Waynos 1966 datsun 520 ute

[DRIVEN]

Hope this combo treats you right.

[wayno]

All I know is that the L20b I had in the work truck for close to 20 years had more power than this engine with the same exact carbs, but it had big valves and a stock cam, same as this head/cam, the head on it now has an RV cam and stock W53 valves I believe, although the intake ports were opened up to match the SU intake manifold.
I had this engine in my work truck for a very short period of time, the wore out engine that was in it would have kicked this engines ass, I built an LZ23 right away after this engine was installed in the work truck, I wasn't going to drive it with that engine in it for very long without blowing it up, the LZ23 fixed everything.
Flatcat thought it had a lot of power, but his truck has an L16/4spd.
I just want my torque back, it's a pig starting out, I don't like riding the clutch and revving the engine to get started, I just want to let out the clutch and put my foot into it, it does cruz down the freeway nice, I barely have to touch the pedal, but I don't drive it on the freeway a lot.

[wayno]

I put the 219 head on the engine in this truck today, it appears to accelerate normally now, it is not sluggish off the line, in my opinion it acts as it should with the stock L20b cam(SSS L16 cam).
This R&R didn't go all that smoothly, I tried to turn the back fitting for the heater core on the head because it was pointed the wrong direction and it broke off, I then tried to easy out what was left and that didn't work either(I broke a socket in half trying), so I had to chisel it out by cutting it in 2 places, then knocking out each side separately, but I did it without screwing anything up and I put a new to this head fitting on it and it don't leak.
I also screwed up and didn't have the cam in the correct position and it got caught in a bad spot, I could not turn it to the correct position because the front and back pistons were at TDC and the valves were hitting the pistons, I am lucky I didn't bend a valve when I torqued it down, anyway I had to put the cam gear on in the wrong position, then turn the engine by hand just enough so the valves would clear the pistons, then I re-did the cam gear to the correct position, then I turned it back to TDC and everything looked good, I put it all back together and started it up.
This all took longer than it should have, but it is done, the head gasket and intake gaskets came off by themselves, the head gasket is perfect, but I used new ones anyway as I didn't want to do this again, it took 5/6 hours, it should only have taken around 4 hours max.
The thermostat housing came off easy, I was worried about them bolts.





I forgot to mention I used a ARP head stud kit when I put the head on, but that really doesn't add a lot of time to the job.

[wayno]

I found 4 good rims and installed 4 nice P185/75R14 tires on them and installed them on this truck, my thinking is that the fender wells look a little big with the 165/65R14 tires in there now, well the driverside rear tire was rubbing on the inner fender, the 1986 rearend is to wide, I need to find slightly narrower tires or roll the rear fenders, I have learned I am no good at rolling fenders, I am not patient enough, so I need narrower tires which I don't have, I don't feel like installing a narrower rear axle which I do have, I am back to narrower tires, so unless I get motivated, I will live with the tires I have now.
I also tried one of the tires off my 521 kingcab, they are P195/70R14, same exact results, just barely rubbing the inner fender.

[DRIVEN]

Remind me why it has an '86 rearend. Better gearing?

[wayno]

It's on a 1986 Nissan 720KC frame, I never changed the rear axle out on this one.
The gearing can be changed out by changing pumpkins(drop out gear sets), right now I think it has 3.7 gears in it, when I drop the LZ23 in this truck one day I will likely put the 3.54 LSD gears in the 521 kingcab in this one and put 3.30 gears in the 521 kingcab turbodiesel, it has the torque/power to push them kind of gears now since it was turbocharged.
I like the late 86 720 axles, they are the widest axle the 720 had, if this 1966 520 wasn't sitting so low I would not even have an issue, but it is very low, I have a 1982 axle I could use which is a couple inches narrower, but that axle is buried right now.
If I could find another set of 3.30 gears I believe I could pull the rear axle out complete and put the 3.30 gears in it, then I could remove the 1985 axle complete from the 1969 Datsun kingcab with the LSD in it and put it in this 1966 520, and then put this 86 axle in the kingcab 521 with the 3.30 gears I installed in it, then I would not have to dig out the buried axle in the back yard and the 1969 kingcab.
I believe the 1985 axle is a couple inches narrower over all and that would fix the issue, but I need a set of 3.30 gears and I need to measure that axle and know its width for sure and not just believe I know, it might be the same width as the 86 axle.

