New World Datsuns...

Worked in Seattle Wednesday and Thursday and took the long way home to see the guys at my old shop. Even got a chance to hang out with my old favorite money-maker. Turned the rotors on the Supervibe, plus a backup pair that I have, and also the rotors for the Smell Camino.


My old boss was cleaning out his deceased brother's storage unit and came across something he had no use for. I traded him an 18 pack of Coors Light. Mixed batch of 300+.





Left the shop about 6:15 and was in my own bed a short 7hrs later.

While I was gone, this happened at home...









5 trees from the row of 9, plus another by the shop next to the tractor. Best before and after I can find.





It looks kind of weird to me now but it'll fill out soon. Time to buck up the wood and finish the fencing.

Good call. That looks hairy. To be transparent, I’m not the biggest fan of heights when I get involved with similar projects.

This followed me home today.





It doesn't work very good. A previous owner had done a few YouTube upgrades. Now I get to rabbit hole and find out what he did wrong.


Also finally did brakes on the Smell Camino. Replaced all 3 brake hoses as well since the fronts are 44 years old and the rear one is 56. They were probably due.




The reason for the age discrepancy on the hoses is that
The spindles and brakes (and sway bar) are from a '78 Trans Am WS6 that my wife's uncle parted out forever ago. There was a company that went by H-O Racing, then H-O Enterprises that sold custom ball joints that made this swap possible. The advantage, aside from disc brakes, was the taller spindle height. The result was a better roll center which completely changed the handling, as well as lowering the vehicle about 1.5 inches. Believe it or not, this thing corners pretty good.

Anyway, I traded uncle Ted a label printer for all the front-end parts and just bolted them on. Didn't even take the time to repack the wheel bearings or slap in a set of new pads. Today it finally got some attention.

Ah yes , you tube upgrades , the double edged sword.

Interesting parts upgrade. Never knew it even existed.

I have an 8hp Briggs snowblower that I wish would follow someone home that came with my property. It’s too bad previous owners left it out in the weather *roll eyes*

You aren't gonna need a snowblower there?

Was planning to do final assembly yesterday. Stator cover and related components done.










Cleaned and greased the kick lever pivot. Painted it and the front engine mount.




New piston, slipped on the cylinder and head, installed the timing components, adjusted the valves, and installed the covers.








When it was time to install the flywheel/rotor I realized that there should be a thrust washer against the crank gear that I neglected to order.






So now we wait for the mailman. Again.

1st 3 pictures = crafty. Looks good!

Thanks man. I appreciate you checking in. This is a bit of a challenging project since I basically bought random parts off ebay (post 153) . It's a total jigsaw puzzle.

I didn't do a whole lot Friday, yesterday, or today. Burned some weeds along the driveway. Burn pile was still too wet. Did a couple oil changes. Chased some of my neighbor's sheep off my lawn. Fired up the saws and started cleaning the place up. 1.5 down, 4.5 to go.



Still working on fencing. Decided to expand the garden spot by another 500'. Red posts mark the new corners. I'm also going to replace the 6' posts with 7'ers and the 6' posts will relocate to the top of the hill.





I'm out of fencing materials for now. T-post prices are still about the same as my last batch but the cost of wire field fencing has doubled. Dammit!

Thrust washer came in. Assembled the flywheel and roller clutch, then installed the side cover. I didn't forget the little white plastic piece.





Topped off the oil, hotwired the starter, and cranked it over until until I got steady oil flow out of the check plug. Circulation to the top end, confirmed. Slotted one of the holes in the intake boot to make on-bike installation easier.




Masked, painted, assembled.







Not sure when I'll swap it in. Lots of winter/spring chores to finish first.

Lookin good !

Right there with you on the winter/spring chores thing

About 5 miles north, this is about to happen too.

That engine looks damn good.

Chores suck

Lots of work over the last few weeks has kept me on the road. TW engine still isn't swapped yet because I'm using it as a carrot to get more chores done. I picked away at the tree work but still have lots to finish. Bought another pile of fence posts. Did some work in my basement. And I'm in the middle of another project that I'll confess about later.

