Barney gets a refresh ...

[msampsel]

I've decided to start my own thread versus updating the what did you do today.

Started out with a dash painting which morphed into new gauges (cause the old mechanical would not come out of the head). So the head came off as I dropped a piece of copper sleeve it it.

Through recommendations in here chose to get it worked on.

Done other things too:

Complete dismantle and cleaning of the front suspension with new grease, and urethane boots every where.
Painted the konis and applied decals
Painted engine and some of compartment and parts
header painted and coated inside and out with ceramic (inside WIP)
Took steering apart and added liquid grease
Replaced steering bushings
Cleaned and painted suspension parts to better see grease and remove caked on sand and mud
Stopped leak in backup switch in tranny (backup lite solution still WIP)
Added impact cut off switch for the fuel pump

With help from other members I got these
1.) ADQ carb needles
2.) Spring triangle centers (without oblonged holes)
3.) Mike Young front springs (back to a lower ride too)
4.) Liquid Grease from Ross
5.) New fan and H2O pump from Dean (and boots and gaskets for head and header)
6.) New exhaust valve and intake guides from Dann
7.) Got lowering blocks fabricated for the rear
8.) replaced bumper gaurds in the front (need to change rears still)

Lots of help and encouragement and suggestions (in random order) from Pebbles, Nissanman, Curtis, SPL310, JT68, Dbrick, Mike Young, mraitch, keith0alan, Greg Burrows,greydog, garth, notoptoy, S Allen, SLOroadster, Ladydriver, Linda, Skyman, Richard, Daryl Smith, bakerjf, phil (fpj20...), RCmike, Biker Mike, Toptech360, theunz, SDKvrd, guyatou and others for sure.

Here are some pictures of the head work completed on ~ 7/23.
And one of the intake manifold painted with 500 degree clear ceramic paint.

First I had lost of help from you all ... fixed/edited it to lots of help ... oh boy ...

[msampsel]

Here are some of the suspension pics. Greydog helped steer me in the right
lower triangle and lower control arm arrangements. Note the anti parallel issues
on the triangle lower A-arm configuration on the bench. I discovered I had a
drivers side front and passenger side rear pieces and had to dismattle and redo.

Best to do one side at a time or take more care and not get confused to save redos.

[Toptech360]

Looks excellent! Gonna feel like a new car when your done.
Question. What is this liquid grease you speak of?

[msampsel]

Looks excellent! Gonna feel like a new car when your done.
Question. What is this liquid grease you speak of?

Bought a liter of it from Ross of sports imports. It is thinner than wheel bearing grease
but thicker than 90 wt. Thread on it here somewhere. Here is a a glob I spilled out the top
of the steering box after it sat for an hour. Hope it stops the slow seepage or weeping or leaking from the box.

[msampsel]

Here is an update of the dash painting and the shift lever cover plate finished but not assembled totally yet.
I think the paint cost me 6 bucks plus 57 cents tax.

Not sure what powder coating costs ... it is probably more sturdy and even better than the original

[mshort07]

You've been busy. Looking good.

Quick question for you - did you replace your head valve seats with hardened ones? My understanding is that in older, per 1970 cars, the heads didn't have hardened seats for their exhaust valves. The lead in the gas cushioned the valves. When unleaded gas came around, you had to either add and additive to your gas or have your valve seats replaced. Do our Datsun's need fuel additive for running our unleaded gas or do our heads need to have hardened valve seats installed to be run without the fuel additive? Or is this not a problem for Datsun heads?

[msampsel]

You've been busy. Looking good.

Quick question for you - did you replace your head valve seats with hardened ones? My understanding is that in older, per 1970 cars, the heads didn't have hardened seats for their exhaust valves. The lead in the gas cushioned the valves. When unleaded gas came around, you had to either add and additive to your gas or have your valve seats replaced. Do our Datsun's need fuel additive for running our unleaded gas or do our heads need to have hardened valve seats installed to be run without the fuel additive? Or is this not a problem for Datsun heads?

Well the intake seats were replaced with chrome molly seats rather than the brass ones.
I did this because of discussion of brass seats falling out (yikes).
I thought the exhaust seats were done too, but at least new exhaust valves.
I enclosed the old before picks.

Recommend Greg Burrows, Daryl Smith, and JT68 and dbrick as great resources at answering your specific questions others too.

New intake guides ... a valve job too of course.

[pebbles]

You've been busy. Looking good.

