The new 1200 acquisition

[Gray]

I have that same HF light. Its pretty awesome. I want to buy a second one and see about modding it to be brighter and or longer battery life.

Here's the tear down on one with upgrades discussed.
http://budgetlightforum.com/node/37446

[Gray]

Also been working on this, not quite completed yet.

[izzo]

bamp

[Gray]

Built this Friday night, might still revise it some or split it out depending on where I mount it. Two hose clamps on the high pressure/low volume pump go through slots I machined in the bottom. The other two where just to keep the foam on and could be removed. Not sure if I got the orientation on the lift pump (low pressure/high vol) I'm assuming it pulls through the smaller screw on filter (left). But it could be reversed, no pics or flow arrows. Big filter is off a 300zx, I bought a bunch as they were super cheap and are rated for high pressure fuel injection applications, although it is on the low pressure side in the pic. I'll throw another on somewhere before the injectors.

Still need to figure out where I'm going to mount this actually. Either by the gas tank and then run new 5/16 lines using the vent line as return, or get lazy and use the original 1/4 lines and put it in the engine bay.

[Gray]

No pics this time .

Anyways, got a couple of days to work on things over the holidays. You'd think being unemployed would result in me having more time to work on stuff but it actually has resulted in less as I'm playing Mr. Mom to my boys.

On to the Datsun. I mounted the fuel pump and I did end up reworking it a bit. Found a spot to tuck the pump in next to the leaf spring mount under the passenger side back seat. Also bent up new 5/16 steel fuel and return line and figured out how to route it. I got it about 90% mounted, pretty much the fuel system is done except for mounting a small hard line I made up from the tank to the pump and running the pump wiring. Also welded up the egr hole on the exhaust finally, blanked the hole with a nickel and then filled it in. Cut work short so I could take a shower and do some New Year's stuff.

[510freak]

I bet you are enjoying the time with your boys

[Gray]

Made some time to work on it late last night. Got the intake mounted. Still need a 90degree heater hose, too much of a kink in the one I wanted to use. Also the top radiator hose I wanted to use sort of fits but is just a tad short and would be under tension, so need a new one of those also. Some other minor stuff, replaced the oil filter with a shorter oil filter to better clear the battery mount, filter is a spare for the Lexus ES300, surprised it fit actually. Should of finished the fuel lines but I was not feeling like crawling under the car, I probably should pull and clean the fuel tank, I already took a look inside and it seemed clean and car was a runner before being parted so I might just be really really lazy and let it go.

Went to put on the exhaust manifold and it became obvious the O2 sensor is going to hit the steering box.
I think I'm going to remote it further down the exhaust as there is already a threaded hole on the exhaust pipe past the manifold. I just need to figure out an adapter for the different thread sizes and find a plug for the O2 sensor hole, would have been easier if I had not just welded up the egr hole on the manifold. I guess I could always drill and tap it if I knew the O2 sensor thread pitch and had a tap that size.

All of this crap would have been so much easier if I could have found a carb intake manifold. I still need to remove the old distributor coil and setup the new distributor coil. Also wiring soon, not really looking forward to that, I have a relay box built but I've been slacking on getting it together. So much still to do.




Old oil filter that I accidentally punctured earlier, but you can see how far it sticks out and comes close to the bracket for the battery.

[510freak]

looks like it was meant to be there

[Gray]

looks like it was meant to be there

Yeah, but it has been a total pain in the ass shoving that engine into that small space and I still have a bunch of loose ends and other crap to finish up.

Surprisingly today I also worked on the 1200!

Anyways, got the hoses I needed and finished up most of the plumbing for the cooling system. However, as you may notice there is no filler neck present anywhere in the system. I'm thinking I'm going to run an external filler tank and just tap into the heater hoses (5/8) or just get (or make) an inline filler for the heater hose. I guess if I wanted to get really creative I could use the threaded hole on the radiator for the temp sensor and use that to run a line to an external tank, no idea on the thread size though, probably 24mm or something from the looks of it. I'm really tempted to try 3D printing a custom fill tank out of ABS, I'm just not sure if it would hold up to the pressure.

If I can find a 18x1.5mm tap (or nut to weld in) I should be able to knockout the O2 sensor soon.

