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Project Datsun RL411 (The resurrection)


Swift

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I'm now in the possession of my fathers 1967 Datsun RL 411 Bluebird. The opportunity came and now I'm currently in the progress of rebuilding it back up to street worthy condition. It's got a long history being my fathers project car since 1979. He's had a few 411's and a 510 before this one. Now he's passed his 411 down to me to keep it alive. I'll try to update this topic as often as possible to keep you all up to date.



My father converted his from a PL to RL back in 1980, 1981. Here is his list of modifications:
1967 Datsun RL-411

1598cc R Type Engine

Standard transmission: 4 speed

Modification list:

  • Cylinder head shaved .080
  • 30210-20111 original Datsun Heavy Duty pressure plate.
  • Custom 2" exhaust from manifold to end.
  • Free flow muffler.
  • Keep distributor set at 8 degrees advanced at idle.
  • Balanced drive shaft.
  • Helper springs on rear shocks to eliminate rear sag. Improved center of gravity.
  • Five leaf rear leaf springs from a 1978 Datsun 620 pickup.
  • Custom rear anti-sway bar.
  • Custom steering wheel.
  • Superior Magnesium wheels.
  • Cooper 185-70R13 tires.
  • License: Have Fun. Taken from the old mid 1990's Nissan commercial slogan.

Believe it or not. This will own a stock PL 510 from a standing 1/8 or 1/4 mile run by 3 car lengths or more. Built specifically for red light to red light. But rarely practiced.

Has never been to an official dragstrip. Street only.

Secret: The pressure plate. Much more horsepower at the rear wheels.

Possible problems with pressure plate: Stripped 2nd gear and later a ring gear in the differential.

All too easy to repair the transmission.

All too easy to replace the differential.


Here are the pictures from the peak of his last attempt.
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Pictures of the move to the new super secret location in the mountains where the resurrection will be occurring.
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The new air compressor I got that's key to the whole project.
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Crappy pictures of the engine bay, I will get better ones soon.
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Pictures of the Carbs getting cleaned:

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Pictures of the carbs after they're finished. I worked hard to polish those bowls. They look better than brand new.
 
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Pictures of Parts that have been bought:
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List of Parts from jeg's:

-Street Fire CD Multi Spark Ignition
-Electric fuel Pump w/regulator
-MSD High Performance Blaster Coil
-Fuel Cell
-Braded Fuel Lines
-Fuel Pressure gauge
-Fittings, adapters, hose ends
-Plus a couple shirts and free hats.

List of General parts before I went to Jeg's:
-New Starter
-Standard Fuel Pump
-Fuel Filter
-Fuel Lines
-Oil Additive
 
Also, I took out the old gas tank with the hopes of re using it. The outside was nice and clean. The inside was a scene from Silent Hill. Full of rust, which is why I got the fuel Cell.
 
The current goal is to get the car in running condition. Then I'm going to take the engine out so I can clean up the engine bay for the MSD and other higher performance goodies. Then, after that, I'm going to
restore the body.

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With the upgrade to the type R 1600 cc engine you really need to consider a further upgrade to the RL411 front disc brakesWhen the US Datsun racing team first thought up this R1600 transplant / upgrade they realized that for production sedan road racing use the front drum brakes were not sufficient so dreamed up a modified 510 front disc brake assembly.  Not identical but damned close!  The "easiest" but near impossible lately way to go is to do a wheel to wheel RL411 front cross member swap into the PL411.

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Thank you guys, glad to be part of an entire forum dedicated to the Datsun brand.

A couple things that I forgot to mention was that during it's conversion from PL to RL. The cross member was changed out with one from an RL, so it has disc brakes in the front.

 

 

I've got a stock tank for this... Not to mention a lot of other parts. Let me know if you'd like to run the stock setup.

Wow, nice Thankyou for the help. Parts are so hard to find. I've got a few extras in storage (will get list and pics soon). 

