Datsun Roadster Forum-311s.org

Hi everyone,

My name is Evan and I'm a total newbie when it comes to cars. I have been driving since I was a teenager but never really got into cars when I was younger, and have spent all of my adult life in large cities relying on transit and car sharing to get around.

I learned to fly single engine aircraft recently and became fascinated with the mechanics of the engine. I can't do any of the maintenance on the planes at the flying club and I'm no longer living downtown in a big city so I figured an older car would be a great place to teach myself how to maintain and improve an engine. After a month or so of research I decided a Datsun roadster was the car for me and began shopping for one (finding this community was a big plus and I'm excited to participate here more!). A 1969 1600 was listed on Craigslist close me last week and I'm now the proud owner of it!





The car runs and drives great for a 54 year old car with the original engine! My goal with this car is to make incremental improvements to it over the next year and get the engine run as smoothly as possible.

I have a couple tech questions about the electrical system and the engine, but I'll start new threads for those in the tech discussion forum.

Looking forward to getting to know folks here!

Evan,

Glad you joined us. It looks like you scored a pretty nice Roadster. Please feel free to ask any questions you might have. Enjoy. Enter your car in the registry if you don't mind.
https://www.311s.org/index.php/roadster ... ntry-form/

Steve

Welcome! There is a lot of knowledge on this list and we are eager to assist. We all had to start at square one, so ask any questions.

Where in California are you located? There are many roadster owners out there.

Peace, Pat

Welcome! Certainly a good car to learn on. There are so many resources now for understanding how things work... YouTube can be a great source for things in general, 311s for specifics. Tools will be important and there are several general and a few special ones you will eventually want to aquire, first that comes to mind is a carb air flow balancing tool (best is the "snail" version, OK is a unisyn). I would obtain a copy of the manual and read through it... you don't have to understand all of it but it will create a clear frame of reference. Understanding that the engine is a conglomeration of systems that work together is important and helps you understand what's being accomplished and why. Being in So Cal will help make in person connections. Have fun!

Very nice, and you won’t need an FAA Airframe & Powerplant license to maintain and improve it!

Thanks for the welcome everyone.

Steve: I'll add the car to registry.

rwmann wrote: Thu Aug 03, 2023 11:04 am Very nice, and you won’t need an FAA Airframe & Powerplant license to maintain and improve it!

Exactly!

Play the newbie card as much as you can and for as long as you can. This is a great online community and can be a very useful resource on all things 311.
And no, I am not changing my online name.......

Welcome, very nice car to be starting with...
Spend some time enjoying the car for awhile, then figure out what you would like to 'improve'. If we have an idea of what the end game is, we may be able to save you a few steps and dollars along the way. Your budget is the limiting factor really....

For instance, ignition is the #1 improvement I would make on the engine. If it hasn't got electronic ignition yet, you have choices....base electronic dizzy, programmable dizzy, or programmable crank fired ignition - the last being the best, but most involved and expensive to implement. Costs can be kept down by junkyard hunting....

This article spells out the advantages of programmable ignition....
https://www.diyautotune.com/news/tuning ... 704dc5914e

Daryl Smith wrote: Mon Aug 07, 2023 7:58 pm Welcome, very nice car to be starting with...
Spend some time enjoying the car for awhile, then figure out what you would like to 'improve'. If we have an idea of what the end game is, we may be able to save you a few steps and dollars along the way. Your budget is the limiting factor really....

For instance, ignition is the #1 improvement I would make on the engine. If it hasn't got electronic ignition yet, you have choices....base electronic dizzy, programmable dizzy, or programmable crank fired ignition - the last being the best, but most involved and expensive to implement. Costs can be kept down by junkyard hunting....

This article spells out the advantages of programmable ignition....
https://www.diyautotune.com/news/tuning ... 704dc5914e

Love this suggestion! I was just thinking about posting a thread on things I should look into for projects to plan over the next little while and this seems perfect.

I am enjoying the car -- especially now that my coolant leak problem has been dealt with! (viewtopic.php?t=37574). I'm curious to see what sort of difference the ignition improvements will yield. Right now I wish the car was a little less "fume-y", but I still don't really know how to articulate exactly what that means, and I'm not sure if this is just what a carbureted engine is like

Carburetored engines do smell more than injected engines.

For me, the biggest electronic ignition benefit is that it gets rid of the points so it’s more reliable. I installed an East Coast distributor. I’m not into racing so I didn’t go with higher performance distributor.

Peace, Pat

The East Coast electronic distributor is the former Gary Boone EI distributor, which I’ve used for almost twenty years, along with an MSD Blaster 2 HE coil, both with great reliability. Highly recommended. Ignition is key. No redundant magnetos...

Modern emission controls have indeed made a difference. It's possible that your carburetors are set a bit too rich. If it huffs blackish smoke then that's a good indication. The carbs are a wear item. Remove your spark plugs noting which wire goes where and take a look at the insulator (the little cone shaped part)... black is rich, brown/tan is right, white is lean. If the car had been idling for some time prior to when you shut it off last time you may need to go for a drive to get an "overall" idea of how it's burning. If the plugs are different in color then there's an issue with fuel delivery (1 and 2 are fed by one carb, 3 and 4 the other). They can also be unbalanced in their airflow, but that usually shows up as a rocking or unsteady engine at idle. Before messing with anything you need the proper tools... a unisyn and some understanding of the linkage/screws and what does what. Manual is in the tech wiki.

Have you checked your distributor yet to see if it is electronic? For the work that has gone into keeping it in the shape it is in, I would be surprised if it still has a points distributor.....

A few things that aren't in that article I quoted, regarding crank fired 'distributorless' ignition:
1) There are no 'wear' parts - no dizzy cap or rotor to replace.
2) Direct coil to sparkplug connection - shorter wires and no distributor so less losses in the system.
3) 2 coils (minimum) - more dwell time for the coils to charge to full power.
4) Accuracy - timed directly from the crankshaft and very accurate (current system I'm using can program to 1/10 degree) - Distributor works off a gear on the camshaft, which is driven by a chain from the crankshaft. 'Slop' in that system can vary timing by several degrees.

That being said....the car has a distributor. It works, and is the simplest way to keep the car working and running. An electronic or programmable electronic distributor is a big and worthwhile step up from a points dizzy. If you are just a cruise around, take it easy type of driver, you won't see much benefit from a distributorless crank fired system. If you are more into the performance end, racing, or just like to experiment, the changes will be noticeable over the whole rev range.....and you'll likely give up judging points at the classic car show....

That's a neat Datsun! Nice score
Welcome