Motschrocker Posted August 24, 2015 Report Share Posted August 24, 2015 I have a L18 out of a 73 610 in my datsun roadster. Ive been having difficulty getting it timed. I had it running decent for a while, but it is always running really rich. I understand the car originally had dual points. Currently i only have one set of points in the dizzy. Attempted to install an el dizzy purchased from hotspark and i coul barely get it to start or run. Should be running dual points? Is there another distributor that would work better for this engine? Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted August 24, 2015 Report Share Posted August 24, 2015 The first set of points are timed normally. The second set are designed to be about 5 degrees retarded from the first set. By turning the second set on and off you can instantly add 5 degrees of retard and this is what Nissan did to lower emissions under certain conditions and gears. Would have no effect on running rich. If running rich I would start looking there first. 1 Quote Link to comment
banzai510(hainz) Posted August 24, 2015 Report Share Posted August 24, 2015 when installing the hot start. you make sure the dizzy is timmed corectly when install otherwise it wount start. You take not of the rotor position before and after. and make sure the timming plate is in the middle position when timed exactly at Zero on crank. then you can adjust from there. The Hotspart might be gereric enough but different Datsuns had different timming distributor mounts. use the stock coil and ballast watch this ,go fwd to the part when I install the distributor. Motor will be at Zero on crank. then install dist. Quote Link to comment
Motschrocker Posted August 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2015 When i got the hotspark distributor the plate was not eight for my engine so i used the plate from my old dizzy. Could it be that the el distributor is 180 off and i need to change the plug wire positions? Would it have started at all if it was that far off? Quote Link to comment
banzai510(hainz) Posted August 24, 2015 Report Share Posted August 24, 2015 not at 180 degs it will not start. If slightly off it will start but when you rev it up maybe then cut out. if inbetween cylinder 1& 3 when on TDC on the crank. What you can do is loosen the dist bolt or even take it out then turn the dist till it runs better. thrn C clamp it to hold it till you figure out a mount to make or fit or move the dist shaft a tooth But really if you put a timming light on there youll see immediately that the timmming is way out. watch vid its all there. on you tube its part 5 or 6 when i install the dist(on vid) you can figure it out from there Only way it would be Ezer if I come over and do it for you. 2 Quote Link to comment
Motschrocker Posted August 24, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 24, 2015 At this point id love to have someone come and figure thus thing out for me. I watched the video and I will mess with the el distributor some more and see why i am having trouble getting it to run. Ill try and take some pics and post additional info so you all have a better idea of what i am working with. Quote Link to comment
Motschrocker Posted August 25, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 25, 2015 Ive messed with my car a bit and i am stuck. The car was running pretty well but after a drive one day it was sluggish and now i can barely get it to run. I have been messing with the timing but no matter how i turn the dizzy i cant get it to run right. Same with the el dizzy. My spark plugs are black. Ive adjusted valve lashes,checked spark plug and point gaps, adjusted the carb and nothing is working. What kind of diagnostics can i do to get back on track and figure out what is wrong? What kind of pics or video would help you guys help me out? I am a bit new to working on older cars so i am learning as i go. Quote Link to comment
banzai510(hainz) Posted August 25, 2015 Report Share Posted August 25, 2015 take photo of the distributor coil and and related area. no water under distributor cap. Tell us what was changed to and from Ballast resistor installed or not. all helps Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted August 26, 2015 Report Share Posted August 26, 2015 Ive messed with my car a bit and i am stuck. The car was running pretty well but after a drive one day it was sluggish and now i can barely get it to run. I have been messing with the timing but no matter how i turn the dizzy i cant get it to run right. Same with the el dizzy. My spark plugs are black. Ive adjusted valve lashes,checked spark plug and point gaps, adjusted the carb and nothing is working. What kind of diagnostics can i do to get back on track and figure out what is wrong? What kind of pics or video would help you guys help me out? I am a bit new to working on older cars so i am learning as i go. Don't 'mess with the timing' set it at 10 or 12 w/e the L18 likes . Black plugs tell me it's running rich and maybe this isn't ignition related. There's an old saying the 90% of ignition problems are carb and 90% of carb problems are ignition. Taking it for a drive may have stirred something up. 1 Quote Link to comment
