66 Datsun 1600

[Gregs672000]

Fun stuff and good progress! Be sure to check the issues with the tensioner as others noted.

[Mochi]

It felt really good to get some progress on the suspension. The front and rear suspension is all bolted up. Working with a clean powder coated frame and new parts from JT is a pleasure! I don't have much pics from working but did take a pic of the dampers!

[JT68]

Glad you like them Looking good!

It looks like the foot is upside down.

Sid is correct. the tensioner foot was installed backwards-the tensioner probably never worked at all. The chain was always in trouble at that point..

[beebo]

That 4 carb setup is going to be awesome! I'm looking forward to watching this get built up.

[Mochi]

That 4 carb setup is going to be awesome! I'm looking forward to watching this get built up.

I have been trying to farm out the work to fab up a intake for it. But every fab shop around are to busy with other projects. I might have to do it myself not unless somebody in the northwest knows somebody that wants to do it. I just need something for a proof of concept.

[beebo]

I wish I could help ya. That does seem like a fun thing to fabricate if you do it yourself.

[Mochi]

I finally got some good work in on the 66. I had to drill and tap a broken bolt that I forgot to extract before powder coat. That was a pain in the butt! Powder coat is some pretty narly stuff. Just cleaning the threads was tough! Started playing around with specing out brake calipers. I might have to talk to a brake shop as all the numbers are frying my brain right now. Tomorrow is going to be fun! The new to me 69 is my arrend car now and going to take it to a fabricator that said he would weld up a intake for the 66! I have a spare head, headers, and the bike carbs for him to help fab up the intake runners.

[Mochi]

It's been pretty fun driving the 69 around to pick up parts for the 66! Had the flywheel resurfaced and had time to start mocking up parts for the engine.

[Mochi]

Pretty cool! Just got some more parts in. The MC Is a drop in minus the plumbing.... the pedal I need to decide how much to hack off to make it fit, or if it's worth it. After driving the 70 datsun I really want to fix that pedal ratio

[Bwk2000]

… the pedal I need to decide how much to hack off to make it fit, or if it's worth it. After driving the 70 datsun I really want to fix that pedal ratio

I hear that. Had to do a little custom bending of the brake & clutch pedals as well … guess not many Japanese were sporting size 12 feet.

[Mochi]

Finally pulled the trigger on calipers! Called wilwood multiple times and they where a huge help. They said that with the piston area of 3.00 is fine and what they spec their miatas with. They said you need to focus on the pedal ratio if you want big gains in performance. Will try the pedal assembly from wilwood but might end with modding the stock pedal assembly. Would not mind any opinions you have on getting a better ratio!

[C.Costine]

I would seek opinions from the guys that race. Most likely some of them have gone too far with their ratio and had problems. Other racers would have heard about the ones that had problems.

[JT68]

Mochi, just trying to be constructive and help you here, you may want to send those calipers back before you use them. 3.0 is step backwards. Just like the Volvo calipers, 3.0 would be reducing your piston surface area (and clamping force). You would have to increase your pedal ratio and/or up your hydraulic pressure just to match the oem brakes, so that's probably not what you want. Hope this helps you out! j

(Adding a larger bore master would be two steps backward)

[Mochi]

Mochi, just trying to be constructive and help you here, you may want to send those calipers back before you use them. 3.0 is step backwards. Just like the Volvo calipers, 3.0 would be reducing your piston surface area (and clamping force). You would have to increase your pedal ratio and/or up your hydraulic pressure just to match the oem brakes, so that's probably not what you want. Hope this helps you out! j

(Adding a larger bore master would be two steps backward)

well put on the upping the the pedal ratio. I have wilwood's 7 to 1 pedal and was thinking of installing that. with my basic math skills the a pedal ratio of 7 to 1 with a piston area of 3.0 would be slightly better then stock. with a 100 lbs of pedal pressure the wilwood setup is 776.2 ft lbs of braking torque were stock is 711 ft lbs. JT didnt you install wilwood calipers on 1 of your roadsters? what was your solution? my solution is unproven were yours is race proven

[JT68]

yes, so if staying with the stock pedal ratio, you would want something at 3.5sq/in or more. As you say, you can over come the difference with additional pedal ratio and leg effort. But that pretty much gets you back to stock type performance.

Yes, we have done several systems. Just over 4.0 is a good number for surface area, but you don't want too big(4.8/5 or more) because then you have too much pedal travel which feels lousy. Then you have to go to a bigger master which lowers your line pressure-again requiring more pedal effort.

Since there is no power assist to help like most cars have, it is a bit of a balancing act.