The Quick/Small/(Stupid?) Question Thread-take 2

[pebbles]

I have new rubber to install on my door (non-opening) triangular, vent windows ... old stuff is dried out & falling out on the '68... any suggestions and tricks? I had a look through the wiki & searched the site with no luck so either I missed it or I'm the first to ask for help. I probably missed it. Thanks!

The rear of the frame is fastened to the front, top and bottom. Pull the felt channel out and look for the fasteners. Remove fasteners, and slide the glass back/ out. Polish frames. Put the rubber on the glass and push it fwd into the frame. Push the rear frame onto the rear of the glass and reinstall the fasteners. Reinstall the felt.

[Ralph]

OK ... thanks...I'll let you know how it goes...maybe some before, during & after pics

[pebbles]

OK ... thanks...I'll let you know how it goes...maybe some before, during & after pics

Actually i was wrong. The bottom piece is fastened. The glass slides down.

[Ralph]

window fasteners.jpg

I can easily see these two screws on the outside front bottom of the vent... and I can barely see one screw at the very top in line with the rolled down window...behind the felt. The screw behind the felt it the one I need to remove, I assume? Would it help to remove the two in the picture outside as well? Any way I can just do these outside two screws?

[dynaguy]

Try die-electric silicone grease on the side that mounts in the channels. Helps with assembly and to preserve the rubber. FWIW Pat

[CSP311]

Part 27-30, grommet, seems to NLA from what I can find and my friend in the US too (unless you get get hold of one for me ). He may have another Nissan grommet that may fit, but what size hole does the grommet fit in the bulkhead of the SP311?

http://www.carpartsmanual.com/datsun/sp ... eld-washer

Also, the early SP311 rear-view mirror, once the glass is removed, reveals a clip that holds the arm of the mirror. The clip is held by two rivets, which need drilled out so the mirror can be re-chromed. What solution (ideally the same type of rivets) have people used to put the mirror back together?

Thanks
Ian

[mraitch]

@ralph

re replacing vent rubber.

I found it impossible to fit the rubber into the vent using the two small outside screw - I couldn't fabricate anything to compress.

So, what I did was to find a longer screw of same pitch and a nut.

I inserted the screw onto one hole and then tightened the nut until the whole thing lined up, then inserted small screw, removed big one and put other in,

HTH (and that I have explained sufficiently)

[Mackn367]

Anyone have any suggestions to increase hp on my car? I know that is an extremely generic question so i follow it up with my car and what i am looking to buy...

Weber Carbs.jpg

My car: 67.5 1600
I was thinking about buying the following: "Datsun Roadster SPL 311 w/dual Weber DCOE carburetors"
Website: http://www.jameng.com/products/Datsun-R ... etors.html
Cost: $1,150

1) Will this even fit my car? (meaning is it a plug and play or would it take a lot more parts to make it work)
2) Is it "safe" for my engine/car?
3) Will it increase hp to a noticeable amount?
3) Anyone out there purchase one? Thoughts? Comments?

All comments are welcome even if your comment is "Nick you are an idiot. Just save your money!" hahaha

... also i wanted to mention I sincerely apologize if by posting the website or anything else i might have broken a rule on this forum. I am still new here please don't get too upset. If so i will absolutely remove this post. Thanks Steve

[notoptoy]

Really depends on what you are starting with, is the 1600 in great shape, rebuilt, freshened or tired? Get it running the best possible first then look at electronic ignition, exhaust and carburation as a system. It's pretty easy to over carburate the 1600. As far as this set-up, I think quite a few Roadster owners have tried this. I think there are issues with the quality of the manifold and there may be some linkage issues to work out.

I would investigate some local roadster shops and get their input first. Also, what is your goal? If you just want some enhancement, or are you looking for serious power? You might want to consider swapping to a U20 or other more exotic engine swap.

[Mackn367]

Really depends on what you are starting with, is the 1600 in great shape, rebuilt, freshened or tired? Get it running the best possible first then look at electronic ignition, exhaust and carburation as a system. It's pretty easy to over carburate the 1600. As far as this set-up, I think quite a few Roadster owners have tried this. I think there are issues with the quality of the manifold and there may be some linkage issues to work out.

I would investigate some local roadster shops and get their input first. Also, what is your goal? If you just want some enhancement, or are you looking for serious power? You might want to consider swapping to a U20 or other more exotic engine swap.

Thanks for the input. So I am not looking to do an engine swap and I am also not looking to build a race car. I just am looking for more power but not looking to race it. Hope that makes sense. Also, the car has some great "upgrades" that have helped keep it reliable which are: El dizzy, gear reduction starter, new alternator, and 3-core radiator. I still plan to upgrade brakes and clutch soon.

[pebbles]

Nick your a......lol
1600. Not an expert , but hp gains for small dispacement engines are flow. Good tight big exhaust, match porting, good carbs with no vaccum leaks, tuned to perfection and tons of FINE TUNING, timing, valve adjustment, and good fuel. Other than that, CCs make more power, (torque). Maybe a five speed? I think 1st 2nd and 3rd are closer ratio than the 4sp. Quicker will feel like more power. An electric cooling fan may relieve some hp tension as well.
Ill bet you can lighten the car some by a very thorough cleaning.
Imho without additional cc, the 40s are overkill. As Tom said youll have to choke them down quite a bit.

