8ball

?? Dunno hard to tell from a pic. Seen a few blocks that look fine until hot and a tiny pinhole opens up and sucks the cooling system dry. Did you have the block sonic tested or crack tested?? 1st thing i would have done.

Nah not a big block. Its a 1159. Seems to run fine no flat spots anywhere ive found. Had it on 2 cars. 1st was an Auto 2nd was manual. Made a HUGE difference on the auto. Much better to drive. And the auto was originally a 70hp. The manual car was just the plain jane pov pak 1159cc. Still made a huge difference on it tho. Had a run with my other manual car which is a factory 70hp with a few minor tweaks. Was side by side the whole way until about 4th gear and the pov pak began to pull away. Never got around to trying out the 2brl on a 70hp manual as yet. Still want to try one of my Brabham manifold setups on one aswell. Before i fit the big block lol

Datto 1200 carb works perfect. Been running one for years.. I just made an adapter from some alloy block and bolted it to a standard down draft manifold that i massaged abit with a dremel. Biggest issue being the standard is linkage throttle and the datto being cable. But im sure you can sort that out.

May be a pinhole through the bore to water jacket? I once had a pos galant that had a 'rebuilt' engine. They sold it after rebuilt it because they couldn't get it to run. It would occasionally start run a bit (if ya gave it some revs) then would cut out and just about die then BOOM! A massive backfire. Ended up being a dizzy wire shorting out on block. So i threw new rings in it (again as they were broken) and it ran fine for about a year. What im saying for yours is new rings may be fine again? But the mark in bore says otherwise... They could have also gotten ring gap wrong?

Deleted outer bolsters to make access to tiny cabin easier

Could be a number of things. Resistance is an electrical systems nightmare. (To a point ) you want the biggest wiring you can get to reduce resitance and voltage drop. Not sure what standard insulated cable is? Go to a parts shop and get some. Any decent shop should stock it on a roll and can be bought by the meter. Or they also sell pre-terminated cables too. If not get power/earth cables from a car audio shop.. The reason the cable is getting hot could be. - dead/dying starter motor - poor earths - poor battery voltage/current - solenoid issue - crap wire conditions Good luck.

Agree. Cranking speed is rather pathetic. Check all the earths and cables. On a car that old they may have corroded and the cables may have seen better days. Charge and check the battery properly (or use a known good one) And check the starter etc.

Its ferrari's early version of an airbag..... hahahaha

Stupidest thing was i quoted 4500 for full rebuild, install and 12months warranty. They paid 2900 for 2nd hand stuffed install and no warranty. Then had to pay a tow to me and then all my labor and diagnostic costs. Total bill in the end for a pos 2nd hand transmission for them was almost 5000 (wreckers stuffed a few other items not related to transmission but needed replacement too due to shoddy install)

Not sure what you did when you pulled the engine and box out of the car. (But you have anyway?) If unsure i usually keep a track of exactly where bolts etc come from and sit/lay them out i a sequence or pattern so i know how to piece it together again correctly. If you did something like this find your self an exploded diagram and check that someone before you hasn't mixed any bolts etc up. I once scored myself a handball wrecker job. They underpriced my quote and fityed a second hand transmission only to stuff it all up. So it ended up coming to me. What i found was they had mixed all the bolts up and fitted short bolts where long should be etc and visa versa. Some bolts went into non blind threads and were meant to be short with a locating dowel on the end of the thread. Instead they just forced a long bolt into it which fouled on rotating parts and caused jo end of bother. That was one job i never wanted to see again........ Approx 4 or 5 incorrect bolts caused no end of drama.

Mate. Grab a manual either in hard form or pdf. Read up on what to do and how to do it. .....then. do it. Best way to learn is to have a go yourself. And if it doesn't work well all you've lost is some time (and pride if that actually bothers you.) You can always part it out after if you have no luck.

Wow. 5k..... Only reason i asked is if you were id go straight gas over duel fuel. But good call on staying petrol.

Very cool. Ive managed to score myself an Armors manifold so very much wanting to to give this a go. Just need to get the motivation lol Kinda hard when it is currently running so good too. But back to the project at hand..... Are you keeping this on petrol? As in your not putting lpg on it are you?

2 inch SU's are my next project tho.

Everyone has different results and different experiences. Which is what makes our hobby/life more interesting. As for injection id not bother with the vk crap. Id rather a multi throttle body setup. Ie: triples. The vk setup can be a major pain to fit under many bonnets.