[DRIVEN]

I guess I forgot it was on the '86 chassis. You almost lost me on the rest. Had to reread it 3 times. I'm exhausted.

[wayno]

, it took me a while to write that post.

[wayno]

I had something strange happen today, I was driving the 520 ute today and when coming home from the store I had a young girl giving me the thumbs up sign, this girl didn't look but 15 years old and I am 60 years old, she was in the back of a very large SUV, thinking about it maybe her dad(driving?) told her to give me the thumbs up, in my experience young people(especially girls) don't even know what a Datsun is, they are more into Hondas, Mazdas, and the like that guys their age own.

[DRIVEN]

Stranger things have happened.

[Laecaon]

It could be the generic "thats an old car" thumbs up.

I got thumbs up from all the Subaru guys specifically, kinda odd...

If I drive somewhere and see a couple reverse parked BMWs, I park next to them (guaranteed no door dings on one side). Often I find another reverse parked BMW next to me when I leave whatever establishment.

[Taterhead]

My kid spent a lot of time yesterday giving random folks the peace sign from the back seat. When I asked him why he said "because they were there "

Who knows what runs through the heads of this generation of kids.

[wayno]

I get people honking at me and waving all the time, I also have people(guys mostly) stopping me in gas stations as I am entering to pay, every once in a while I have a gal make a positive comment outside of a store, but I have never had that young of a gal(kid) ever look at me unless introduced to me by their parents.

[DRIVEN]

My daughter would have thrown a pair of thumbs-up. But that's just a result of all my excellent parenting.

[wayno]

So I did a few things on this today, first thing was to re-time the cam on this one as it was also 1 tooth off also, my tool to keep the timing chain tensioner in place didn't work on this truck as I have an oil squirter in the middle down there, but I have two of them tools and I made the other one work with a little modding.
I started it up and noticed a difference right away on this one, it was smoother, I am starting to wonder if the other head I had on this engine was good on this engine if the cam had been timed correctly, anyway the truck accelerates better and has more power, but now it is noisier also, I have dual SUs on this one also.
I am also wondering about when I had this engine in the work truck, it was gutless with that cam, but maybe it was the cam timing, I will know when I get that other engine going that has that head now.
I also switched all the wheels/tires out for the ones I mounted and balanced, I got them to fit, but the driver side was real close to the inner fender while the passenger side wasn't, so I loosened all the "U" bolts holding the rear end and I moved it over and now it is centered, I think I might still be able to haul some weight without the side walls rubbing.
Here is a photo of the tires, the skinny ones were taken off and the wider ones were put on.

[wayno]

I am liking this truck a lot lately, it starts when it is cold and it darts around the corners, I can hear the stereo as I sound deadened the shit out of this truck, the only drawback is the wipers go about half speed most the time, the only time they go regular speed is when the windshield is soaked with rain, not sure what the issue is, I will look at the ground first.
This thing is great around town, but when I come to a freeway hill it lacks power going up the hill, but it goes up the hill at 70mph, but it hardly has anything left.

[DRIVEN]

70 ain't bad considering what those old parts were intended to do 50 years ago.

[wayno]

70 ain't bad considering what those old parts were intended to do 50 years ago.

It's not a stock engine, it has a 219 head on an L20b with a 720 5spd, I believe it has 3.70 gears in the rear right now.
It is not a LZ23, I can say that for sure, but this L20b runs decent.

[DRIVEN]

Still a bunch of antique parts on a truck that was never manufactured. I think you're doing just fine.

[Laecaon]

Put a modern 80amp+ IR alternator on it. That woke up the wiper motor on my 510 (the one everyone complains about being too slow). It also brought my turn signal flashing speed to modern car timing.