Found the culprit! Was a bit of a prick to remove too, those old spring hose clamps were not in the easiest spots to do either, had to remove the starter motor to get better access but rather that than the inlet manifold!
It was the hose that goes to the CA's factory oil cooler type thing, it's probably as old as the motor so had to happen at some stage at least it happened now rather than on the way to Waimate! Will find something at work tomorrow and if the weather is good I'll fit it!
Got new hose fitted tonight! Ran up to temp with water drained and refilled with coolant and all seems to be good! Went for small drive as well just to be sure and temp is stable! Bring on Waimate just got to give it a really good wash!
Went on the longest trip ever in this yesterday down to the Waimate 50 things went pretty well on the way down there I was only worried a little about the fuel getting down past halfway as I start to get fuel surge round corners when it's that low. So I put extra gas when we passed through Timaru. Got to Waimate just fine parked up for the day and watched a bit of racing. Some pretty cool cars out there on the track even just the cars on display were pretty cool (incl the datsuns of course). Highlight was definitely getting to go round the track. I really want to do a track day soon so I can really push it and see how it goes/feels as I reckon it handles pretty dam good! Unfortunately I blew a heater hose on the last lap and I only noticed the gauge just as we were about to pull in off the track. Was a prick of a thing to get at being pretty much behind the motor. Wal 2doors and John with the yellow 1200 SSS worked hard to get me back on the road and bypassed the heater completely. Made it home with no problems after that! Special mention goes to Lewis and Snail for hanging around while I was out of action. I came away with a trophy after all that just not the one you usually aim for.... but someone had to get it I guess!
Bit of an update have replaced both heater hoses and also bottom radiator hose. Borrowed a pressure tester and noticed some weeping where the bottom hose fits onto the motor. Took a wee while to figure out why as it was still weeping when a new hose was fitted.... turns out I had a 38mm hose on a 35mm pipe so when under pressure (15psi) it was leaking slightly. Never leaked when the engine was running though... have replaced that part of hose with a 35mm id at one end and a 38mm at the other as that's what size it is at the radiator. Holds 15psi on a pressure tester with no leaks so pretty confident I have it sorted now. No photos unfortunately but it's just hose.... next thing to do is to try and sort the fuel pump out.
Yesterday I took the fuel pump cradle out to see if I could get the pump to sit any lower to stop getting fuel surge round corners. Once the pump was out I measured from the under side of the cradle to the bottom of the pump then measured from the top of the tank to the bottom and figured out there was a 20mm gap between pump and bottom of tank so no wonder that was happening.... I was able to move the pump down further on the cradle by moving the fuel hose down a bit and then moving it up on the pump. The outlet on the pump is quite long so was easily able to move it further up to give me more length. I had to lengthen the wires on the pump itself but that was pretty easy. Also a while ago quite a while ago actually, I accidentally pulled the wire off for the low fuel light sensor I kept it all this time and planned on soldering it back on if I ever took the pump back out. So that's all connected now but I couldn't see a light on the dash for a low fuel light and I was so sure it had one! haha oh well was good to practice my soldering anyway. Seems to be alright now I've only started it up in the driveway. The real test will be going for a drive, the amount of fuel I have in the tank now should be perfect for seeing if I still get fuel surge round corners!
