New Zealand Datsun Club

Well, this thing was on marketplace and cheap as chips or swaps for running vehicle, or he was going to scrap it if it didn’t sell.
I thought wow, that’s a big old bag of nope!
But it sat in the back of my mind and I started to think, well- who would take it on?
It was obvious even from a few photos that the repairs it had seen were somewhat lacking.It was running but had blown it’s head gasket. Generally just run down, beat up, slammed in the weeds and given up on. But I had a bit of spare time coming up and Lauren’s old bus had spent just over a year leaving a dead spot on my parents lawn, it needed work but it still ran
So I thought hey what the hell, got in touch with the guy, washed the old bus and took it over to Cambridge.

Oh man the drive home was a laugh. Blown between two cylinders, so slow as a wet week and bouncy as hell. Every bump the roof would cry in agony making it seem like we were listening to Rolf Harris fm! The seats are absolutely knackered too. Anyway after 40mins of back roads and radiator top ups, it made it home somehow. It has all the uncool features- front wheel drive, wagon (the mullet of the car world), a face only a blind mother could appreciate, a pure utilitarian interior, boxy 80’s body shape unlike 70’s cars that we all like. Still you know, these cars that were in the Datsun phase out era are kinda interesting to me and kooky cool.
So here’s a few little bits I like about it
It’s an odd model. Basically it’s a Sentra station wagon with a round headlight front. From what I gather in the Japanese market they wanted to bridge a gap in the model lineup between the 1200 Ute and vanette after the b310 was phased out.

The awesomeness of 80’s stickers Factory air conditioner! ( most of its missing ) Another nice little surprise is it had actual lowering springs! I assumed it was on cutties and flipped leaf rear but it’s got 75mm blocks in the back. Also now major prangs, it’s got a ton of minor dents but.

-I will not likely be keeping this so the goal is to get it to a point where it’s roadworthy again.

-this needs to be reliable if it’s going to have any sort of future

-it’s a Datsun, it’s got rust that needs attention

-liberal fisholene to help preserve it somewhat.

-it’s pretty rough, it will have to stay that way otherwise costs are going to get out of hand

-I’d like to keep it lowered, but legally low

-front seats need something doing with them

-the roof has been walked on and needs some serious attention

-probably a million other little things

-have a cup of tea, see how we go from there after this whole Covid thing blows over.

In no particular order I will update this and should have it up to where I’m at with it by the time lockdown is over. There won’t be anything spectacular here, but I think it would be good to have a record for myself or any future owner. Anyways thanks for looking.

First up- order a head gasket and pull the head.
Yyyeeepppppppp
Ran a file over the head. It’s got some pretty bad wear on it as with the block but meh, don’t even know if the engines ok really and the gasket was something like $35 so threw it back together.
Fired it up and it was back to four cylinders BUT all the bubbles coming out the radiator
This engine has done its dash me thinks.

So what to do? Could take a while to find a good e15s engine. Started to think an engine swap may be a better option. There were quite a few options here so I narrowed in on what I wanted out of this thing.
Easier the better
Cheap is good
Didn’t want the hassle of efi
Didn’t want tons more power that, would bring a slew of powertrain, brake and body issues
Had to be nissan
Didn’t want to travel to get it

I did some internet searching and a good match came up nearby, a Ga15ds with 127k on it. Great! I grabbed it.

E15s to Ga15ds engine swap

This wasn’t all done at once but, as of this point the engine has been put in the car and run briefly. Also a little disclaimer- this will still need to be certified at some point so the mounts I have changed may or may not be up to spec, we will see how it goes.

First up was to mount the gearbox to the engine. Even though this gearbox is only a four speed I really wanted to use it for the fact that two and a half of the four engine mounts bolt to the gearbox which makes this swap a whole heck of a lot easier. I’ll get to the half mount shortly.
The back engine plate from the E15 fit straight up to the Ga15ds, and the gearbox bolted straight up as well
EXCEPT - the bolt holes needed to be drilled bigger for the Ga15ds 10mm bolts . Easy as

E15s to Ga15ds engine swap

So before the gearbox can be bolted up we are going to need a flywheel and clutch. I’ve had a bit of a problem here because the engine I got must of had an auto box, which means the flex plate had short bolts and as I’ve found out, the E15 bolts are the right size and length but the wrong thread pitch. The Ga15ds seems to have a fine 1mm pitch and the E15s 1.25mm. This is a problem for me as I found this out on the very first day of the Covid19 month long lockdown!
So for now I have used the short bolts so everything can be fitted up, the engine will need to come out again.
I measured up the crankshaft projection from the back plate and it looks all good. The crank does however have a larger hub in the centre so the flywheel went in the lathe and had the centre hole enlarged. Once this was done I offered it up to the engine and found the the pcd for the bolt holes was 2mm bigger than the E15s. So close but so far! I used a chainsaw file to get the clearance I needed. It’s probably not ideal but hey, needs must.

From here flywheel, clutch and gearbox all bolt up.

E15s to Ga15ds engine swap

With the gearbox on there are now to mounts, the lhs and rear ones. Also the mount at the front of the engine picks up a bolt hole off the bottom of the gearbox, but where it comes upwards to the engine it will not clear the strengthening castings on the side of the Ga15ds block or line up with a bolt hole. This mount bolts together in two pieces so i took it apart and cut the top of the part that interferes.
Cut from memory 20-25mm out of the middle and rewelded
Bolted it up

E15s to Ga15ds engine swap

Next bit could be overkill, but I made a 6mm plate to bolt the mount to two nearby bolt holes on the block.
Then this plate is sandwiched between the two halves of the mount. I had to extend the support that goes up to the gearbox bolt slightly to accommodate this plate.
From here I put the motor and box into the car to sort the last engine mount. I will pretty up the sandwich plate and paint it when the engine comes out again.

E15s to Ga15ds engine swap

With the engine in it looked easiest to use the Ga15ds mount.
This side would bolt up but needed this end of the engine to go 20mm lower and 25 mm further to the back of the engine bay. To do this I used two 10mm plates. I have moved the mount further towards the front so that one bolt goes through the mount, two 10mm plates and into the engine bolt hole. This has moved the engine to where it needs to be, I will try and get a better photo when the engine is out again. Next I had to bend and extent the hoop on the top of the mount accordingly.

Finished mount
The plate that takes the engine back and down
With the Ga15ds mount on, note the 10mm gap on the body side of the mount that needs a spacer. Also I have extended the slotted hole on the body mount 5mm towards the guard.
And that’s basically it, a few ancillary items and wiring to sort next