Datsun Bluebird SSS

[30psi]

Thought I should pay some attention to under the bonnet as the engine won't spring in to life without me.

Intercooler. I got some big chunky 3" thing for the front. I had to have my pants pulled down and buy some samco to make up the pipework. Had to do a fair amount of metalwork removal including hacking the battery tray out to make it all fit.

Not much left to do in the intercooler other than buying one more Mikalor clamp, some M8 1.25 studding to secure the intercooler a bit tighter and get a 15mm and 30mm pipes tee'd in to the intercooler piping for the recirc dump valve and slow running system.

Oh and also need to get something to got from 4" to approx 3.1" for the airflow meter including 2 slats inside to make the air direction linear.

[Actual_Ben_Taylor]

Cheapest 4>3 reducer I ever found was a piece of boiler flue

[S13 EATER]

Thought I should pay some attention to under the bonnet as the engine won't spring in to life without me.

Intercooler. I got some big chunky 3" thing for the front. I had to have my pants pulled down and buy some samco to make up the pipework. Had to do a fair amount of metalwork removal including hacking the battery tray out to make it all fit.

Not much left to do in the intercooler other than buying one more Mikalor clamp, some M8 1.25 studding to secure the intercooler a bit tighter and get a 15mm and 30mm pipes tee'd in to the intercooler piping for the recirc dump valve and slow running system.

Oh and also need to get something to got from 4" to approx 3.1" for the airflow meter including 2 slats inside to make the air direction linear.

all this work and running an afm mart ?

[30psi]

Yeah you can get good power out of a Z32 afm. Although engine management would be better, I really don't want to spend any money on this car.

[joshm8991]

wow big turbo car looks great

[crxman]

any news ?

[30psi]

Nope, I haven't done anything on this for a long while....

[30psi]

I saw this today and thought I better do something

I hacked up the rocker cover to fit a rod to it for setting up the dial gauge. I found some wire (coat hanger wire) and inserted it in to the stem.

The object of this is to dial in the cams. Easiest way to turn the crank accurately is to fit the water pump pulley and hook up the alternator with a belt. You may wonder why the alternator is needed, but as it spins about 3 times faster than the crank it makes turning the crank easier and slower and means you don't overshoot the point you're trying to get to on the dial gauge.

So I'm gonna time in the cams. Standard timing I believe is 120 ATDC for the inlet and 115BTDC on the exhaust. Tomei suggest 110 and 115 for the inlet and exhaust.

Before starting I blutack the timing pulley to the bottom cover and set up a wire pointer.

First job though is to check TDC. Good racey type engines have adjustable markers so you can dial in the marker. On the CA18DET as you may know the marker is a little pointed spot welded to the cambelt cover. Also the cambelt cover just bolts to the block and I guess it's possible for some variation.



I didn't know what to expect but doubted it would be perfect. After testing it through the spark plug hole, it came to light that it was about 1.5 deg's out. So, I bent the pointer about until it was correct. So kind of adjustable lol

Next job is to to do the inlet as that side was already mounted up.



Again the object here is to check the time. Most engines typically have full lift reached about 110 degs ATDC. You watch the dial gauge spin round and just before full lift you take a note of the dial gauge reading and the bottom pulley e.g 100 degs. You then turn the crank and watch the dial gauge rotate and drop back down. The idea is to stop on the same point before and again take note of the crank reading. e.g. 124 degs. Using averages, full lift is at 112 degs. The cam would need advancing in this case by 2 degs.

Here's a bit of a rubbish close up of the wire on the follower

[Pablo13]

Good work, I know who I'll be coming to see now when I get some cams put in

[sxbaz]

nice work dude, decided not to drive the Tbird and worked on the bluey instead looking good!

[30psi]

Did some shit today I wasn't a lazy bastard.

I have to get the afm connected up the turbo. Couldn't find anything really suitable for the job so thought I'd make it myself.

Got an 80mm pipe, 100mm pipe, 2mm sheet, a pencil, some paper and set to work.

The plan was to make a reducing cone and use a bend, but after looking at the location of where the filter has to go and how little distance there is I thought it was best to make the chopped cone at a slant. I can remember at school when we made a cone, it was basically a segment of a circle. I had to make that so the segment when rolled up made the base of 100mm and then i'd cut the top off to make 80mm.

