Tony D

Yeah, you might think a guy who was a Pearl Harbor Survivor, and then participated in various Pacific Theater Campaigns (including the liberation of Java) would NOT be the guy to take a job at a fledgling JAPANESE auto dealership, eh? Not to say he didn't have Jalopy Racer background---he was a photographer for a long time, and I've seen some of his prints off Kodachrome Slides from the late 40's and 50's at the dirt tracks around SoCal. It's like a time capsule! Don't get me wrong, he's a salesman to be sure. He takes 'ownership' of just about anything he repeats. But the chemicals are wreaking havoc on him and this video isn't really representative of him say...15 years ago before the second bout of cancer. As an employee of the First Datsun Dealership in the USA (San Diego Datsun) he was a personal acquaintance of Mr. K. For what he's been through, I don't know that I would be as lucid. Oh, and its is the SBC TT car he's talking about. He's in the same Car Club in Murietta. Matter of fact, the Red TT 240Z was on display at the 9th Annual Show this past weekend!

^^^ ^^^

He's right, a 'stronger' bolt needs more torque applied to give the proper preload and keep it from loosening. If the threads you are bolting into aren't up to the task (aluminum without inserts...)then all you did by putting a 'better' bolt on there and keeping the same torque is increase the chance of loosening/fretting... If you torque higher in soft threads, they stretch and deform...or pull out altogether! I have to do a 30 minute presentation on this next Tuesday for our new engineers...curiously this floated to the top of the pond to remind me of that fact. Damnit. So much for free time this weekend...

He's in the Hospital again undergoing Chemo for the umpteenth time. For a guy at Pearl Harbor on December 7th, and cancer fighter you might want to give him a little break at this point in time... He was at the first Datsun Dealership in the US when it opened, he might know a little bit about the history, just not on the modifications... He'll be gone soon enough and you won't have to endure his sales pitch any longer, except through the enduring video...

"One other thing to note copper wire in insulation is going for $1.30 a pound!" Oh, the Z-Mainity!

Atsugi may be difficult to find, they are out there, but the non-rebuildable units seem to work O.K.

Putting simple torque limiting straps prevents broken motor mounts, Chevy owners have known about that for 60+ years! You can do it to a Datsun as well. Soft quiet mounts which never break...simple!

"IMHO torquing every screw and bolt to a spec is kind of OCD for non critical areas." Obviously you have never sat in dock and been before a grand jury regarding a mechanical failure... Some advice if you work on expensive stuff: "Trust not your instincts, but rely on the table of torques and your calibrated wrench for everything!" Actually, with the little Snap-On Screwdriver Torquemeter it's really quick, not as quick as a power drill, but no slower than suing a simple ratchet. I might argue the Torquemeter is FASTER than a ratchet because you go to where you know it's supposed to be and spend less time (over)tightening fasteners!

JSM, thanks for the recent scrap price update. Last time when scrap was $600 a ton, I 'cashed in' 4 cars from the back yard (not any rust on them....) I currently have one worse than that, and maybe it's time to get the boy working on the bolt recovery and parts salvage to get it off to the scrapper. It's worse than that one though. BIZZARE thing is that the panels rusted from what looks to be the inside out---with holes in the middle of hte panels, hatch I don't dare open now as the last time I could see it flexing where the struts go (disconnected them, but afraid if I lift it, the glass will crack now!) The car is rusted in all the places you usually don't see them rust (and on an S30 that is saying a lot!) I got to get a photo and try to load it up. Guy I bought it from got it for the title with the intentions of making a tube framed car... but you know how those projects go. I got it since it had a title...but more because it was free and had FIVE original date-matched steel rims with the hubcaps! Perfect for my Fairlady Z of similar vintage (which suffers not from the tin worm!) I think I'll recover the bolts, glass, and particular chassis bits and make a run with the unit body to the steel scrapyard by the house!

yep, it's an EVAP thing, not having fuel at 140+ F in the tank (go measure it out here sometime!) helps with captive emissions. I'm just being aberrational with the comment...

^^^^AGREED!^^^^ Many gaskets now incorporate a steel 'pipe' through the gasket to prevent the fastener from being torqued any closer to a gasket surface than a given dimension (call it a spacer, some look like pieces of cut tubing, others like a washer built into the gasket itself). This is due to the poor training in manual trades insofar as understanding gasket tightening! I don't know of any 'click' wrenches at 4 ft lbs that would overtighten them (they will be calibrated in inch-pounds and calculations will need to be done to convert to 48 inch-lbs). They will be 1/4" drive, and if they don't overtighten plenum seals on a gas turbine which calls for 15 inch-pounds (that's about what...1/4 what our oil pan gaskets use!!!) then I doubt it will overtighten the pan. Personally I use a screwdriver torquemeter from Snap-On and it works just fine. If you use a 1/2" or 3/8" drive torque wrench...it's too big! Proper Tool for the job.

pumps complete are still available, cheap.

It's pretty solid, and has been since the mid 80's. The N42 has far thicker walls and for an engine not using sleeves it's the choice for big overbores.

Do cars have return lines any more? Last late-model I looked in, didn't HAVE a return line. That GM scenario I will have to check into, it seems aberrational, and I'm sure there is some GM-Logic behind it.