Motschrocker Posted August 27, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 27, 2015 I will do my best to describe what I have done to the car and what has changed. When I bought the car it did not run well which turned out to be a carb issue. I purchased a new carb on ebay. Installed the carb, new spark plugs and wires. I have only tuned the car by ear. I am not sure if the timing indicator is in the correct position. It looks bent and whenever I use a timing light it seems way off. I noticed the coil was leaking fluid so I replaced that as well. I adjusted valve lashes and points. I had the car running pretty well. Seemed to have plenty of get up and go, although it still seemed to be running rich. I have it running on a new electric fuel pump. I took it out several times with no problem. I was taking it to a show one day and it was running sluggish, no power under load. I took it home and tried to make adjustments to the carb and ended up getting it really out of wack. I thought I would try a new distributor. I got one from hot spark and installed it, but could not even get the car to idle. Now I have switched back to the stock distributor and it is running even worse. It used to just pop off but now it takes a few cranks to start and it will only run decent if I give it a little gas. I have some links to some videos of the car running and the distributors. Let me know what else you would like to know. https://youtu.be/sF0hNrLzWHY https://youtu.be/QNXMVdM8P6M https://youtu.be/MuRu3en6Fhw Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted August 27, 2015 Report Share Posted August 27, 2015 Timing pointer is bent. Dizzy drive spindle look right as long as it is at TDC and not set according to the pointer. You have electric fuel pump which can be problematic if the pressure is too high or high enough to overcome the float and flood the carb. The biggest thing I see is a weird carb. Not an Hitachi and never seen the like. Is it from China??? because maybe it's jetted for something else. 1 Quote Link to comment
Motschrocker Posted August 28, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2015 Yea i got the carb on ebay and it maybe from china. Here is a link to it. http://r.ebay.com/yKO9R5 Like i said it ran pretty well before just bit rich. I just cant figure out why i cant get it to run at all now. Is there something inside the engine that could have gotten out of wack? The pic above should be at tdc. I believe the fuel pump has the right pressure but i guess it is hard to say when the carb is kind of unkown. Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted August 28, 2015 Report Share Posted August 28, 2015 Says compatible with 2.2 down to 1.8 liter engines. I'd have to say that one set of jets isn't going to cover that wide a range. Quote Link to comment
banzai510(hainz) Posted August 28, 2015 Report Share Posted August 28, 2015 If this was running good then stopped. It could be the hot spark but then if you reinstall the points and set right then ck the valve lash also. carb? stays running if you pump the gas alot?(running off the accell pump) Quote Link to comment
Motschrocker Posted August 28, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 28, 2015 So should i be looking at a different carb. Suggestions for this particular engine? And where i could buy? Quote Link to comment
banzai510(hainz) Posted August 28, 2015 Report Share Posted August 28, 2015 you said it was running before with this carb right? then it was jetted good enough to drive. something changed, we got to figure out what was soemthing changed then you notice. We got to know exactly. The Hot Spark is made in China maybe this was part of it or when you went back to points ignition you didnt hook the HOT Start wire back up right. reslly you shouldnt have to change that or you didnt hook the Hot SPARK to +12volts on the red wire to + side ballast. really not much to a L motor 1 Quote Link to comment
Motschrocker Posted August 29, 2015 Author Report Share Posted August 29, 2015 I am thinking. I had it running well and then i noticed my coil was dripping fluid. I replaced the coil but i remember driving it on the new coil and it still ran. It was shortly after that when it started to be a bit more sluggish. I also had it running on a different fuel pump at one point. But again i had it running decent on the new pump as well. I will play somemorenthis weekend and try to work backwards and figure out what changed. Quote Link to comment
banzai510(hainz) Posted August 29, 2015 Report Share Posted August 29, 2015 you have to buy the exactly coil for that type of car. Say a 70 510 which will be a 1.6 ohm coil or close to it. If a low ohm coil of .7 it will cook the point or it will fry the points and arch out 1 Quote Link to comment
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