Wynona the wagon's resurrection!

[flatcat19]

Well, I was able to see it in action. Laid a patch of rubber down my street Sunday on his way home.

[HRH]

So I made it almost all the way home without mishap. Then the AF ratios started going super lean coming down the hill into Spokane. 18-20:1 At the end of the off ramp, she was idling on her own, but pissed off around 17-18:1 ratio. So I limped her home because I could floor it and get 12:1, then put it in neutral and coast it. It was making a horrific shriek (vacuum leak sustained) by the time I got it home.

I did some testing tonight and figured out I'm an idiot. I had both the PCV in the balance tube connected to the crank breather (which is correct), but I also had the top valve cover breather connected to the balance tube. In which case, it's trying to pull air from either side. Like sucking both sides of a straw with no result. So tonight I opened the valve cover breather, which will get a filter to either breath or suck air as the PCV sucking the crankcase sees fit. In the factory form, the top valve cover breather goes to the air cleaner box.

The funny part was I ran this by Steve from Ztherapy and he said that it was run correctly. But I'll give him the benefit of the doubt since just saying things is different when you see them and realize it's not correct.

Anyway, after that I tried to start it. Cra-thunk. Not a good noise. Rotated by hand, motor rotated. Tried again, same thing, half catch and stop. So I pulled all the plugs and checked. #3 was full of what I thought was water, but on closer inspection, fuel. So cranked it without plugs (and matchbox disconnected so no sparks), got the fuel out. I think it must have been pressurized from the vacuum leak and sucked the bowl dry after shut down the other night.

Restarted after that, had some piston slap/knocking. Was not very happy about that. However, after getting to operating temperature, it did go away. I'm hoping (praying to the Datsun Gods) that the rings were washed out and the knocking was #3 getting an oil film back in it. Finally found the leak at the rear of the balance tube. Either the tube is cracked, or it's just the seal, either way it'll come off and I'll find it. Car idled beautifully after fixing the pcv system with top side to atmosphere. Really irritating since I should have double checked that but you know how you get set on getting a car running to go to Canby.

Next step is checking compression and re-checking with the boroscope. Hopefully whacking the piston into a big plug of fuel hasn't hurt anything. Compression numbers and further running will tell.

[Laecaon]

I saw it running. Even talked to Matt a bit.

[HRH]

Well not good on initial start up after work today. Makes a noise. Kinda like a rod bearing possibly. Going to compression test next. I'm really hoping the motor isn't coming out yet again, but it may be.

[HRH]

First go round
190
193
193
198
200
208

Second go round
200
190
190
198
200
208

I think the loud noises I hear on cold start up is either piston slap, or detonation knock, maybe due to the leak I found in the balance tube I need to fix, but also the jets seem to lean now that the pcv issue is resolved. Also, I suspect the valves need adjustment, since I haven't adjusted them since I built the motor. Either way, think I dodged a bullet on #3. I'll do some more testing and see how it goes. Also, the transmission input shaft bearing I know is shitty and it makes a knocking sound, so it's possible that is being heard through the block as well.

[HRH]

The only problem I see is #6 being 208, whereas number 3 is 190 (188 third time around) I do know I bottle brushed 6 more because that was the piston that killed itself and left a huge scratch down the bore. That's 20 psi difference between the worst and best, which is a bit high. I'll readjust the valves before some more tuning and see where I am.

[DRIVEN]

Overall not bad. Still within 15% . Likely to get better after a valve adjust.

[HRH]

Found a crack in the balance tube where one of the 1/4 pipe fittings was. Had it welded up, no more leaks. Haven't had a chance to adjust valves yet, but after starting just now and letting warm, bad noises are gone it seems and the motor seems happy. Think I dodged a bullet. Which means the L28 turbo still stays in the race car. And as soon as I completely dial in the wagon and address a fuel leak in the hardbody, maybe I'll actually get to work on the proper race car finally. Only been 2 years. Need to reassemble the transmission downstairs and put it in the car, then hook up the MoTech and start tuning. It sounds so simple. I'm just happy it appears I haven't killed Wynona. Really didn't want to dink around with pulling a motor and putting it in the wagon. Again.

[DRIVEN]

[HRH]

Put the big cam in Wynona, and after making a drilled bowl drain bolt to attach a clear tube to to verify bowl level while running, it's all good. Oddly, the front bowl sits too high after shut off. I think the residual pressure from the tank backfeeds just a little. Anyway, it works now. Only problem is even with the big cam it's not fast enough. I'm thinking about doing an RB20DET swap with 6 speed. But I don't know. I'll fiddle with it a bit more before I pull that trigger. Pretty cheap on ebay though. Only 2100 with 200 shipping or something. The RB25DETs run like 3-4500. RB20 dohc still makes 212 hpish according to wikipedia. That would work for me.

