going to try and take these axles up to the machinist that did my SR20 engine work, and see if he'll knock them out really fast for a high price. I'm going back up to Dallas on for Thursday through Sunday, and need these complete to make some progress.

Anyways, I got to go to the SVRA nationals at Circuit of the Americas earlier in November, so I just wanted to leave y'all with this:

20171104_114800.jpg

Cheers,
Wade

[beebo]

Soooo, Since Techshop went bankrupt and closed its doors, I lost access to the lathe I would have used to turn the Ford axles down to a Nissan center hub bore diameter. I took them up to the machinist that did my SR20, and told them it was urgent. He had them done the next day!!!! I need to leave that guy a 5 star review on google or something. He's Awesome! anyways, I got all of my front suspension and steering components bolted up torqued properly. With the rear axles reinstalled, I bolted on the rear wheels. So the car is now supporting itself up front, and the frame is still on jack stands in the back. While I was working on the rear end, I got a crazy cool idea for the rear suspension, but I'm going to leave that information for when its more developed and thought through. I'm really happy with the progress over the last week. Since the rear end is quite some time from being finished, I'm going to figure out some way to support it with some wood blocks and ratchet tie downs temporarily. This will allow me to roll the car onto a trailer and bring it to it permanent home in Austin. The house we're building in Austin should be done late December/early January. Once it's done, the roadster will have a nice new 3 car garage to live in! For the steering links I torqued a bolt of into it while trying to bolt it to the spindle, So I had do drill it out and convert it to a thru-bolt.

I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!

20171123_110814.jpg

20171123_111020.jpg

20171123_112358.jpg

20171123_112408.jpg

20171123_112410.jpg

20171124_141047.jpg

20171124_141054.jpg

20171124_141106.jpg

20171124_141119.jpg

20171124_154516.jpg

20171124_154522.jpg

[Dave_Car_Guy]

Sweet! Coming along nicely.

[Autech311]

That roadster is going to be awesome if you can find the time to get it back together. I had a side yard that looked exactly like the one your car is sitting in just filled with S chassis stuff back in the late 90's and early 2000's.... good luck on getting it back together and congratulations on the new house!

[beebo]

Thanks Dave and Autech!

It looks like we will be closing on the house in about a week and a half! I'm spending Christmas up with my family in Dallas, and one of my gifts to them is the side of their house back I'm finally bringing it down to Austin!!!!!!! There probably won't be much progress right off the bat, because we'll be settling into the new place, and I have a lot of stuff to build for the house and garage. But I at least get to look at it everyday I hope everyone has a great stress free holiday, and I will update y'all when she's in her new garage!

I had a side yard that looked exactly like the one your car is sitting in just filled with S chassis stuff back in the late 90's and early 2000's

By S chassis stuff you mean S30(zcars) or S13/14(240sx)?

Cheers,
Wade

[beebo]

We finally moved into the new house in late January. I am so glad I didn't bring the roadster down in 2017 lol. I've spent the last month making the new house a home, and getting the garage ready for the new addition. Last weekend, I made the drive up to Dallas to get the roadster. My brother and dad helped me push it onto the trailer, with all of the loose parts loaded up in the truck. Towing a trailer down i35 on a super windy day was stressful, but we made it in good time. It's so nice to just go down stairs into the garage and be able to work on it. I still have priorities ahead of this, but on rainy weekends, I can definitely make some much quicker progress. Also, I've finally named her "Lucy"!

Photo Dec 24, 4 01 15 PM.jpg

-

Photo Mar 10, 6 01 07 PM.jpg

-

Photo Mar 10, 6 04 22 PM.jpg

-

Photo Mar 10, 6 05 29 PM.jpg

-

Photo Mar 10, 6 05 41 PM.jpg

-

Photo Mar 10, 6 05 57 PM.jpg

-

Photo Mar 10, 6 06 23 PM.jpg

-

Photo Mar 10, 6 07 22 PM.jpg

-

Photo Mar 11, 2 36 24 PM.jpg

-

Photo Mar 11, 4 06 23 PM.jpg

-

20180311_161449.jpg

-

20180311_161416.jpg

-
Cheers,
Wade

[notoptoy]

Very nice garage space, digging the floor! First class Roadster work area.

[pebbles]

Congrats on the new digs Wade!

[2mAn]

Lots of space in the garage! How long before its taken up by other stuff??

[beebo]

Thanks everyone! It is definitely nice to have the additional space, and to have it indoors!

Lots of space in the garage! How long before its taken up by other stuff??

