I bought a basket case. Now what?

[Cosmonaut]

Would you consider making a duplicate manifold for $$$, let me know....PM would be great.

[The Engine Room]

Would you consider making a duplicate manifold for $$$, let me know....PM would be great.

 

Let me get a couple of dyno pulls on this one and then we'll talk.

[B2Fresh]

Man this setup is very impressive.

Keeping an eye on this post for sure..

Awesome work "The Engine Room".!!

[The Engine Room]

So I rolled Joe Deertay out of the way so I could use the lift to change the oil on the truck. While I had the bay open I decided to drop the tank so I could dry it out and get my head around installing the fuel pump and extra fuel line. I was really hopeful that I wouldn't have to take the interior apart to do so. When I was digging around in the spare tire well I uncovered the bulk of the rust damage. It isn't too bad:

 

 

The only place that the rust makes it all the way through the sheet metal is at the seam around the fuel sender access hole. I isn't a very big area and I don't have the access hole cover so I'll just make a new, larger access cover and roll the seam back to good metal.

 

 

The rest of the trunk looks good. I still have the OE wheel chocks and the tire tool pouch with the tools still in it.

 

 

 

I spotted a good place to come out of the tank with the new fuel pump access. There is a good area in front of the filler neck that has a good 4-5cm of head room to make the bend with the fuel line.

 

 

I dropped the tank and noticed that all of the rubber lines are basically melting from age. I was hopeful that I could snake the filler neck out from under the trim plastic but i wasn't going to happen. I hate messing with plastic hat old since it is about as fragile as uncooked macaroni. I somehow eased all of the offending trim off without breaking it and found a huge catch can behind the fender (that I'm sure you already know about).

 

 

I'm actually pretty stoked because I was going to run an evap can anyway. I can just add baffles and carbon to this existing can and I'm all set. Here is the entire fuel tank assembly:

 

 

I opened up the fuel tank to let it dry out and I was amazed at how clean it is. This looks basically brand new inside!

 

 

Here's my low-buck fuel tank drying rig. A day or 2 of blazing Georgia sun and this little fan blowing into the sender hole and you'll never know it ever had gas in it.

 

[The Engine Room]

Whenever I say the word "Datsun" in context to my wife she goes "Dodgson! We've got Dodgson here! No one cares."

 

Every. Single. Time.

[fisch]

Entertaining and informative, my kind of thread!

[Cosmonaut]

One movie quote that shall always haunt a Datsun fanatic.

[The Engine Room]

The first few times that I built headers from scratch I either cut the holes in the flange to accept round tube (regardless of the port size) or I beat the end of the pipe into the proper shape with a hammer and dolly. Those options both suck so now I just make a tapered swage and press the pipe into the proper shape. They come out exactly the same every time and they look factory made. Before I had access to CNC machines I would still hack a swage out of a bar with a hand grinder, just to have consistent pieces.

 

 

The tool has a 1.65 degree taper and the cross section has a consistant circumference to keep the pipe from stretching.

 

 

I induction hardened this one to HRC-50 for no reason other than to make you a little jealous (and it makes the tubing easier to remove afterwards).

 

[The Engine Room]

So I eventually come up with clever nicknames for all of my project cars. I think I'm going to call this one"Grandatty" or "Grandatz". Wdyt?

[The Engine Room]

*thumps mic*

[datson4life]

Wow cool stuff in here. And congrats on kid. I too became a new father sep 2015

[The Engine Room]

I finally got the coolant suction pipe and the PCV pipe pulled out of the block. I ended up drilling a hole cross-ways through each tube so I could get a hold of it with my slide hammer. Then I just heated it with a torch and banged it out of there.

 

The coolant suction tube diameter where it presses into the block is 26.0mm turned back for 18mm with no taper.

 

The PCV pipe diameter is 20.0mm for the first 4mm and 21.3mm for an additional 15mm with no taper.

 

Interestingly, "1/2" U.S. Iron Pipe" has an actual OD of 21.336mm, which is within the tolerance of this measurement. I always find it strange when Japanese Engineers use U.S. measurements. They clearly bored the hole to accept 1/2" U.S. pipe.

 

Also, "3/4 U.S. Iron Pipe" has an actual OD of 26.67mm, which could very easily be turned down to 26.0mm.

 

[The Engine Room]

I will be running an evaporative emissions system on this car so I was pretty excited to find that the car already had an expansion tank on the fuel vent system. This saves me the trouble of finding or making a charcoal canister and then finding a place to put it. There is also a vacuum line routed from the canister to the engine compartment so all I have to do is fill the expansion tank with activated carbon and replace the broken/rotten rubber lines. THe throttle body even has a vacuum port specifically for the evap so I don't even have to run a solenoid. I will add a few check valves for safety: one to keep boost from getting back to the tank and another to keep vacuum from collapsing it.

 

 

Evaporative emissions systems come in a range of complexity depending on the year range in which it was designed; but charcoal canisters are pretty basic. Activated carbon is used because the molecular structure gives it the property of having a LOT of surface area. It doesn't actually absorb the fuel vapors, it just gives the vapors a surface to condense upon so there's no real difference in the types other than purity. It doesn't get much more pure than aquarium carbon. The 1.5lbs of carbon that I added to the tank has a surface area of nearly 220 acres.

