New Zealand Datsun Club

Make a sleeve on one of your drifts that goes over the valve guide at the install high when the sleeve hits the head job dune.If you lightly oil the guides and put them in a bag in the freezer and then heat the head you just about don't have to hit them to get them to go in.

Made two more tools on Friday night out of ali for installing the guides, I'll have to start them with the drifts then finish them with the new tools. The inlet and exhaust valves are different diameters which means the guides are different diameters and they also get installed at different heights, hence the need to two of each tool. Hopefully the ali tools work alright, I don't want to bruise the new guides putting them in.

The boss is away on Monday so I'll try and get the guides done sometime next week, he's away again on the 27th so that's the weekend I'm going to try and get the motor on the dyno.

The list for actually being able to run it on the dyno is getting smaller, need to clean the sump and install it, make the coil mount spacers, install the dipstick tube, make a new block off plate or sump breather plate for the original rear turbo oil return, make up some engine mounts for the dyno stand, need a new turbo gasket, need to get some new o rings for the fuel rail and that's about it I think.

Need to buy a water to air intercooler for the dyno as well, we can't fit a big fan through the door in the room so I think a water to air is the best idea, they're pretty cheap on Aliexpress and there is lots of water already in the room.

Got a little bit more done yesterday, I'm just plodding along with the small jobs at the moment, got the old paper gasket off the inlet manifold flange, the Tomei gasket kit comes with metal gaskets for the head flange and both sides of the throttle bodies. Installed the thermostat and thermostat housing.

Sold the Laurel yesterday so that will give this a small cash injection, I've found the water to air intercooler I want, it's 3" inlet and outlet, I'll have to dick around with the intercooler piping a little bit but it should work I think, I think we'll probably end up just running a garden hose to it and dumping it into the dyno drain.




Also got my bonnet mold back from being in storage since I bought it in 2011, this is the mold that the fibreglass bonnet I bought was made from and that's the only bonnet that has been made from it. I'm going to take it down to work at some stage and talk to the guys there about making a carbon one, or possibly a fibreglass one with a carbon skin. For the moment I'm going to cut the bonnet for the early vents, when I get my rusty turbo bonnet out of storage I'll get some measurements off it and see if they'll work.

Yes, I know the grass needs to be mowed.

Make that two bonnets ?

Finally got time to do the guides tonight, took about an hour and most of that was waiting for the head to heat up, not a job I would want to do every day but I got there in the end.

First I had to set the correct temperaturer, ended up at about 170 degrees.




Cook on high for 10 - 15 minutes. I used an infrared thermometer to check the temp every so often, had to turn the heater off while doing it as it was giving some crazy readings.




Knock em out the box. I had to reheat the head after doing about 3/4 of them.




And 24 new guides installed, I reheated the head again before putting the new ones in.






I'm tossing up whether to buy the two reamers that I need or not, I've got one more head to do the guides on which is the head I actually bought these guides for, they're about $250 for the pair from Kerzan but I want to stay away from RBs in the future, I've still got a couple of days to decide what to do.

I am happy to lend you the reams ?

DJZ wrote: I want to stay away from RBs in the future.

Strictly V8's now?

broke wrote:

DJZ wrote: I want to stay away from RBs in the future.

Strictly V8's now?

Haha, we'll see. If this RB breaks then the VK will be going in the black car instead.

Got some reamers on Saturday, long story short but I ended up wrecking one of the inlet guides, it looks like I can buy singles from Auckland for $13.50 so it's not the end of the world. It's a pity because the other 23 are perfect, not bad for my first time doing this job.

Next weekend is coming up fast and the motor isn't going to be ready by then so it'll have to wait until the boss is away again. It's probably a good thing as rushing it would have been a bad idea, I've still got heaps to do.

Replacement guides are on the way and should be here tomorrow, I bought a spare just in case.

Finished off the vacuum plenum thingy today, spun down a -6 weld on fitting so that it was a press fit and made up a bung for the other end. Just have to clean it now. I'm not sure if I need the small barb on either end, they're both bent, the front one is usually for the fuel pressure reg and the rear one I had running to the map sensor but that will probably get moved to the vacuum tank. If I need them I might take them out and drill and tap them for screw in barbs instead.

Not a very exciting picture.