Very similar theory to what ive heard in the past. But that still has 2 barrels. So same as twin single barrel carbs. Same as a weber or 350 holley etc etc. Had multiple mild/hot 6s over the years. And if setup correctly it will work fine. Biggest issue with what i hear of "steer clear of ....... setup cos they never work..." Is that the person telling you to stay away from it has no idea of what theyre doing with it. Ultimately it will come down to what you're wanting to achieve and what your knowledge is and what your access to is. If all you can get are holley 4 barrels then i suggest you start researching them If all you can get are falcon webers then start researching those Etc etc. If you learn all about your chosen setup you shouldn't have to many dramas. It will also come down to what the legalities are to if you want a daily driver etc. Over hear carby swaps after '73 are a no no. So you either take the risk or do things sneaky. Ie twin down drafts definitely dont look standard where as you can hide a single down draft carby under an air cleaner and fool some boys in blue. Out of all the setups ive done ive liked my triple cds best. They are easy to tune stay in tune and deliver great performance and economy compared to the different setups ive had. If $$$ wasn't an issue id go for efi.

Seriously? Worse than the standard carb?? Its basically 2 of the same carb... Set up right the twin down draft stromberg will do well. Just be sure they're the right carbs for it (not just any old 2 single barrel strombergs but a pair) and be sure the linkages are set up correctly. myself i prefer the old triple cd strombergs. But work with what ya got i say. As for the rest yep grab a blue motor electronic dizzy. But ditch the plastic dizzy gear and throw an oil pump drive gear on it instead. Fit alloy timing gears. Be sure to do all the welsch plugs (inc the ones in the cylinder head) And you should be right. As for exhaust extractors are cool. I myself like the old x2 or the gtr xu1 cast exhaust manifolds. They give a nice low down torque feel on a mild 6. nice looking car. Great starting point. oh also throw a new harmonic balancer on it. And see about an xu1 retainer plate plate for it. Pretty sure available from rare spares. or just bolt another pulley to the harmonic. Will save ya radiator etc if the harmonic ever lets go.

Back in the day we used to get people that would drop their cars off to be worked on and piss off to the airport expecting the car fixed and finished when they got back from holidays. and 9 times out of 10 theyd have no mag wheel key lock with the car...... heres a tip that sometimes works well. undo all the other wheel nuts (relieve all tension) be sure no weight is on the wheel obviously. next. Do all the wheel nuts back up. extra tight. this can then remove tension/pressure from the lock nut thread. Then depending on the wheel and the nut in question use vise grips or multi grips to undo the lock nut. Or tap an old socket over it and undo. This used to work about 70-80% of the time. Just be wary not to snap the other studs by going too crazy over tightening. In some cases we sprayed a little rp7 or wd40 etc around the lock nut to assist. Good luck

We have a retarded looooong relatively steep hill here and had to go up it a few times on a few cruises. Unfortunately i was in the putt-putt... (1159cc single brl down draft with single exhaust manifold.) Amazingly tho i was able to do 100kph up the hill... and then some daw 115 at one point. But it would only do so in 3rd. Would easily redline out in 3rd yet in 4th it would struggle and id drop below 80kph before id knock it back and get moving again. Didn't want to hold everyone up on a freeway lol. So i gave up and left it in 3rd and sat on 100kph. Doubt the little engine liked it much hahaha.

Easist way to check if the resister wire is still in the loom and hasnt been removed or bypassed etc is to grab a multimeter flick the ignition ON and measure the voltage. I had the same issue many years ago with a torana. Turned out someone had replaced the wire with a normal piece of wire (may have been damaged? So thought they were doing right thing??) So instead of the 9volts? (I think its meant to be?) It was recieving the full battery voltage. 12-14volts so coils and condensers etc were only lasting a week to a few days of driving. It did make the job of installing an electronic dizzy setup easier tho lol.

Have you thought about taking it to a cnc shop (or sit at home carefully with a dremel for several hrs) and get the manifold /rocker cover "grooved" to use oring's/seals?

Ive seen some big ass gaps filled with some of these new sealants. Bit just to be sure (cos we dont want any vacuum leaks or running problems with your car) It may be best of you pack the manifold carefully in a box and mail it to me for mine.... Hahahaha.

Look into some of the new sealants available. (Very similar to silicone etc) Alot of late model cars are doing away with gaskest in alot of places and just using sealant.

Yep very similar boat mate. But if ya want something done. Do it right. Which is why i had mine done. Yeah cost a few $$ but end result was well worth it. (By which if you want it with 8" rims it will never be right with 7".... and the $$ ya spend doing the 8"rims to fit correctly will be well spent as you will be happy with the final product. And not forever wishing you'd done it instead of fitting the 7") if ya get my drift.

Not sure exactly what shops are over in NZ. But over here we have wheel shops that can modify the rims to fit. Cut the centre out of the desired rim and weld it into a new outer hoop to the correct back spacing etc. Many years back i had some genuine gts rims that were damaged so i had them modified. 15x8 for the rear. And full custom 15x4 for the front. Looked pretty cool with 245 on the rear and 135 up front lol