About 15 minutes... once I unloaded my truck of all of the rest of the car parts. There will be a yard sale of roadster parts in the classified section here shortly. I plan on this being a pretty stripped down, just-for-fun car, so there will be plenty of stuff for sale to keep the garage tidy. Also, I need to build more shelving.

Cheers,
Wade

[beebo]

I bolted together one of the transmissions to the mock block, tossed the other head on it, and mounted it up in the car. It fits! Im going to leave this engine in here to mock up the exhaust, radiator, and intercooler stuff. On the side, i will continue to build the actual SR thats going into the car. Unfortunately the top mount t25 manifold i bought inteferes with the steering shaft, so a custom manifold will be the start of building the exhaust.

20180316_213525.jpg

20180316_213550.jpg

Cheers,
Wade

[beebo]

With the mock engine in the car, I have been starting to plan out all of the exhaust/intake/intercooler/cooling. I have ordered quite a bit of parts since my last update.

Turbo
Since the 510 T25 top mount turbo manifold I purchased won't clear the steering column, I got a T25 collector (i'm going to run the stock turbo), some 90 and 45 degree bends, and the head flange. I've had a TIG welder for quite some time now, but I have been in an apartment for a couple years, so it has just been a paper weight. I've had to rewire it for the 4 prong plug they installed in the house, and I went to get a new bottle of Argon. When I got back home, I realized that I they had given me a 75/25% Argon/CO2. I've been meaning to get one of these to convert my wire feed to a MIG, but it's no good for TIG or stainless steel. Oh well... the manifold will have to wait until I get another chance to run up to Airgas. They're only open during the hours I work. Right now the turbo is bolted to the collector sitting on cardboard somewhat in the position i want it to be in. I've just been fiddling with the bends and trying to plan it out. I'm not going for equal length or anything; just something that looks cool.

Wheels
I ordered another set of 2 wheels. This time in 16x8.5 and had the 225s mounted on them. I was told these wheels are becoming discontinued, and the price was spectacularly cheap. There is one problem with them though. They don't come in 'high-face' to clear big brake calipers. this means that my plans of running the Z32 turbo caliper has been shot down. The calipers interfere roughly 6mm with the wheels, but i did manage to find some Wilwood calipers that fit the rotor, and are a slim enough profile to clear the wheel. Okay, so there are 2 problems with these wheels. They only come in +0 offset. This pushes them out so ridiculously far, not only does it look silly, but the scrub radius is like 2.5" positive. This thing will tramline like nobody's business. I am going to design up some new hubs that are basically the same hubs that I have made, but bring the wheel mounting surface inward about 1.5". This is going to cost a pretty penny, but combined with a dash of negative camber, should bring my scrub closer to a more manageable inch. It will tuck the wheels in the fenders nicely too!

Intercooler
I got a universal intercooler off of E-bay and some Silicone 2.5" 90 degree elbows. The intercooler is a 22x7x2.5 with a 2.5 in/out. I cut out some holes (still need to file them down) for the plumbing, and cut off the front brackets that i have no idea what mount to them. After trimming down the elbows, everything looks like it will fit, and clear the hood hinges. I plan on mounting the radiator cross supports on the opposite side (engine side) of where they typically mount to give the intercooler more clearance. I'm happy with how it's turning out.

Radiator
So.... I was testing out a new batch of homebrew and got kinda drunk when I was researching radiators. I was reading about people using a Honda Del Sol radiator, and went ahead and just ordered an aluminum Koyo off of E-bay. It showed up and was a 2 core. I don't know if this will provide enough cooling for a turbo 2 liter but i have it. I figure if the engine needs more, It wont be too much trouble to fit a 3 core later.

PICS!i took the photos of the wheels with a different phone and the files are too big to post. I will have to reduce them some other time. Sorry

20180319_082233.jpg

20180407_141908.jpg

20180417_181058.jpg

20180417_181708.jpg

20180417_183037.jpg

20180417_183042.jpg

20180417_184058.jpg

20180417_184105.jpg

20180417_184112.jpg

20180417_184135.jpg

Cheers,
Wade

[Mattk]

Looking great Wade!
Jealous of your progress

If you haven’t you should look at joining some of us on Facebook at the Texas Datsun Roadster Owners Club.

Cheers
Matthew

[beebo]

Thanks Matthew. I'm not on facebook, but I'll be up in Dallas the weekend of the 13th. I remember you saying that you were wanting the door glass, and someone else was wanting the stock rear end. I won't have too much free time as the trip is to spend time with my mom on Mother's Day, but I can certainly meet up if y'all were still interested in the parts.

Cheers,
Wade