New World Datsuns...

Cylinder head back on! Filled with oil even! Still dicking around with a bunch of the heater/air bleed stuff on the manifold, resealing the throttle body and basically using all the good wagon parts on the Ugly Betty head. Getting closer. Transmission is mounted, driveshaft may be slightly annoying. 24 spline manual vs. 26 spline automatic, and the shaft has 4 non-serviceable joints that are replaceable by Watt's driveline, but rather expensive. Due to the proximity of the trans tunnel though, I'm probably going to have to use the original shaft with carrier bearing as opposed to retrofitting a 720 one-piece shaft in there, which would have worked cut down, but is too big a diameter. I'll post some pics in a bit.

Also. Mohammed came by and was a ton of help getting the cumbersome head with intake exhaust manifold on. Rather lopsided and heavy, but after screwing up one gasket yesterday, we got another head gasket this morning and lowered it on with the cherry picker. That proved much better!

April 1st. Tick tock.

Dang, must be one heavy head!

The L 6 heads are definitely heavy, made more so by the fact that I left the intake/exhaust on to save time, which in reality, might not have saved me much time. But either way I'm hooking up peripherals now.

I have April 1st scheduled. If I don't finish the wagon by then, I'll bring Gracie II. Depends also on what I find when I yank the diff. I'd still like to have an LSD in it but probably not going to find an H190 LSD unit for cheap. The Ford 8.8 is definitely on the agenda, but that will be a while yet.

I did freak out for a bit because I didn't have the head planed, just hit it with a stone a little and some scrubby pads, then took a white roloc bristle brush very delicately to some of the leftover gasket spots. I should have just yanked the manifolds and had a clean up pass done, but I was careful enough it should seal fine without issue. Of course, roloc hedgehog discs still have abrasives so it's not the best idea to let those get in oil passages. Lots of info on that. I actually took the vacuum and sucked the surface of the head and cavities to remove any tiny grit particles. As usual I'm probably getting way too anal, and Keith will take advantage of this entire paragraph, but I like to put things together with perfectly formed parts, immaculately prepped.

Either way, it has a head stud kit now and if it leaks, I'll take the head off in warm weather outside and fix it. Pretty confident it's not going to leak though. But a round disc on a air grinder is a very dangerous idea as you can round water passage holes and make a non-flat surface fairly quickly.

Alright, getting the garage warm right now, figured I'd update a few pictures of my new crossmember and the progress thus far. Forgive the horrid welds on the initial version, they were later cleaned out and re-welded by my Datsun guru with much more skill prior to painting and install. The double hole for the mounting stud of the Jeep trans mount (which hopefully isn't too stiff even though full rubber) is because I had to flip that section and the hole is offset then. Should have flipped first, then drilled.

Still need to figure out which one of these is going to be used.

And now, off to go do more work!

Alright, work is progressing nicely. Got the starter and most everything on the bottom done, except re-attaching the front suspension members. But the motor is getting close to starting. Have to put on the PS belt, then the distributor, then hook up the EFI system and airbox, but that's about it for starting her. Except water, and have to fill up the trans with oil too. So, a few things, but progress is being made. Changed all the fuel injection lines from the filter and return also, that was a pain. Spilled quite a bit of fuel with the return line.

As for the transmission crossmember mount mentioned in mounting the 5 speed in the ex-auto wagon, the mount is a 602-1161 from NAPA. It fits a variety of Jeeps. Most commonly CJ5-CJ7 Jeeps 1972-1977. It looks like it will work just fine, but we'll see. The same mount was used in the 280ZX chump car that Andy Kazanis was running successfully last year or the year before. John Morton even signed his dash!! So jealous!

Alright, here are a few more pics. Aaaaaaaannnnnnnddddddd......a video! Mohammed came and helped out, which was quite nice! Wrenching by yourself is fun, but you can definitely get a lot more done with two people.








