New World Datsuns...

Got to see everyone at Gatoland today, it was quite nice! What wasn't quite nice was pulling into Ritzville and feeling the wagon running on 5 cylinders and make a noise that sounded like rod knock. Fortunately, this time, Rose made me think about simple things as I looked like a kid whose new puppy had just been run over. Ended up finding the #3 injector connector wire had a break in it. It also explains the random misses during the day that I kept thinking were related to the fuel pressure regulator. So now I'm going to replace all the injector connectors at the main harness which should be okay since it doesn't have any hard bends and the loom is large enough that movement isn't an issue. The place they get stressed is where they exit the main harness and snake their way around the fuel rail onto the injectors. At some point I may yank Ugly Betty's wiring harness and rebuild it in it's entirety, but we shall see.

Anyway, after thinking it was rod knock, I'm extremely glad to find a simple injector issue, and when it fires halfway it does make a very slight knock detonation noise. I'll check out that cylinder with the borescope tomorrow and check compression. I have a feeling it will be fine. When I tweaked the wire it ran perfectly, un-tweaked it and it started running like crap.

But again, I must extol the virtues of Rose saving me from hanging myself by the roadside as a failure to the Datsun gods. (She wants everyone to know she was awesome and not a bitch!)

SUs don't have those kinds of problems.

Lol. Go, rose.


Glad you made it home in one-piece.




I asked you earlier if you had spark knock. That also explains the miss you were decribing.

I hope your inspection turns up nothing other than the bad connector. That would be excellent.

Since my thread never grew legs here...I just post this, from Ratsun, here...




First stop was O'Reilly's for a radiator cap...




Then grocery store...where hobo's photography skills were put to full use...




Afternoon fun run landed us at the local Nissan dealership...






BUT... Right after we arrived one of the sales managers asked us to move our cars...







After that, we headed off to one of my favorite spots in all of the city...











That's all I got

Nice, I like! Now I'm going to sleep. Too much excitement for me today. I'll let you guys know tomorrow. Pretty sure I'll be okay other than replacing some connectors. We'll see.

Josh posted a bunch of good pics of all of our cars over on the Ratsun gatoland thread.


Pics in that thread start here... http://community.ratsun.net/topic/71302 ... ?p=1476290

Looks like a good time! Glad the shakedown run was a success. That's actually a pretty ballsy move to go that far on a fresh build.

Ballsy or stupid! It had been running decently most of the week, but I do wish I had figured out that injector dropping earlier. It's on the list for checking out today, pending a compression test think I'll probably be okay.

Well shit on a stick. I fixed the injector wire tonight. Wynona responded much better with all injectors working. However, I did a compression test to verify.

The results are not nearly as good as the first go-round. This was a full warm compression test.

6 to 1 in corresponding order: 220-210-197-185-212-215

So I'm hoping I only have the start of a head gasket failing in 3/4. In which case I can yank the head, replace the gasket and everything will be fine again. Worst case new pistons or valves/head job. I looked in with the camera, pistons looked okay, but hard to tell if any detonation had affected them. Not looking forward to yanking the head again, but knock on wood maybe I'll be able to leave the block in the car this time. If not, I'm yanking the whole assembly out like I should have earlier this winter.

Probably might be wise to relash valves before you start tearing things apart. New stuff is still breaking in.

That's actually a great idea, although I would be a little surprised if it came up 30 points on 3 with a valve adjustment, but considering the pressure I suppose that could be. Worth a shot before I yank the motor though.

Holy dog balls privates, do I have news!!

So I checked the valve lash for 3 and 4. About .0005 off. Readjusted anyway. Then checked compression on three. Number three only showed 180, just like last night. So I'm thinking the worst. Threw some oil down the hole. Too much, in fact, and that put the compression to 300 psi and filled my compression tester hose with oil. Cleaned that out, figured what the heck, I'll test 4. 4 was like 185 now, wtf?

After that I said screw it, and put her back together and ran her up to operating temperature. Took a LOONG time to clear out the oil smoke from that cylinder, man it was thick for like 5 minutes.

Anyway, back to replacing each plug each time, only testing one hole each time, I came up with these numbers, 6 to 1. 190-190-185-190-180-185 And now I was baffled. And so I called the Datsun guru who said those are fine numbers, don't worry about it. And do you think I could let well enough alone? Of course not! So I yanked all the plugs out like you're supposed to do for a compression test. And here are the numbers I came up with, 6 to 1: 225-220-221-220-220-220 Which made me a very HAPPY panda!

I think what I did last night was I had the number one spark plug in still when I tested three and four, which slowed down the cranking. And then I took it out and tested the rest. Anyway, somehow I screwed it up. Wynona is fine! Thank goodness I'm a moron!!

I also replaced the adjustable $30 fpr from ebay with the factory fpr tonight. I don't have a gauge on it, ran out of time, but so far it seems to run much better. It held vacuum quite nicely, thinking it's probably going to be just fine. I may spring for a more expensive good quality fpr that I don't have to adjust every 2 seconds. On the other hand, it worked great for 2 years on Ugly Betty, so could just be that's how long the internals last. Still, the Nissan factory regulator should last another 10 years as long as it's not leaking. And it's not.

So that's the story. Much happier now, going to drive the wagon to Cheney and go have fun with Rose and the dogs!

Lol. Thank goodness you're a moron.

Those are good numbers!

Thanks! I'm quite happy as well. Camshaft is coming next week and so is a new factory Nissan fuel pressure regulator. The original one started leaking when cold. Not surprising. It's fine once it warms up but I'm not taking any chances now that I have Wynona running correctly. So Gracie II it is for the rest of the week!

If the Nismo FPR wasnt so expensive I would have bought that. Got my Tomei for almost a third the cost.

I'm getting the factory Nissan one (albeit not many left) for 68 bucks or something. Reasonable for a factory unit that will probably last another 32 years.

So I've been trying to figure out what this song is for quite a while and Rose found it in 4 minutes!! She is certainly talented!!

https://youtu.be/-26hsZqwveA

Love that song. I'll walk around the house singing that and my wife will roll her eyes.

Explained to my son that's where Fall Out Boy ripped that off from.

Actually, the B52s ripped off the doo doo first! But yeah, it's sweet. My new camshaft showed up for Wynona today! Woohoo!