[DRIVEN]

That's 30-40 more than me plus probably a lot more torque. Should be plenty.

[HRH]

So now my problem is I have the Ford Powerstroke electric vacuum pump mounted, and it's all ready to make an idle up for the AC, but the Nissan switching valve solenoid I have does not operate in the correct manner for easy wiring. It's normally closed, three ports, one in, two out. At rest the outer port doesn't operate, at energize it opens the outer port. This would work great except I need it to operate in reverse. The Ford vacuum pump has a limit at 16 psi. So it goes to the vacuum can on the SUs which raises the idle, works great. When the compressor clutch is engaged, the feed from that energizes the vacuum pump.

However, after the compressor shuts off, the electric vacuum pump holds pressure. Doh. And it won't release unless you bleed the air. So if I tie in the solenoid valve to the vacuum pump, everything is open, which doesn't work. If I wire a separate switch to cycle the solenoid, I can do that, but that means wiring in a switch in the cab to a stupid valve. I'd rather have AC on, pump energized, AC off, pump dead, solenoid activated and pressure dumped so idle drops back down.

[Laecaon]

Its sad the SR20DET makes more torque...

Its more like you need to intentially make the Ford unit bleed when off, and when energized also activate the solenoid to pull vacuum.

Im gonna use a Volvo cruise control vacuum pump for controlling the butter fly valves in my intake.

[DRIVEN]

I'm gonna use nothing and enjoy the simplicity of GM's laziness.

[HRH]

Lol, so I found a way to do it. I'm not an electrical guy, but I knew there was a way. So I dug on the internet and in very short order, found how to make a positive a ground!

You just take a relay, and wire one of the switched legs to ground! Booyah! So if I do that, I can run power to the one side of the vacuum switch, and when the compressor turns off, the relay will switch back to the other side, which will then provide ground and the vacuum valve will vent!

The only problem there is that means at rest the vacuum solenoid will always be energized (venting), which will probably wear it out.

Consequently, I looked up delays, and I should be able to wire a capacitor and or resistor in to provide a timed cut off of the power. Not quite sure how I'm going to do it yet, but I think it will work. Need to do it longhand on a piece of paper to figure it.

[DRIVEN]

Crafty

[HRH]

Why thanks! But now, I'm going to abandon it all. At light load, I either have piston pin rattle or detonation knock. I suspect pin rattle. Probably from the hydraulicing of the motor in #3 after it filled with fuel those 2 times. Either way, I've decided to put an RB in it. If I want to daily drive Wynona again, I want fuel injection (not 1984 EFI), and a motor that makes more hp that I can easily make short of a full race motor. RBs with transmissions are cheap enough, I think it's a no-brainer. Just have to get the scratch up now.

That said, who wants to buy my L26 engine? Still runs, but I'd tear it down and check it out. ARP rod bolts and head studs. I'll be keeping the adjustable cam gear more than likely. I'll make someone a screaming deal being you have to tear it down and check it out. Worst case, maybe some new wrist pins, re-checking the rods. Think I'm going to keep the transmission right now, but I may sell the whole thing as an assembly. Let me know via pm.

Also have a couple choices of cams and heads laying around. I can basically provide all the L24 and L26 stuff you'll need. And I even have a spare L28 head.

[Laecaon]

This will be fun to watch. I really like the RB motors. They also look fantastic under the hood of a car (which is maybe why I like the CA18DET...)

[HRH]

Ah ha! CHANGED MY MIND! I got to thinking today. I want the race car to go fast and I don't care what powerplant is in it. And Chevy 5.3 or 350 is 10x cheaper to make power with than an RB of any variety. So considering I have the wagon and the race car both running, just not as well as I'd like, I'm going to yank the L28 turbo out of the race car after I get it running on the MoTech. The wagon will get the L28 turbo. Then I'm going to buy a decent 100k 5.3 Chevy which are a dime a dozen for 800-1200 bucks. That will go in the Z. And then I'll have a fast wagon, and a faster race car. All for much less than the 2500 I was going to spend on the RB. And better yet, the L28 should drop right in without oil pan or crossmember modification I think. I'll have to double check, but I know it fits right in on the Z car.

So no cool RB for me. But the wagon will remain Datsun with more displacement. And I'll probably put in an intercooler and raise the boost to 10-12 psi as I've been researching and anything more than that just wastes the stock turbo.

[DRIVEN]

I'm not sure how to respond.