New World Datsuns...

New bearings in, a few new gaskets and a coat of paint.

Engine looks tastey!

It might be running by now. Haven't talked to him in a couple days.


Broke down the T-5s for the pre-swapmeet input mods.

Started by taking a trip over to a coworker's place to "machine" the splines back. Essentially, we chucked it in his lathe, used a grinder for most of the heavy work, then cleaned it up with the cutter bit. Stock on the left, modified on the right.

Scott's filthy work space. There's a lathe under there...somewhere.

Next step was to nip the end off with a cutoff wheel and dress the end with my belt sander.


Cut down the collar.

Finished product is dimensionally identical to my Muncie making it possible to bolt this to any standard SBC bellhousing without needing any adapters or spacers. They do require a specific (but readily available) clutch disc.

I'm keeping 1 and the rest go to the swapmeet in a week. Hopefully none come home.

Are these pretty sought after post modification?

I don't know if I'd call them pretty sought after but they sold quick last year. There is adapters (spacers) available from a few venders in the $150 range. I figure I can add $100 to the asking price of the non-modified one and be okay. Aside from tossing my buddy some cash for the use of his lathe, it costs nothing but some time. I figure I have about 2 hours total in each transmission to pull, clean and modify (excluding drive time). Just a little over $100 into each one. I'll probably price them at $250, $350 and $450. Plenty of room to come down if I need to.

so how did it go at the PSM ?

Yesterday was the first day. One sold, the rest are drawing lots of attention.

Good work! Hope you can sell them all!

Honestly, I'm not setting my hopes too high. My buddy who is supposed to be selling them is an abrasive prick. Worst possible sales person. I called this afternoon and told him to drop the prices in the morning. I guess he's been getting lots of questions but no serious offers. It's safe to assume (because I know him well) that he's answering people like they're retarded. Not a great strategy. Also, he sucks at presentation and staging. Probably using them to hold down tarps or some stupid shit.

So far he's sold the WC transmission, the Corvette front clip, Lincoln rack, and a couple other small items.

Jerod is coming in to town tonight. We'll hit the Expo in the morning and down to PIR in the afternoon. Scott's booth will be the final stop to collect my winnings.

Well, the $100 bearing patch didn't solve the problems with the '36's engine. It got better but still has a noise in it. General consensus is that it's probably a wrist pin. We kept an eye out on CL for a replacement and located a couple promising candidates. When he came into town for the swap meet he snatched a reman Vortec 350 in a crate with paperwork for $600 -- total steal.

He's got an intake and balancer on the way from Jegs and will start assembling it this weekend. In the meantime, the old one came back out...

What a bummer. At least the old motor is a good rebuilder yeah? Maybe sell it to get a few bucks back in his pocket.

He's got it for sale but it honestly isn't worth much. As far as 350s go, a late '80s/early '90s TBI isn't worth much. If you wanted to ignore the noise, it's probably got a few more miles in it but it's still pretty tired.

The new engine is installed and as put together as possible. He's waiting on the UPS guy to bring him a new balancer and intake manifold. Probably half a day away from being a runner again. Then he says he'll hang a sign in it and start hitting the cruise-ins. There are still plenty of small tasks to chip away at until it sells. I left a full set of (matching) gauges with him when I was over there a few weeks ago. Plus he wanted to repaint the dash and maybe re-dye the carpet.

It's a runner again. says it's extremely smooth compared to the old engine. No leaks, no smoke, no noises -- just like it should be. Plus, he finally relocated that horrible firewall mounted electric fuel pump back down to the frame rail.
He said next few tasks will be gauges, refine the throttle linkage, and maybe a fan shroud.

Sold another transmission during my lunch break today. Two left.

Well that engine escalated quickly lolol

Easy to do when you don't have to go to work every day anymore. Must be nice.

DRIVEN » Wed Apr 22, 2015 7:07 pm wrote:Sold another transmission during my lunch break today. Two left.

lunch break that pays is a good one

I'd skip lunch every day for that kind of money.

As if I needed another project...

This actually belongs to my brother's soon-to-be-ex brother in law. My brother went through it a few years ago and BIL rode it twice. It's been sitting in my brother's shop ever since. Actually pretty low hours for it's age. We made the decision to get it up and running again and I'm going to do some riding. It's been forever since I've been on a dirt bike so I'm pretty stoked. Looks like I'll need to change the fork oil, recharge the nitrogen in the rear, and figure out why the front brake is stiff. Was running fine when it was put away so I don't expect too much trouble getting it fired up again.

125 or 250? If you ever sell it contact me, I love me some KX.

Since its sat for a while, obviously check the carb, but while its out check the reeds, sometimes they get old and brittle. I bet it starts right up. PS, I go riding. We should get together sometime and hit browns camp / prison camp or even Nicolai. Browns camp probably be the best choice. IDK when the last time you rode was. but you are now required to have a rider safety card. It's a nasty ticket without it, and a 10 dollar offroad sticker easily obtainable.