sheepers buys a 4wd Datsun.

[sheepers]

A little while back it started missing. 

Big surprise ,  the ignitor was fucked. Not unusual for a 35 year old part.

I found another one in the box of parts that came with the car and naturally assumed,  as anyone in the same situation would,  that it was perfectly fine and had no issues and that's why it was included in the random box of junk that came with the car. 

So I put that in, it worked. 

Happy days. 

You're not going to believe what happened next!!

 

That's right,  amazingly the random ignitor in the parts box shit itself just a few weeks after installing it!!

So,  with a new ignitor being the thick end of a thousand dollars I decided to spend an extra hundy and throw the ignitor in the fucking bin permanently and put in some much better gear.

 

R35 coils and no ignitor needed. 

These will support any future power upgrades and i don't have to think about this again. 

Excellent. 

[sheepers]

[sheepers]

Fuck i love this thing.

Nothing to report,  it's just being awesome. 

[sheepers]

the RB26 is a fucking shitly designed rubbish engine and if you think they're great then you're fucking retarded.

because the engine cant oil itself properly a good fix for this is to increase the sumps oil capacity. 

i chose to do this.

this involves removing the sump.

and thats where the Nissan engineers really shine.

the 4 M6 bolts that hold the sump to the rear main seal housing behind the flywheel.

yep, behind the flywheel.

its 10 billion percent unnecessary to bolt the sump to the rear main seal housing with 4 M6 bolts, and even if it was, putting the bolts where you could get them from the bottom of the engine would be the sensible thing to do. 

 

what a fucking load of shit. 

 

 

[sheepers]

Took the sump in to hytech engines and got it hot tanked.

Then I cut the shit out of it and welded in the new high capacity sump. 

I also welded a couple of AN12 fittings on the side because that's what the cool kids do.

 

I filled it up with water and it didn't leak so I'm calling that good. 

[sheepers]

All back together. 

And now that it weighs 10 zillion tons it's time to ballance it on my head and try and re fit it to the motor.

[sheepers]

I very cleverly made this little condom to stop the oil leaking out of the Atessa pump. 

I also thought it would be a good idea to brace the back of the engine because there's not much holding it in the hole at the mo. 

[sheepers]

mostly all back together.

i didnt have a clutch alignment  tool (its a OS Giken twin plate so getting the splines lined up is critical) so i made one using things and tape. it worked well enough.

 

 

 

also, more reasons why the RB26 is a pain in the arse - all the bellhousing bolts are M10x 1.5 whereas all the other M10 bolts in the car are M10x 1.25.

so you really have to have your thinking cap on putting the gearbox back in. good job nissan. 

 

 

 

new sump pan is at a slight angle, which is strange because i followed the dimensions i was given pretty closely but it is what it is.

put a new center bearing in the driveshaft whilst it was apart too.

got a few things to button up and im going to change a few hoses and whatnot around and its done.

ill start on the suspension now. 

[sheepers]

Something I've been meaning to do for a while now is remove the Hicas pump off the back of the power steering pump. 

The hicas was long gone when I got the car and i have no intention to reinstall it. 

The job requires removing the pump section (obviously) then machining a new end on the shortened shaft to run in the bush on the back cover.

the other thing that needs doing is modifying the back cover to fit into the mounting bracket. Not super difficult,  i used a counter bore to remove most of the material then cleaned it up with the die grinder.

I made a new inlet pipe,  I probably could have boogered the original one but I made a new one anyway. 

All finished. 

Just need to make a new return hose (when I buy some) and is all golden. 

[sheepers]

I pulled all the front axels apart and cleaned and re-greased all the needle rollers and the outer CVs as well.

They're back in the car now. 

[sheepers]

suspension time.

i didnt want to do any of this, all i wanted to do was replace the 35 year old struts with something new and rebuildable with a bit of adjustment available. 

 but its not that easy. i have to cert the car so its all legal begal and thats where the problems start. 

the camber on my car - which is not low by any stretch of the imagination and is all stock suspension parts is too much for the experts at the lvvta to handle.

so open the can of worms. 

fucking whatever.

anywho if i have to fit adjustable everything to keep the camber within 1.5 degrees i might as well allow for full adjustment and allow myself the luxury of making the car fit the wheel (in the future when i get some different wheels for it, which i will)

 

i bought some parts, still got some to get all the upper arms are done.

GKtech were nice enough to omit two of the bushes required for the assembly (as shown in the picture with the cable ties still attached, youy can see the front upper arm is missing two bushes) so i had to make some to finish the job. 

[sheepers]

with that done it was time to fit the new Tein coilovers.

out of the box the front needed to come down about 10mm but the rear was perfect.

its got plenty of droop and looks like about 35mm before it hits the bump in the front and bloody heaps in the back.

the ride height im aiming for is about 15mm higher than it was in the back and about 10mm lower than it was in the front (it was 25mm higher in the front before).
this is how it sits now. i put some 19's on it to have a look at how it would sit and im about 99% sure im going to get a set of these wheels but in 18's.

 

still got to order the lower arms for the front and the back. GKtech do a good rear lower arm but i cant seem to see a GKtech front arm that will go shorter than stock, should i need it. they all seem to have a minimum length which is the same as stock and go out from there.

other companies make arms that go both ways so ill probably end up with them.