This was where the paper and pencil came in to play. I jotted out the side of the cone and calculated where it needed chopping for 80mm pipe to connect to. This was a basic one I put together, can't find the one I used.



Then using the measurements I then drew on the cone template where the top had to be cut.



This then became the template of the aluminium I had to cut. Next time I'll get it laser cut, doing it by hand is boring.

Then I rolled it up using my lazy arms around my leg into shape. To get this perfect took a while...



And bodged up in place for checking





Now in the absence of a tig welder, I'll probably have to take a day off work to find someone to buzz it up

[S13 EATER]

Thought I should pay some attention to under the bonnet as the engine won't spring in to life without me.

Intercooler. I got some big chunky 3" thing for the front. I had to have my pants pulled down and buy some samco to make up the pipework. Had to do a fair amount of metalwork removal including hacking the battery tray out to make it all fit.

Not much left to do in the intercooler other than buying one more Mikalor clamp, some M8 1.25 studding to secure the intercooler a bit tighter and get a 15mm and 30mm pipes tee'd in to the intercooler piping for the recirc dump valve and slow running system.

Oh and also need to get something to got from 4" to approx 3.1" for the airflow meter including 2 slats inside to make the air direction linear.

what rad is that mart ?

[30psi]

Don't know tbh. Got it second hand.

You wanted measurements? EDIT - Just checked, it's 67cm wide. You could probably reduce it by 10mm each side, but the tanks would still remain 67cm wide.

[S13 EATER]

cheers mart, probley an s13 rad.

[30psi]

Yeah defo S13, but no idea what brand.

As for your situation, I take it both intercooler pipes run on top of the chassis legs as they pass the rad? The S12 has the same chassis leg width as my 910, and I only have a small clearance between the pipes and the rad. But I have 2.5" pipes.

[S13 EATER]

Yeah defo S13, but no idea what brand.

As for your situation, I take it both intercooler pipes run on top of the chassis legs as they pass the rad? The S12 has the same chassis leg width as my 910, and I only have a small clearance between the pipes and the rad. But I have 2.5" pipes.

yeah mine run down the chassis legs with 3" pipework, i can just get an s12 rad in if i grind those metal lips off of each end, if you know what i mean.

[30psi]

Yeah I get ya. Well use that for now and see how much of a job it does.

A nice ali rad would suit your engine bay though

[30psi]

Didn't do much today as I wanted to drive the Thunderbird.

Thought a nice job would be to get the clutch working. Toyota MR2 master cylinder has been used as they're nice and compact and fit behind the inlet (unlike the Nissan ones). They have the same sized piston too. With the OS Giken clutch you have to be careful what carrier is used for the thrust bearing. If I used the original one, there would be too much preload in the clutch and the cranks thrust bearing would end up knackered.

Fortunately all is good there is no preload in the clutch and it operates nicely, just a little heavy.

[30psi]

Did 2.5 jobs today.

First one was to get the drivers seat out and the rear seats out to pull the carpet up and fit the battery power cable. New home for the battery will be in the boot.

Second one was something that has annoyed me for a while with this car. Whenever I put on the seatbelt it would always catch, so the only way was to pull on it very slowly. So I had it out whilst the seats were out and pulled it apart. Datsun used security screws compring of a 3 pointed bit. There's two parts to the device. The main intertia mechanism is in the centre of the drum, in the middle of the blue disc. There is also a ball bearing about 10mm in diameter sitting in a cup. Another cup goes on top and it's going to the arm that goes to the outside of the blue disc. I was tempted to through that ball bearing away and the arm but if I need to revert to using it I thought it's best if I keep it located but kept secure with high tech sellotape. The idea of this ball bearing is to try to lock up the seatbelt under any lateral acceleration. I'll see how it works without this.



Third job was something I've put off even with the original CA18DET. The heater matrix pipes were rotten, so when I came to fit the hoses they just crumbled. I've only done a heater matrix once about 8 years ago and it's not something I wanted to do again.
Well on this car it didn't surprise me but it's a complete pain in the butt. After what felt like ages the dash and the heaterbox was out.

The crusty pipes:


And the remaining mess:




Going to France on Tuesday so will have to wait a few weekends before I can put it back together. I'm sure that will be a fun few hours!

[Northerner]

can you not fit an S12 or even S13 dash in there matey?