vegie Posted January 4, 2014 Share Posted January 4, 2014 Ok, so i bought a Datsun 180B SSS coupe as my first car many moons ago, and after that rusted into oblivion, i decided to find another. This is a pic of my first coupe... Move on to about 2002 i found another one. One family owned since new, little old lady couldnt drive anymore, so car had to go, and i had to have it. Sadly all my original photos when i got it were lost when my camera got stolen in a break-in. so i only have soon after i started work on it. soon after i got it, i stripped it down and had some repair work done. the only "real" rust was in the window surrounds, under the chromes. i sent it of to an old boy who did some very neat repairs in the windows and replaced the passenger side sill with a genuine nissan part, as the original had a nasty dent. there's still a few shopping trolley dents to get fixed still. along comes a mortgage and kids, and project goes on hold for a LONG while... 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vegie Posted January 4, 2014 Author Share Posted January 4, 2014 I managed to source a whole lot of parts for it over the years, A new pair of shoes for starters. . 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vegie Posted January 4, 2014 Author Share Posted January 4, 2014 So i havent been completely idle on working on this... I spent ages underneath it removeing the underseal, and all the old underseal matting from inside the cabin too.. you can see where i had to notch the brace under the boot (still needs tidying up) to clear the R200 skyline diff i've put in. I also stripped the underseal out from the front inner gaurds which is normally a rust trap on these cars. . 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vegie Posted January 9, 2014 Author Share Posted January 9, 2014 some of the bits i've been up to... i stripped th old, worn "woodgrain" off the dash and replaced it. i have also stipped and etch primed the side mouldings around the side windows... . the guard mirrors i imported from japan. the black front left guard is one i sourced from a guy who had it hanging in his shed for nearly 20 years, a genuine datsun part! a . and, the L20B motor i'm rebuilding for it now. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vegie Posted January 11, 2014 Author Share Posted January 11, 2014 started the tear down of the old 2.0L. stored parts in an orderly fashion... a lot of it i had better/tidier bits, or im not using again. looks like it could use a service too, i drained the oil, both litres of it... i guess i'll wait and see what it really like once i get the head off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vegie Posted January 15, 2014 Author Share Posted January 15, 2014 pulled the engine down, and the news wasn't all good... some nasty watermarks/rust on #2 and 3 cylinders. it appears that it was caused by a retard. they have had the head off in the past and left the rear head locating dowel out, so the rear of the head was located only on the headstuds, but the gasket was about 3mm off to one side, screwing up the waterjacket hole alignment. the only plus side to this is it's still on the original pistons, so .020" oversize pistons should take care of that. but overall, the rest looks good, and looks to have brand new timing gear throughout. i did a bit of research on what block/head/piston combo's work best from the L14/16/18/20/24/26/28 motors, and basically it looks like an L20B block like i have with a closed chamber L18T head and flat topL20B pistons is the best combo for a 2 litre NA motor. well i have the block, and i need to buy pistons anyway, so i had to find a L18T SSS head. no small feat... long story short, L18 head on trade me for $100 bucks, ask casting numbers for head and click buy now! turns out the head is a V912 head, which is pretty much the holy grail of L series heads. it was never sold new on a car, and was a datsun sport (and later nismo) only part. sweet! they are a closed chamber or "peanut" head as they are sometimes called, with the biggest Lseries valves and seats already fitted, and high compression chamber. top head is the V912, which has slightly smaller intake (round) ports. apparently they are made with heaps of meat to port them for race use, or leave them as they are for a better mid range RPM motor. bottom head is the standard U67 L20B "U67" head, low comp chamber big valves, big ports. standard U67 head chamber. V912 higher compression chamber. it also turns out that the head has never been skimmed in its life, which is pretty unusual as i think Lseries nissan blown headgaskets are as common as M series toyota ones! and judging by the casting of the "nissan" logo, id say this is a fairly "new" head. . so all in all, im pretty stoked to have stumbled on the exact part which would normally be rocking horse shit to find. and i think i'll leave the ports alone as these heads are to valuable to mess with unless your going full race spec. 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vegie Posted March 28, 2015 Author Share Posted March 28, 2015 and a new fossil for my collection... its a L18 SSS engine and box from a repowered 710sss coupe. i got it for the twin SU carbs, extractors, and dogleg 5 speed, and sump mostly. its pretty clean inside for an engine that hasn't run for over a decade. looks like all new timing gear, and has a Wade 733a grind cam too. so between this, and the L20B bottom end i have, i should be able to build a good 2.0L high comp motor. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vegie Posted September 4, 2016 Author Share Posted September 4, 2016 Dragged the car out to try on the new wheels. Scored a set of SSR MK2's in 15 x 7 0 offset, and 15 x 8.5" -6 offset. Tyte sizes are not final though, the 195 60's on the back are way too tall. Also not too keen on the black centres, buy will leave them as is for the moment. Pretty happy with the look so far... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post vegie Posted September 4, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 4, 2016 13 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post vegie Posted September 25, 2016 Author Popular Post Share Posted September 25, 2016 paintstripper is the new black. Turns out there was primer, red, purple, gold and black on these centres. Im really liking the unpainted look now, so may leave them or do them silver i think. 15 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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