S130: Grange Progress 0.5

Had some pics hanging around for when I did the Z31 rear bushing install. 

Old bushing:

Here's the old bushing compared to the new Z31 bushings: 

We're looking to shave the inside step of the bushing to fit into the S130 subframe. 

To give an idea of how much is to be shaved down

This is what we should be getting, about 60mm is what the the diameter should be to still make the bushing fit nicely. 

The actual height of the bushing hasn't changed, I simply have the bushing more room to slide down into the subframe. I forgot the measurement to this.

They're sure as hell stiffer than the factory mounts, that's for sure!! 

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S130: Grange Progress 1

Whole subframe (sans diff) is in the car and tightened down. Everything lines up WAY better than with the old subframe in the car. I can't move the subframe now with a pry bar like I was able to do before, so that's a huge plus in being able to keep a steady alignment when taking corners or in drift.

The garage is pretty much a huge mess right now. Can't wait to get all this sorted out and get my garage space cleaned up to make my life easier. This car's been in this spot on jackstands for two years. It's about time to get it down and driving. Body work will be done while it's a driver. The whole under chassis is essentially restored, so that's good and peachy.

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S130: Grange Progress

Made some progress on the car today. Had to get the whole subframe out of the car to do the swap to the new one with all the new bushings. Doing general house cleaning on everything under there as well. Throwing a coat of undercoat over it all will keep everything clean and rust free for a while. 

Control arms with the 5 lug conversion hubs. S14 240SX SE rear rotors are directly swappable to the arms. You can use your factory brake calipers with the 5 lug hub system as well. Works out VERY nicely not having to do anything crazy for the rear brakes. Rebuilt calipers and some of the many choices of 240sx brake parts will be put on. 

Old subframe is out:

New subframe to go in:

It has shaved down Z31 subframe bushings. They'll stiffen up the chassis quite a bit over the terrible stock flimsy mounts. All the rear mounts are prothane.  The rear diff mount on the R200 diff is also reinforced with polyurethane. Overall, should be a fantastic ride. 

I also took the time to get my Walbro fuel pump prepped to install. Will be great to have it provide all the fuel the car would need under boost. 

Got my VMS vacuum manifold today as well. This is what's going to tie into my brake booster vacuum line and split off any vacuum that I need for the car (HVAC, boost gauge, fuel pressure regulator, etc). 

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S130: Throttle Cable Install

It's been a while since any Datsun oriented things were posted. I've got to get the car to an event in Southern California around the middle of April, so things have been moving along on the car.

Here's the throttle cable install for the Q45 throttle body and new intake manifold. I used a universal LOKAR throttle cable and a shaved down Volkswagen connection where the actual throttle cable slides into place at the throttle body.

 Here's a general overview and test fit of the cable. A little slack had to be left to give the cable room to move freely. It couldn't be perfectly straight as it would be too tight, nor could it be too long because it would unnecessarily clutter the engine bay. A direct path from accelerator pedal to the mount is what it took.

The stock pedal has a riveted on ball to accept the stock linkages. If you drill out the rivet, you conveniently get the perfect size hole for the clevis pin to slide through for a nice firm fit. The metal rod portion of the pedal has to be shaved down circular to give the clevis a free range of motion while hitting the gas. The firewall piece of the throttle cable had to be trimmed down a bit to get the pedal fully relaxed.

Another view. Everything pretty much lines up perfectly. Just under the cable the pedal has an adjustment. It's as relaxed as I could get before hitting the firewall piece. From here, make sure you have enough room to go full throttle - like really full throttle. The stock pedal has a small stop just under it that I had to cut out of the car to give me enough motion to get full throttle out of my throttle body. I don't have this pictured, but it's unmistakable when you see it. A few minutes with a cut off wheel and you're in business. Have someone hit the gas for you while you adjust the cable at the throttle body.

And an overview of the able all set up. I found two big washers to use on either side of the firewall a the hole was too big for the Lokar stuff to fit through. This way, if I were ever wanted to revert back to the stock linkages, the stock hole is still there. It also works out to center the new cable.

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W124: SLS Accumulator Pencil Test

While I'm sure you don't want to go around stabbing your brand new accumulator, this is a relatively decent test of an accumulator sphere. You can do it at the junkyard, etc. 

Take the rubber end of a #2 pencil and insert it into the sphere. It should go down about 2" before stopping and hiring the diaphragm, it'll go down about 6" when the diaphragm has failed. Give it a couple good pokes, a good sphere will have a strong membrane that the rubber won't pierce. When they're weak, the rubber tips pops right through. 

This is a good sphere: 

This is a bad sphere: 

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M104: Gasket Replacement P.7

All the smog equipment removed, so to plug the hole in the head Mercedes has...a plug. Tapped it in and apart from a gasket outline, it's as if nothing was ever there. 

Block drain was completely stripped out and clogged so it wouldn't drain. Picked out what I could of the remaining threads, tapped it, threaded in a brand new block drain with a helping of antisieze so it wouldn't happen again. Flaking block paint was chipped away when I knew none could get into the engine. 

And that's it! Viola!! Not exactly the best at taking pics and describing how-to's, but the pics were nice to come back to too see what's been done with this engine. It went from a dirty, oily, oil/coolant mixing mess to this: 

If say this engine is something to be proud of, that's for sure. Initial start up was sketchy, had little compression and ran poorly until the lifters built up oil pressure. Also had a few leaks (oil and fuel) that I tidied up while the engine was running. Glad to say, the only leak this engine has now is from the damn oil cap on the valve cover. The new powdercoating is too slick. 

Engine has to get to operating temperature without the reservoir cap in place! Engine has to reach operating temperature and then cooled down for the new headgasket to be completely water tight. It must not build pressure!! After the engines been cooled down, you can tighten the reservoir cap and be on your merry way in terms of a presurized cooling system. 

All's well, we'll see how she does the more it's driven. 

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