New Zealand Datsun Club

It must be like a whole different car now, I hope it still doses hard!

The old Z has been going pretty well lately, drove it to work almost every day in December untill i got a cracked manifold.

so while its apart I'm fully re routing and re clipping the wiring loom, nice narva P clips with rivnuts and this is going to be covered in the same Fire Sleeve that i Put over my brake lines.
Another Job i wanted to do for ages was to remove the giant Loop from the oil cooler, these used to be straight fittings looping back towards the fire wall - i was able to remove a good 600mm of oil line Added a V Band to the downpipe , now its super easy to remove and no more gaskets.

DJ helped me out with some Bead Blasting - this is a turbine housing Before and After
My Oil oil drain cracked from too much heat, so ive remade it in stainless braid - this meant remvoing the sump to weld a fitting on.
NEKMINUT

Umm - so i was just welding on the AN drain fitting then this happened..........
I always hated how cluttered Z31's are near the back of the motor - good thing i looked because my old battery cables were in very poor shape - i took the advice given to go with 35mm2 welding cable much beefier than the OEM stuff- also clipped up nice with Narva Rubber clips

part of the issue with the manifold cracking was no bracing , so again with DJ's advice and help i whipped up this rod end brace , the idea here is it holds the parts very solid while allowing movement for thermal expansion

its going to be close getting the engine out in the garage - if i fail its no big deal i will just roll it outside.

Bit more done last night

Engine out of the hole
I Got a test cut for my sump extension done in some 0.5mm galv , this was so its easy to bend and work with but a bit more durable than cardboard for all the test fits ect.

Hopefully on Saturday i can remove the tape - get some tacs on there and check it in the hole with a parts car engine block.

Looking good James!

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More Progress on old Zeddy

Race Sump is Fitting up nice and mostly fabricated in the proper materials

Finally got the proper Stainless Steel Gaskets - only took 10 years, Ive been running no gaskets up untill now and not really had any issues, but the motor is out of the car so it made sense to use the proper stuff when i put it back in

I Have also been building new parts of my wiring loom, using Deutch Connecters where i can, new wires and fully heat shrieked where possible, where the old loom is retained it has been covered using the Fire Sleeve and clipped to the firewall with those metal narva clips so its not a huge mess any more
And started building my new engine mounts, just uses a rubber Hilux spring shackle bushing and some bits of steel. Possibly a bit overdone for what i need, but i WAS NOT proud of my old red bits of polyurethane - but i am pleased how these are coming out.

A lot of things since my last update, Its been test fired and run.

Basically anything that supplies electrical, or gas has been re built, re wired re plumbed and made tidier / more relaible

Good work as always James!

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Had A bit of a setback which lost me a day on my build schedule to have this in Monday morning WOF

Bloody thing just wouldn't run right, after diagnosing a bad AFM pin, a broken earth wire in the ecu hardness and a bad Fuel pump control module. I have finally got this thing to start and run smooth without backfiring and popping. Had to hot wire the fuel pump to +12 and now it is running stable.

Its going to be a bit of a scramble to finish it off for WOF / Southern Cruise.

Left to do is

Install front end panels.
Build a new Radiator Under tray ( old one too mangled from a large rock )
Re bundle the interior side ECU harness
Re clip all the wiring back down after having to undo it all ( if you have seen my car you will know the clearances involved )
Bleed up the coolant
Reinstall half of the interior & heater Controls.

I'm hoping to make the cruise but its 50/50 if i can be done in time and get a few miles on the car so i know its right.

You can do it James!

Went for the Hero Pass, got my WOF on Friday at Rocky Auto

Had a wee issue getting off the hoist. The exhaust decided to half rip itself off. So it was a bit of a scramble to put it back on and repair the damage while trying not to ruin my office clothes.

Had a few more bugs to sort out on Saturday morning which cause me to leave a bit late to meet everyone in Benmore.

Got to the house in Twizel , Relaxed for 2 hours and went to start the car to go out - and no oil pressure We think the pressure relief valve is stuck open.

So the engine has done 400km and will be coming out for a bottom end freshen up.

I'm looking at doing a 0.5mm overbore in a higher compression to give it better manners and more spool, large capacity ( new ) oil pump and a new set of king bearings / arp studs to hold it all together.


If anybody has suggestions on suppliers for these parts i would love to hear the suggestions.

At least all my nice new plugs and AN fittings will be easily removed without a fight unlike the previous 30year old fittings and hoses.