Quick question for you - did you replace your head valve seats with hardened ones? My understanding is that in older, per 1970 cars, the heads didn't have hardened seats for their exhaust valves. The lead in the gas cushioned the valves. When unleaded gas came around, you had to either add and additive to your gas or have your valve seats replaced. Do our Datsun's need fuel additive for running our unleaded gas or do our heads need to have hardened valve seats installed to be run without the fuel additive? Or is this not a problem for Datsun heads?

Ive been told by machinists that replacing the exhaust valve seats is more critical due to the heat.
Intake valves dont get as hot.
If you are adjusting your valves frequently to loosen them or increase the gap id say you need to replace the seats.
Im Not sure if additives really work, never used them.

[theunz]

It seems to me that I recall when they first started using unleaded a discussion stating that all aluminum heads already had hardened seats. Don't know this for a fact, just remember reading this. Mike

[Curtis]

I posted this elsewhere.

I put one of these on and the halogen bulb really lights it up in reverse. I put the original bezel and lens on it. Plus it is stainless, no rusty housing.

http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/motorspor ... rse-lights

[msampsel]

I posted this elsewhere.

I put one of these on and the halogen bulb really lights it up in reverse. I put the original bezel and lens on it. Plus it is stainless, no rusty housing.

http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/motorspor ... rse-lights

Thanks Curtis, my lite is fine, it is the switch at the tranny which is kaput.
Need to jury rig a hard switch inside the car to turn it on and off until I pull motor.
Somehow I went from 2 working 67 tranny switches to none in a few months

[Curtis]

I posted this elsewhere.

I put one of these on and the halogen bulb really lights it up in reverse. I put the original bezel and lens on it. Plus it is stainless, no rusty housing.

http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/motorspor ... rse-lights

Thanks Curtis, my lite is fine, it is the switch at the tranny which is kaput.
Need to jury rig a hard switch inside the car to turn it on and off until I pull motor.
Somehow I went from 2 working 67 tranny switches to none in a few months

Since my SAE transmission was giving me problems I put in a metric trans I was sold along with a rear end for a mere $150. Switches are readily available for it. I'm wondering if the metric tail shaft will bolt right on to the SAE trans? Would solve the switch problem.

[msampsel]

It seems to me that I recall when they first started using unleaded a discussion stating that all aluminum heads already had hardened seats. Don't know this for a fact, just remember reading this. Mike

Adding to the hardened or not thread.

I checked with the machinist who did my head, and the intake seats were replaced as they were brass.
My exhaust seats were fine (and not brass) so they did not replace them. The exhaust valves were
worn razor thin (probably from pounding on hardened seats ) so the valves were replaced.

I paid ~ 570 parts and labor for the head work valves, guides, seats and seals.
Extras for head and exhaust gaskets, and the ARP studs not included in the 570
and misc oil and clay to check for interference issues (valve to head clearance).

Think I would find and ship the head to a roadster expert next time.
I got run around on the guides.

I guess the price is not too bad if it works when I install it.

Cheers

[msampsel]

Interference checking after the head returned and photos.
Placed clay on the pistons in order to get a reading added the head on and the pushrods rockers snugged em up and made 4 complete rotations of the engine maybe not enough for all the valves.

Ended up with indentations from the valves which I think measure the minimum clearance. Valve lash not set to zero though.
Is the clay positioned correctly to measure the minimum clearance point?

Looks like the black arrow indicates the minimum clearance for the exhaust valve in cylinder number one. The exhaust valves
seem to have the least clearance even though they are gapped at 0.014" vs 0.012" for the intakes (racer brown cam not stock gap).

I leaning towards bolting this head on firing it up and moving on.
Any opinions questions or suggestions?

[msampsel]

So on went the water pump and pic head gasket prior to adding permatex copper gasket sealer.
Then on went the head, and the ARP studs, but holy s*!| I am missing a nut in my ARP stud package.
Drats Drats Drats .... I cannot torque my head and fire the car this weekend ....

Maybe next week

Summit has the nuts in single package

Summit delivered nuts to me on Tuesday 8/18 after ordering on Sunday 9/16, very nice for sure (5 dollars for shipping). After torquing the
head and bolting the header I looked off to the side of the car and the missing nut appeared doh/

Was not a vender issue after all, my fault all along. Oh well ... more chances to be wrong I hope.
Now I have 2 extra ARP nuts ....