 

The tank is behind the RH access panel in the cargo area.

 

 

I cut open the tank and found no baffles or anything. Just an empty tank:

 

 

I shortened the inlet tubes from around 10cm to just about 2 cm. The baffles will do the job instead. I found a big sheet of the expanded aluminum that was intended for use a range hood grease trap. It was 30x40cm. I folded it to 30x10cm and tucked it into the tank. Then I cut two punched steel sheets to hold the grease trap material in place and tack welded them in.

 

 

 

I cut a piece of fuel cell foam and tucked it into the area that will be above the carbon, then I filled it up. I packed the carbon in there pretty tight. Then I bonded it shut. The adhesive sealant that I used is for marine fuel tanks. It's a contact adhesive so you let it pretty-much dry before you put the pieces together.

 

 

 

Then I screwed the top on to let it dry. The sealant has to cure for 48 hours before I can replace the screws with sealing rivets, scrape the excess sealant, and then fiberglass over the hole for good measure.

 

[The Engine Room]

I finished up the charcoal canister by replacing the screws with rivets and then putting a couple of layers of fiberglass over the patch. I pulled a vacuum on the canister once the epoxy started to jelly so I could prove the seal and to pull any air bubbles out from under the patch.

 

 

I put a tee in one of the vent lines going from the fuel tank to the charcoal canister so I could control where the system pulls air from. The gas cap has a vent valve in it but I understand that they are getting harder to come by and I might end up getting a filler neck off of something else. This picture shows the filter (at the end of the orange hose) clamped onto the gusset but I ended up moving it to the fender well because I don't want the cabin to fill with fumes when the check valve (between the orange and black hoses) inevitably fails.

 

[The Engine Room]

I really don't like externally mounted EFI pumps for a lot of reasons so I went ahead and put it in the tank. There are a few different places that I could have mounted it but I decided to keep it simple and put it front-and-center.

 

I cut a cover and a back-up ring out of 1.6mm mild steel. I did it a little differently and just put the riv-nuts in the back-up ring instead of through both the tank and back-up plate. The riv-nuts stick up above the surface too far and make sealing difficult. This way the entire riv-nut is inside the tank and clamps the tank wall to the cover.

 

 

I like to drill the mounting holes using tek screws since they self-center and keep the cover from moving around.

 

 

The key to getting a good, straight cut with a hole saw is to pre-drill the pilot hole and then not use the pilot bit in the arbor. For smaller holes I just flip the pilot bit around so the smooth shank doesn't wallow out the pilot hole, but, for bigger saws, I use a modified arbor that uses a 10mm bolt as the pilot. It's also a good idea to cut a plug of plywood and leave it in the arbor so it supports the pilot.

 

 

After I test-fitted it I cut another ring to go between the back-up plate and the tank to keep the metal from bowing between the screws.

 

 

I bolted the back-up rings to the tank to center them up then tacked them in place.

 

 

I only have 15cm of depth in this part of the tank but the pump is 14.5cm tall so I have to put it at an angle.

 

 

I clamped the pump to a foot bracket from another project and then used a piece of 6.5mm rod to make a bracket that I welded to the cover plate. This is one of the very few appropriate places to use a worm drive clamp in an automobile.

 

 

I came through the cover plate with a 6mm barbed elbow that I made into a tank fitting with some 1/4npt brass lamp nuts.

 

 

I built my own thru-tank electrical fitting using a brass screw and washer, some nylon washers, bushings, and a few Viton O-rings. This was about $5 worth of material at the local hardware store. (this is before I tightened it down)

 

 

I put crimp terminals on both sides of the brass barbed fitting to carry the ground current because I wouldn't trust an incidental ground. I silver soldered the brass fitting to the cover to seal it. More on the fuel line later.

 

 

The pump is at an angle so the E36 fuel pump sock won't work. I used one made for a 95 Miata, which is in the same orientation. I also put a pigtail connector on the pump so it'll reach the fuel sender access door.

 

[]2eDeYe]

I like all of this. :D

[The Engine Room]

I'm glad someone does. I've never had a post this quiet.

[]2eDeYe]

Likely because it's a B210. They are like the Rodney Dangerfield of Dattos. :lol: 

 

Could be the thread title too, or maybe everyone is just watching :D

[Lockleaf]

I'm just watching. I like it.

[The Engine Room]

It's cool. Just wait till I start taking lunch money with my 80 cubic inch econo box.

[Dguy210]

I'm just watching, this is fascinating and I always like seeing someone give a B210 some love.

[opalbeetle]

I just started watching too. Not much to say from me, I'm just appreciating your work and thinking.

[DaveSpecB210]

Yep.....just quietly watching in awe of your skills ;)

 

:thumbup:  :thumbup:

[fisch]

Indeed you have plenty of us just watching and appreciating. But I have to say in general the build threads get less comments than they use too. 5 years ago, before IG and everyone was on facebook, everyone got tons of comments on their threads. I think Mr Big Tanker gets them all now, lol!

[Trophy24]

Watching and learning here as well. I like how you can pull parts from other models to solve fitment problems. Well done