Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

My name is Bob Hughes and I purchased a '69 2000 in the mid 90's. It had been run hard and put away wet. Made many improvements over the
first several years, and put probably put 5k to 10k miles on it till about '01 or '02. Decided to restore/ refurbish all that I could. No more rust, new shiny paint, new custom leather interior and found a supposedly high dollar rebuilt sleeved engine with new internals. WELL the engine smoked more than Yul Brynner. Very depressing. The roadster has been practicing social distancing now for about 15 years, covered under a mask in my garage. After fighting frozen rear brakes, finally was able to get it on a trailer to visit Florida roadster GURU Bill Harvey in Lakeland, FL for its "decade" check-up. Gonna get
it running, stopping and new rubber. Still have my old engine, so a bottom end rebuild is probably in order. Lastly, It's been fun reading the various threads and discussions on here. A lot of knowledgeable and interesting contributors. Hope to learn even more.
Thanks,
Bob Hughes
Longwood, FL

Welcome Bob, glad you joined us. Is your car in the registry? Look forward to reading about your roadster.

Steve

Welcome Bob! I don't know how long you ran the new motor, or how bad it smoked, but maybe it needs a bit more break in time? Or maybe the valve stem seals are causing some issues? What's been done to diagnose the problem? If desired, we may be able to help figure it out...

Thanks, Steve will do....
Greg, I ran the motor for a few months, probably not more than 6 or 700 miles(15 years ago). The head was swapped from my original motor as it
was massaged, had a "B" cam and worked well with the installed Mikuni's. After It is running again, a compression/ leakdown test
will be preformed.
Thanks,
Bob

Welcome Bob! Greetings and welcome back into the fold. Looking forward to your progress now that it is out of quarantine.

tropibob wrote: Fri May 22, 2020 2:24 pm Thanks, Steve will do....
Greg, I ran the motor for a few months, probably not more than 6 or 700 miles(15 years ago). The head was swapped from my original motor as it
was massaged, had a "B" cam and worked well with the installed Mikuni's. After It is running again, a compression/ leakdown test
will be preformed.
Thanks,
Bob

I had a previous rebuild frustrate me for quite some time. Everything checked out fine (compression, leak down, etc) but it would not stop burning oil. Turned out to be the valve stem seals... something was not allowing them to seal up. May have been the use of shims to set valve stem height, but I really don't fully recall as its been a long time. The guides etc were all band new. Disassembly and replacement fixed the problem. Since you swapped over a known good head, probably not your issue, but if all else checks out you might consider this. Good luck!

Hey Greg,
If the compression/leak down tests are good (woo hoo) I will look there. The previous engine puffed a little, used maybe a 1/2 quart
in 2000 miles. The previous block had about 225,000 miles on it with no overhauls.
Thanks,
Bob

notoptoy wrote: Fri May 22, 2020 5:12 pm Welcome Bob! Greetings and welcome back into the fold. Looking forward to your progress now that it is out of quarantine.

Thanks, I hope to have it back on the road within a month. We have a home on Lake Weir, are you near when in Ocala?
Thanks,
Bob

Not too far at all, though my Roadster is in NC
Still would enjoy the opportunity to see your Roadster.

It is in Lakeland right now at Bill Harvey's. I started on changing fluids plugs etc., and ran into a problem with #4 spark plug. It started going in crooked
and after 5 or 6 tries I became very timid. Drums were rust welded to hubs and shoes and adjusters, took me about 8 to 10 hours over 3 days to remove every thing just to get it on a trailer My free time is short, Bill is trustworthy to a fault, and a far better mechanic than me. He called me this
morning, had it running and said it didn't smoke or at least not excessively......?? Need to change all brake lines,rear cylinders, 2 MC,s slave, lower
ball joints and tires. Bill is not a big fan of SS brake lines due to leakage issues. I think they look "pretty". Any thoughts?
Thanks,
Bob

I re-did all my brake lines with Ni/CU as it was easy to work with. SS is nice, but you certainly don't see much of them. I think it's a matter of preference, and it's your car so preference matters.

notoptoy wrote: Sun May 24, 2020 11:31 am I re-did all my brake lines with Ni/CU as it was easy to work with. SS is nice, but you certainly don't see much of them. I think it's a matter of preference, and it's your car so preference matters.

I did a short search for nickle copper pre bent lines to no avail the other day. Did you bend your own?

yes, I did. I got the tubing from Advance or Autozone and reused (where needed) the original fittings. Where possible I used pre-cut and terminated lengths and bent to fit, with no need to flare or place fittings. I have a thread on here where I did it. Though I did choose to customize the lines as a lot of the original spaghetti from Nissan was unnecessary and redundant in the engine compartment in my opinion.

Two and a half months have past, the roadster has almost ALL new brakes... MC, brake lines, front calipers, rear cylinders, adjusters and synthetic
fluid. Many new radiator/heater hoses and heater valve. Mikunis cleaned and jets resized. New fuel lines and filters. Lower ball joints changed
not to mention new wheels and tires. Drove it for the first time in almost 20 years today. Was a passenger with Bill Harvey driving for maybe 5 miles....
He let me drive for another few. Runs and sounds awesome. LOVE that intake sound, really love it above 5 grand. Still needs to stop as well as it goes.
Next step is to replace the front pads. My 25 year old pads felt as though they are contaminated, or very old like me. Trying to find the same pads as they
were great street pads. Repco Metal Masters D52D's I think they became AXXIS and then PBR. Any help is very welcome.
Thanks,
Bob

Sounds like great progress. You have the fever once again. Cannot help on the front pads. Enjoy!!

Steve