The main parts that this car needs is a front windshield and rocker panel chrome strips.

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Update:

Cut out the spare tire tub in the trunk to make room for a custom mount for the fuel cell. The reasoning behind it is because the original has rusted out beyond repair. Though I wish it wasn't that way. Either way, it has been cut out to where if I want to I can put another tub in there. Yet, for now I think the fuel cell is a much more modern and safer alternative.

 

Pictures:

IMG_20160506_195959737.jpg

IMG_20160506_202723365_HDR.jpg

 

Pictures of the rust, thank you mother nature, your beauty has no bounds. :D

IMG_20160506_202735477.jpg

IMG_20160506_202743443.jpg

IMG_20160506_202751755.jpg

 

Pictures of the new mounting plate, It's gonna be in two pieces. One to hold the cell, the small piece as a cover flap to the back of the cell.

IMG_20160507_170840754_HDR.jpg

IMG_20160507_174357917_HDR.jpg

IMG_20160507_174408496_HDR.jpg

 

Also, while fixing the Carbs I found damage to the fuel intake.

IMG_2479.JPG

IMG_2477.JPG

 

Considering how old and rare the corroded piece is. I've decided to go with a new fitting, preferably an 45 or 90 degree adapter. The reason being is that when the Hitachi/SU company made these carbs, they somehow mixed English and metric units. I searched for a 1.25 MPT to a 6/an fitting. I checked all the places in my area that might specialize in this. None of those places could find a fix. So now I'm faced with either diggin around the web for another set of carbs with the part I need or bore out the fitting to a size that will work, which would be easier in the end.

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Not all over the net,, probably just here.

 

That might a easily gotten part since those are SUs ,, try giving Ztherapy a call..  website>>  http://www.ztherapy.com/

 

member Vindats1 has a set of 411 SUs for sale but she has a ton of parts for 411s,,, maybe she has one she would sell.

 

http://community.ratsun.net/user/58-vindats1/

 

she is easier to get a hold of through personal e-mail but i can't find any of her for sailing ads that has it posted.

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If you want to resurect the water pump to intake manifold preheat impossible to obtain complex bends hose, I have several practical workarounds using common Gates or Goodyear hoses and a little deft cutting and use of brass pipe fittings and hose clamps!

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Available roadster fuel pumps [i suspect they are all of the late metric engine configuration] have a thicker flange than the original RL411 engine fuel pump.  No sweat!  Toss the mounting bolts, use studs and a washer/nut combination.  The depth of the cam to fuel pump lever is correct.

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If you want to resurect the water pump to intake manifold preheat impossible to obtain complex bends hose, I have several practical workarounds using common Gates or Goodyear hoses and a little deft cutting and use of brass pipe fittings and hose clamps!

 

Available roadster fuel pumps [i suspect they are all of the late metric engine configuration] have a thicker flange than the original RL411 engine fuel pump.  No sweat!  Toss the mounting bolts, use studs and a washer/nut combination.  The depth of the cam to fuel pump lever is correct.

 

Thank you for the suggestion. Though, the stock setup was kept. Also, I obtained a fuel pump and regulator from Jegs which is more than sufficient compared to any stock like alternative. Right now, I'm trying to fix the issues with the carbs so I can at least get the engine running to see how well it runs.

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  • 1 month later...

New update:

Finally got it to fire up. A lot has been done to it so far. I'll post better pictures in my next post.

Link to the video:

From my page:

 

From my fathers page:

 

The story so far...

 

Carburetors:

After installing the fuel cell and finishing the lines to the fuel cell. What we had to do was replace the 12 mm x 1.25 Banjo bolt/fitting. For that, we went back to Jegs. Which they had a replacement from Vibrant performance. Only issue was the thread size for the bolt was 1.5 not 1.25. Which isn't an issue considering I already have two good stock bolts and I only need the banjo fittings themselves. After waiting for around a month, I contacted Jegs who then contacted Vibrant performance. The representative from Vibrant said that the part wouldn't be shipped until August 12. So, while waiting for those, we went with plan B. Went to Summit racing who also had a Banjo fitting kit. This time with the correct Bolt size and thread length. Yet, it went to a -06 AN line not -04. For the sake of continuing this project, we ordered those and got them the next day and installed them.