Most reputable helmet manufacturers will reinspect their helmets and in some cases upgrade the SNELL rating for the reasons John mentions above: keep a serviceable helmet in service rather than being discarded due to simple rules requirements. For years I had a Nolan Helmet I wore. DOT only. Then one day I realized I'd bought it in 1979 and probably shouldn't be using it any longer (this was about 1997...) Damn it was comfortable, still tight but not overbearing. My replacement was undoubtedly safer and for SURE was lighter! But after a half hour or hour wearing it I get a slight headache. Not like that old Nolan. Time flies, and if you keep it in a nice bag with fleece lining and don't hit anybody or anything...they do look nice for a long time!

I have NEVER seen a return line sized larger than the feed line. Sizing the feed line large minimizes pressure drop and fuel pump overworking. Oversizing the return line just costs more money I guess. I haven't seen many issues with undersized return lines causing a problem other than at idle (for instance L28ET's trying to run the -3 return line on the stock 240!) Return line flow will ALWAYS be SMALLER than supply line flow, hence it will always be smaller!

Holy Hell! I just re-read that... I've been spending WAY too much time on big machines. Yeah, 0.009" side gap is huge! I would consider chucking it just on the shaft condition, that side gap is excessive. As an example, on a machine runnning 54,000 rpms and having two overhung rotors of 18" and 8" diameter total Axial movement of the rotor assembly is limited by thrust bearings to 0.006-0.008" MAXIMUM! Your little guy has as much clearance as the HS Rotor on a 2500HP machine! Just to put that in perspective. I read another "0" in there, and thought it was 0.0009"! (Tight one-thousandths feeler...) Gawd that shaft looks terrible. Good luck with the seal, maybe it will hold together long enough to get your E-Bay unit and do a replacement. Zero Driving Downtime is a good thing!

OR "22-23Kg" for the rest of the civilized, and uncivilized world!

For that matter, an AIR COOLED 2003 Mexican Beetle with EFI and A/C... "Not a realistic option due to meddlesome legislation."

I am partial to the Swift, and the Turbo Swift. Not so much the 'partner clones'. Though the Geo Prizm seemed to be hardier than the Corrola in the year that I formerly had (93)... I could put a Skoda 1.4 TurboDiesel, but we can't get those in the USA (Firefly, neither that's a Canada-Market Car not originally sold here.) Same goes for the Mini-Cooper Club Diesel, 60+mpg, but not available in the US of A. For me personally a Suzuki Jeep of early 80's vintage (pre Samurai) with either the 800 or 550CC engine would be the greatest thing for around the neighborhood and short convenience trips. But alas, it is not to be, outside of Guam that was not available in the USA either in that year. It's far to dangerous to have dontcha know. We must be protected from ourselves...

I know what our inspection section would say about that shaft... It appears on the back of the turbine wheel that you have radial streaks (oil staining)...not looking good. Let's see what happens with a new seal set. Good Luck!

The shipping on these should be about $475 via surface freight, plus the cost of the crating. (Just got a quote for shipping a motorcycle, and a 1mX2mX1.5m cube in a container was quoted to me (crated by me) for $475 LA Port to Europe... Two Complete LD28's in SanDiego, DAMN! Too late to dig out my crank and stick it on the scales tonight...sorry!

"Suzuki Sprint" that would be a good choice for a 2nd car...cheaply bought and if you buy right, 50mpg.

To add to the Threadjack one more time... My 69 Beetle with H-1500 and PICT was an odd duck that got me REALLY interested in performance engineering. VW said the top speed of that car was 75mph. I was like "B.S. it goes 90 EASY!" And it did. Then I got curious, and did a tune up exactly to VW Specs (the biggest thing was doing the valve adjustment.) Took the car out to the same road and I'll be damned if the top speed wasn't EXACTLY 75 mph!!! That was where I learned the duration difference caused by valve lash can be a contributor to horsepower---enough to get you almost 15mph more out of a stock VW Beetle (at the possible expense of burning your valves...) It's why I laughed at the guy who railed on JeffP when he was talking about 0.001 or 0.002" lash difference significantly affecting valve timing events on the L-Engine. Little things insignificant like valve lash getting tight can really make performance boosts that add up. From there, it went downhill fast: 1.25 rocker arms, Bugspray Holley, then a Zenith 32 NDIX...Webers, Dellortos, and within a year Turbochargers with big honkin' Holleys on them running 25 psi. It's where I learned why you use Case-Savers, and that detonation will actually blow a head off an engine. And once you put case savers in there, if you run 92mm pistons you better have a good set because splitting cylinders causes one hell of a strange noise that is hard as hell to trace down until you realize what it is...after that point, you know when you oops'd! Yeah, 8MPG runing a big cam, centermount 48IDA... and even less than that when it was converted to run on straight ethanol. That was a strange experimental time...

Personally I would NEVER buy, own, or recommend ANY helmet that was DOT Approved only. And I have seen them out there! If they aren't submitting samples for SNELL certification, they aren't worth putting on your head! DOT/SNELL-M-XXXX (whatever the latest rating is, I believe it's SNELL-M-2010) approval or it isn't going on my bean!