A couple miles to the north in a different shop, the old man has been making steady progress. He had said from the beginning that he wasn't going to paint it but he wanted to at least make it less than 6 colors. Originally he planned to do a dark metallic green over black fenders. He got as far as painting the dash and didn't like the lack of contrast. He stripped the dash and went medium-deep metallic red. He picked a color and the paint store put it in rattle cans. Once the dash was red and everything else inside the cab was black, he moved back outside. One of the guys at the paint store had told him that they could tint sealer to a close match of the red dash paint, obviously not metallic though. After he'd prepped the body he went to buy it and was told that it can't be tinted and you can only get basic "red". He rolled the dice.





Well, that "red" looked either orange or pink depending on the lighting. But it definitely wasn't red. The gun he used was giving him some trouble too so there were some flaws he couldn't live with. Stripped/scuffed it up again and now it's light gray.







He's been putting it back together over the last couple days. His barber has a '37 sedan so he snagged a usable rear bumper too. Seat is at the upholstery shop. Should be a driver in a couple weeks.

Alright, confession time. Remember back in December when I did the timing chain on the Supervibe and decided to just slap a head gasket in it since I was in the neighborhood? Well, it didn't survive.

After I got it all back together everything seemed fine. I ran it for a couple thousand miles and it was due for an oil change. I had another car apart on my hoist at the time so I just slid under the front bumper and did the oil change on the ground. Ran another 5,000 miles and did the same thing. Everything looked good except my overflow reservoir was a couple cups low. I looked around and saw that my radiator was leaking.



It was the only thing I could see but didn't look bad enough to explain the coolant loss. Ordered up a new radiator as well as a pair of front axles. Kept an eye on the coolant level and just ran it. Figured I'd do the radiator and axles at the next oil change.

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago.





I racked it and raised it up enough to dump the coolant and R&R the radiator. Then raised it up to dump the oil and slam the axles in it. And that's when I saw it...



Sunnuvabish!!!

It never left a drip on the ground and I never even smelled hot coolant. It just oozed out the back and dried on the back of the block and transfer case. Finished my oil change, swapped axle, and rotated the tires. I put it on the light duty roster and ordered another gasket set.

So, Friday I jumped in.



I was really hoping to find a smoking gun but saw nothing definitive. Original gasket was MLS, as was the one I put in 3 months ago. New head bolts. I cleaned the surfaces with a carbide faced hand scraper -- no Roloc on an angle grinder shenanigans. Block and head are both flat. The leakage was external and there was no indication that it was burning any coolant. Not sure why it (I) failed, but it (I) did. This time I ordered a composite graphite gasket. Figured it might be more forgiving. Hoping to get more than 15,000 miles out of the new one.

While it was apart, I decided to check my exhaust screen. Sure enough, it was restricted. Outlet side looked okay but inlet side (viewed through O2 sensor hole and backlit) showed 90%+ obstruction. Guess that might explain why she huffs and puffs on some of the long steep hills.





I cleaned the screen.



It's all back together now. Hopefully this hassle is behind me now. I'm starting to question the status of our relationship.

That’s exactly how I clean all my screens.

It's gonna be a pretty busy weekend. Normal spring roster. Today was cutting wood and burning weeds out of ditches. 10hr day.




Tomorrow is more of the same. Also just found out yesterday that I'll be getting a new neighbor. The son of the old guy next door is buying the pasture to the south of me and is planning to build there. Seems like a cool enough guy.

It's a runner. No smoke, no leaks, no weird noises. I need to source a longer clutch cable before its wheelie time.

Put 3 more fruit trees in the ground yesterday.


This morning I took the Smell Camino on a run to the dump, then it got it's annual bath.


My longer XT225 clutch cable was delivered early so I installed it. Then I installed the 1/2" breather hose. TW engine vents from the top of the crankcase instead of the cam cover, so that hose wasn't interchangeable.



I took it for a 10 mile ride. Completely uneventful. It's definitely got more power and the extra gear knocks the RPMs down. I previously ran a 14/55 sprocket combo that gave a 3.93 final ratio. I put a 15 tooth on the front when I put this together for a 3.67 ratio. It still feels pretty low so I'll probably try a (stock) 50 tooth rear for a 3.33 final. Should stretch the top end out without suffering on the bottom end. Along with the extra CCs, this XT engine has a lower 1st gear and 6th is taller than the TW's 5th.

After all that, the Chief got a bath and I went for a short ride. Filthy Cutlass is justifiably jealous.