 

Wiring:

It was a mess. Reminded me of spaghetti. Luckily, my father found the original wiring diagram online. So with that, we was able to strip out/replace the bad and clean up the wiring to the car. Considering that we installed an MSD. We decided it to be best to have two fuse blocks to handle it all. The battery was also relocated to the trunk. The dashboard was taken out and cleaned up. As well as replacing the old burnt out lights. We also obtained a three way cluster (Oil, voltage, temperature) as well as an old school Sun tachometer. Plus we had to disassemble the steering column to clean up the clock spring assembly. The indicator lights on the front of the car have been removed for cleaning and repair.

 

Everything Else:

Next steps are to tie things up and fine tune the engine to get it to run smoother including another oil change and flushing out the radiator. Then on to making sure the brakes and drive train still operate properly.

One step at a time.

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Music to my ears !! 

 

I can hear Pink Floyd's 'Coming Back to Life' playing in the background (in my head, of course). 

 

Congratulations and keep chipping away. It'll be a super driver.

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Update:

Cut out the spare tire tub in the trunk to make room for a custom mount for the fuel cell. The reasoning behind it is because the original has rusted out beyond repair. Though I wish it wasn't that way. Either way, it has been cut out to where if I want to I can put another tub in there. Yet, for now I think the fuel cell is a much more modern and safer alternative.

 

Pictures:

IMG_20160506_195959737.jpg

IMG_20160506_202723365_HDR.jpg

 

Pictures of the rust, thank you mother nature, your beauty has no bounds. :D

IMG_20160506_202735477.jpg

IMG_20160506_202743443.jpg

IMG_20160506_202751755.jpg

 

Pictures of the new mounting plate, It's gonna be in two pieces. One to hold the cell, the small piece as a cover flap to the back of the cell.

IMG_20160507_170840754_HDR.jpg

IMG_20160507_174357917_HDR.jpg

IMG_20160507_174408496_HDR.jpg

 

Also, while fixing the Carbs I found damage to the fuel intake.

IMG_2479.JPG

IMG_2477.JPG

 

Considering how old and rare the corroded piece is. I've decided to go with a new fitting, preferably an 45 or 90 degree adapter. The reason being is that when the Hitachi/SU company made these carbs, they somehow mixed English and metric units. I searched for a 1.25 MPT to a 6/an fitting. I checked all the places in my area that might specialize in this. None of those places could find a fix. So now I'm faced with either diggin around the web for another set of carbs with the part I need or bore out the fitting to a size that will work, which would be easier in the end.

I

 

I am a "looter" so any banjo fitting I spy in the JY winds up in my purchase bucket!  The mounting hallow bolt [which I also scarf] may differ in SAE od Metric thread, but the body of the banjo is usually interchangeable.  When you are looking for future needed parts for a 40 year old car, you grab everything you might need in the next 40 years!

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Here are some updated pictures of the project so far.

 

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New Banjo fittings look cool.

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Pressure regulator, Gauge might be a dud. Cheap fix.

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The new MSD

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And the two new fuse blocks

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Brand new alternator.

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Fuel cell setup

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Nice powerful fuel pump. New plate for Cell to come soon.

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Cleaned up dash cluster, plus new gauges. Going to paint needles soon.

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  • 7 months later...

Update:

Quite a lot has been done for this restoration. My father and I have been working hard to give this car a second chance at life. I'll post a more detailed explanation of what's going on with pictures.

In a nutshell, we got the clutch issue fixed. After that, the engine and transmission have been removed for rebuild. Plus a lot more.

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