Pic showing hose routing, injector rail is just sitting there for now, I dug it out but I still need to replace the rubber seals and some other minor stuff. I'm trying to do an hour or two of work on it a night lately.

[510freak]

I like this

[wayno]

Have you thought of using a radiator hose filler neck adapter?
Here a link to a bunch of photos of them.
https://www.google.com/search?q=radiato ... AJAQsAQIVQ

[RedBanner]

an hour or 2 a night will make short work of it! looks great man.

[Laecaon]

an hour or 2 a night will make short work of it! looks great man.

That's what I told myself. A few years later...

[Gray]

Have you thought of using a radiator hose filler neck adapter?
Here a link to a bunch of photos of them.
https://www.google.com/search?q=radiato ... AJAQsAQIVQ

Yes, many times....and I just really don't like them...and I'm too damn cheap to drop the money on something that everytime I look at it will piss me off. The correct way to do it is with the external coolant tank, I just need to work my way towards getting or building one.

Edit: I'm using a Nissens 651511 radiator from an '86 VW Golf 1.8l, the threaded portion for the temp. sensor (which I'm not using) is M22x1.5. I only paid $50 shipped for this radiator and with an error in shipping which resulted in them losing the first one and reshipping, only for it show up a month after they shipped the replacement, I'm only in to it for $25. So I just can't stomach spending more on the filler neck than on the radiator.

[wayno]

The early Datsun Roadster had a radiator setup without a cap on the radiator itself, there is a cap on the thermostat housing which was lower than the radiator, but it was just a cap, it had no pressure relief, it was a pain to get the air out of the system.
The radiator did have a small hose in the top middle that went to a reservoir that did have a pressure relief, but it also was lower than the top of the radiator.
As I said, it was a pain to get the air out of the system, when I upgraded to the 1968 roaster model drive train, I used that radiator because it had a traditional radiator cap on the radiator, no more issues getting the air out of the system anymore after that.
The problem with that early system was that one had to drive the car till it was fully warmed up with the radiator only 2/3rds full, and then let it cool off, when it cooled it would pull the water from the reservoir into the radiator, then you had to fill the reservoir up, start it and fully warm it up again until you quit getting air bubbles in the reservoir, then then shut it down again and let it cool down so it would pull more coolant into the top of the radiator thru that little hose, you have to keep doing that till the reservoir fluid quits dropping, then the system is full, WHAT A PAIN!!!
I was sure happy when I seen that 1968 radiator with a cap, you can see it is not a pressure relief cap, it's just a cap, the pressure relief cap is still on the reservoir that has that hose you can see connected in the top middle of the radiator, you can also see the reservoir and pressure relief cap itself on the left where that hose leads to.

[Laecaon]

Have you considered trying to run any of the VW coolant expansion tanks?

[Gray]

Have you considered trying to run any of the VW coolant expansion tanks?

Yeah, I looked into that originally, the main hose runs to the block not the radiator though and the size was not so useful.

[Gray]

I did end up finding some 18mm and 22mm hardware, just not where I would have expected. Initially I was looking for a tap set and some nuts to weld in. However, 18x1.5mm is somewhat of a difficult size to find stuff for until I remembered that some sparkplugs and oil drain plugs use this size.

So for the 18mm plug on the manifold I grabbed an replacement oil plug and for the new adapter I grabbed a non-foul adapter which I will cut down and weld in to get the threads. You can see the old damaged O2 sensor I used for sizing. I also found a 22mmx1.5 brass fitting that goes to 3/8, turns out this size which matches the temp sensor, is used for pressure washers. All told each package was in the 3-4$ range a piece. There seems to be enough material on the 3/8 threaded portion that I may be able to use the lathe to turn it down into a hose barb, I'll have to see. All that leaves then is finding a small overflow tank with radiator cap, I'll probably mount it to the side of the strut tower as that will put it slightly higher than the radiator and that is a dead space normally anyways if using an externally regulated alternator and should still leave plenty of room for the kangaroo bag for the windshield washer.




Plug inserted in the manifold. I'll drill out the egr hole I welded up earlier (top left) and weld in the cut down non-foul fitting later. After everything is done I'll repaint the manifold and it should be good to go.

[Gray]

[RedBanner]

good thinking man, always a solution somewhere!