Belt sanded the sandwich block, and removed the studs in order to polish the mounting surface. Once I pulled it off, I was obligated to make the surface better or face leaks. I didn't have any material for a block off plate, and figured what the heck, not like the EGR has any performance disadvantage. And since it's working, why not leave it.







The first video it didn't start. Then I remembered it used to be an automatic and jumpered the neutral safety switch wires down on the trans harness.

https://youtu.be/aTFPt5CWX8w

You need to buy Mo a belt.

Lol, I tell him that all the time. He's from Saudi, he's used to wearing those white robes, apparently they're super comfy. He's still not used to jeans.

That looks like a ebay special FPR. Not many like those ones. I would keep an eye on it. Way too many reports of failures for me.

Good eye! That is indeed the finest Chinese $30 FPR you ever saw! I have an AEM one for the turbo car, but this $30 has been used on Ugly Betty for the last two years. It actually has an aeromotive gauge in it currently. However, I'm probably going to be putting the stock cam back in for now until I can get a cam that is performance but runs better at idle. Otherwise it's going to be hard to sit in traffic this summer with the AC on. And I may just switch the factory FPR back on it when I put the stock cam back in.

It does fluctuate at idle quite a bit, but that's a problem of cam overlap, not part failure.

Well bummer. I didn't quite measure the crossmember right, so now I have 3/8 aluminum spacers on the mounting flange. It's about perfect now. No matter, it'll work until I have the Datsun guru re-work the crossmember. Cross your fingers, think I can switch sections of the automatic and manual driveline and end up with a working unit for it. The auto driveline is about a 1/2" longer on the front side, then shorter on the back side. At least I think that's what I remember.

Anyway, got the reverse lights hooked up, the transmission at the angle it's supposed to be, and now I'm going to get the front suspension on and then see where I am for diff and driveshaft. Haven't swapped the cam out yet, figure it works now, so oh well for the moment.

Really would like a truetrac diff, started looking into Toyota application units that could be reworked for the H190. According to the 1200 tech wiki on the H190, the 910 (810) Maxima is only 23 spline, just like 510 wagons.

The S110 (200sx) and trucks are 29 spline, so that's way the heck better. And there aren't any Eaton LSDs I see with a 23 spline count. Which means, fuck it dude, let's go bowling! Or rather, weld the rear or go with the Ford 8.8 rear end like I was thinking. Or other easy diff to find LSDs for.

Have you considered Toyota 8" pickup 5-lug rear ended? Some decent aftermarket support and the same lug pattern as Nissan 5-lug so you could match the front.

I have not. I have a severe problem with Toyota. In fact, it's my arch-enemy. However, I don't mind using parts if they weren't made by Toyota, hence the Toyota locker unit made by someone else. Not that I think Toyota builds bad things, I just hate Toyota. In my 2 years at Spaldings, all the bolts I gathered for my bolts bin came from Subaru, Mazda, or Nissan. Toyota bolts were not allowed since they carried an evil stigma.

But I may use a Ford rear end. Have no problems using Ford products.

Another interesting thing I just thought of: I started thinking about the lumpy cam and realizing half it's problem is unlike a carburetor, I can't change jets for idle, I only have control of vacuum with the archaic EFI system I'm using. (Factory) HOWEVER, I began thinking about an electric vacuum pump for big cam domestics so the power brakes work with a lumpy cam. And I thought, hmmm, I wonder if I could adapt that to an idle switch off the mechanical linkage that would provide vacuum at idle only so the fuel delivery wouldn't be quite so much and it would go back down to that 32 psi it's supposed to at idle and thus idle better, even though having a lump cam? The only thing I worry about is going too lean, but I'm sure I could hook up a bleed to get the pressure exactly where I wanted it so I could still idle comfortably in traffic, with a big cam, with the AC on, while idling.

I'm not sure yet, but I'm sure curious if that would be doable. It would be quite neat and then I could keep the lumpy cam!

Like this:

https://www.summitracing.com/parts/hla- ... /overview/

Honestly, it's not mine baby!!!