[pebbles]

window fasteners.jpg
I can easily see these two screws on the outside front bottom of the vent... and I can barely see one screw at the very top in line with the rolled down window...behind the felt. The screw behind the felt it the one I need to remove, I assume? Would it help to remove the two in the picture outside as well? Any way I can just do these outside two screws?

There are two more screws on the aft end of the lower trim, under the Felt.
Pretty sure you gotta remove the wing from the car.

[Mackn367]

Nick your a......lol
1600. Not an expert , but hp gains for small dispacement engines are flow. Good tight big exhaust, match porting, good carbs with no vaccum leaks, tuned to perfection and tons of FINE TUNING, timing, valve adjustment, and good fuel. Other than that, CCs make more power, (torque). Maybe a five speed? I think 1st 2nd and 3rd are closer ratio than the 4sp. Quicker will feel like more power. An electric cooling fan may relieve some hp tension as well.
Ill bet you can lighten the car some by a very thorough cleaning.
Imho without additional cc, the 40s are overkill. As Tom said youll have to choke them down quite a bit.

Haha it's ok you can say it. Yeah I definitely plan to fine tune what I have so far. It seems that may be the best option. I always do my best to reduce the weight whenever/wherever I can. It's not like the car is slow or anything. In fact it is quite peppy. I'm just wanting to make sure I achieve its full potential (or close to it) without dramatically changing it like engine swap. Also I used to have a 2004 Subaru STi which also was a blast to drive. Sure do miss that turbo. Aww memories

[Gregs672000]

Ya, not gonna get turbo power out of the mighty R unless you build one (which I've been trying to convince someone to do for a while now!). As noted, do the typical things to get the engine running its best, otherwise you're wasting your time. You can improve things some, but I doubt it will be more than 5-10 peak hp max on a dyno without improving flow (as was mentioned). An engine is an air pump... get the air in, compressed, exploded and out as quickly and efficiently as possible... that means it's a system, from carbs/intake to head to exhaust manifold to muffler. The carbs are certainly part of that, and there are specific advantages to side drafts like Webers vs SUs, that being the ability to tune them over a much wider range with a carb design and jetting that is RPM specific. An SU is a good overall carb, but it cannot be tuned like a Weber/Mikuni/SK/OER/Dellorto carb. Will the engine make more power? Some, but it won't be like "Wow, its got a V8!". What it can do is improve overall running and throttle response, and that contributes a lot to your driving experience (plus the sound of a Weber type carb drawing air!). With proper tuning (for me, only an wide band O2 Air/Fuel meter will do) you can fine tune your Air/Fuel ratios to be in their proper range at slow speed, in transition to higher rpms, at high rpm and during hard acceleration because the carb is DESIGNED to do that (there is a learning curve to tuning, but the O2 set up makes it sooooo much easier). You can choke a 40mm carb down to 30-32mm for an R engine and it will flow great with good throttle response etc. A more aggressive cam would help, but that is a bit harder to swap out in the R vs the OHC U20, and selecting that cam is key as it is the "brain" of the engine and tells it where to make power. Regardless, if the rest of the system is not up to flowing the air, then any restriction downstream becomes the barrier, so you end up looking at the exhaust and trying to make a good paring with the engine. Porting a head (done properly) can again make a big difference because you are improving flow and volume, but if the exhaust manifold restricts the flow, you won't see the max benefits of your efforts. You have already improved the explosion of the fuel with the EI dizzy, so that helps.
I cannot comment on the quality of the R intake manifolds out there because I have no experience with them. I can tell you my favorite carb is a Dellorto (I've tried them all) but that is for MY engine. I LOVE the sound of a side draft, it is very different from an SU.
If your gonna be serious about improvements, assuming the bottom end is solid, then I would consider finding a spare R head, sending it to someone who KNOWS what they are doing with porting (Robello, or my friend Steve, or?), get the side draft set up assuming the manifold isn't crap, get a decent header from a vendor (custom ones are stupid expensive, with the reality being it has to be developed on a dyno to really know how well it works), select a good street cam with a duration that does not put the power band at 5000 rpms, run a 2" or so exhaust through a decent muffler, get a wide band O2 set up and handful of carb jets, then tune the carbs and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Later you can add NOS (been done! My friend Travis ran one setup like that) if you're careful. I would add an electric fan cause I hate the sound of even a stock fan, but again that's me. The SOUND of the carbs alone may be worth the money, and I think an R engine looks really really cool with a set of side drafts on it.
Cost? Well, let's just say that it has taken me 32 years to get to where my engine is today, and I am STILL working on it! But it's fun!!!!

[pebbles]

Haha it's ok you can say it. Yeah I definitely plan to fine tune what I have so far. It seems that may be the best option. I always do my best to reduce the weight whenever/wherever I can. It's not like the car is slow or anything. In fact it is quite peppy. I'm just wanting to make sure I achieve its full potential (or close to it) without dramatically changing it like engine swap. Also I used to have a 2004 Subaru STi which also was a blast to drive. Sure do miss that turbo. Aww memories

I drool over cool stuff too.
Have you checked out the exhaust system? If its old and rusty, you may want to consider an upgrade. JT68 offers a really nice 2”.
https://www.datsunrestorationproducts.com/exhaust