nortryder

Nice! I'll check it out. What should I look for exactly? A L20b? Is that the later version of the L16? Thanks

Thanks for the replies and info. Kind of what I figured. Too bad though. That R16 would would look pretty cool in there with the 2 carbies and all. I'm looking for a running motor L16,L18, or L20b with out much luck. I'll most likely pull the motor thats in the truck and have it rebuilt. Thanks again.

Latest news on this is that we pulled it inside and played around with it yesterday. I had dumped a bunch of PB Blaster into the cylinders a while ago. There hasn't been any fuel in the tank or any where else for years. Pulled the drain plug and the tank is dry. Any way we did a compression test and 3 cylinders were down to around 20/40 lbs and one was at 100 lbs. pulled the valve cover and all the valve seemed to be going up and down the way they were supposed to. A little history on this this truck (very little). A friend owns a salvage yard and picked up a dozen or so cars that were at a property being sold by the bank. Among them was this 1970 521 and 3 Fairladies. I've been a foreign car type of guy foe years. I'm 65 and I drive VWs and Hiluxes back in the 60/70s we also had a fleet of 520/521s where I worked when I was in college. So I've been around this kind of stuff for a while. Back to the truck, the SP311s were pretty rotted this being Vt and the land of ice and salt. The 521 looked bad at a glance (faded, sanded down paint) But on closer inspection it was real solid. I weaseled it away from my friend and set about to get it running. The truck had been a squirrel condo and I shoveled out about a foot of chewed up pine cones from inside the cab and the bed of the truck. The bed had a cap on it and was full of parts that had been removed from the truck. It seems to have been a science project. I found what turned out to be the original engine amongst the debris. Seems that the P.O. had lunched it and replaced it with a different engine. He did a good job and everything is hooked up right. The original motor was partially disassembled with the head removed. one of the pistons is sticking up above the block by a couple of inches. The oil pan is still attached so I can't tell if it's a broken or unbolted rod. It's all all rusted soild because of exposure to the elements. The motor in the vehicle spins like no compression when cranked over. My guess is stuck rings. Ive dealt with this on a lot of motorcycles that Ive rebuilt over the years. I haven't had much luck freeing them up with out disassembling the motor. Sometimes soaking the bores with different helps, but not much. So it seems my choices are to pull the head off the engine thats in the truck and beat on it with various tools and hope the rings free up. Or look for another, running engine and swap them. Or pull the existing engine and have it rebuilt. Or try and stick one of those R16 motors out of one of the fairladies in which would look cool with the twin carbs but, I guess would be very practical. The rebuilding option is looking like the best move. Any ideas? Sorry for being so long winded.

I have a 1970 521 that has been sitting since 1985. The motor has no compression on 3 cylinders. I have a good R16 engine out of a Fairlady. does anyone know if these are interchangeable or what kind of a job it would be to switch them? Would I be better off rebuilding the L16?

That's what I was hoping. I had the cover off today and everything looked okay but I didn't check all that carefully. Maybe a valve isn't closing all the way. I'll look more closely. I like the electronic ignition idea. How hard is it to find 620 parts? Up here in Vt everything turned to rust years ago. It was a fluke that I found this one in such good shape.

Fuel isn't an issue as the tank is dry and I've been dumping gas down the carb. The tank and carby are nice and clean unlike the ones on my roadster when I got it. It seems to be electrical which always baffles me. The 0 compression on the rear cylinder didn't cheer me much. I'm hoping that a valve is stuck open from sitting. Fat chance.

I picked up a 521 that has been sitting since around 1985. It's kind of a mystery vehicle as the PO. isn't available for questioning. I'm trying to get it started and have not been able to get it to fire. It cranks okay but no fire. I have jump the coil to no avail. today I did a compression test and found that the rear cylinder is at 0. question is is this from sitting open? Or am I looking at a valve job. I'm not a big fan of unnecessary work so am hesitant to rip and tear before I know why I'm doing it. Also I'm not a big fan of dual points is there an electronic conversion I don't know about? I also have single point distributer off a 1600 Fairlady will that work? Or for that matter would the whole motor work? Thanks for any insight on this.

Can anyone tell me where to find a rear sliding window for my 521 truck? I need some where to throw my empties. Does anybody even make them any more? (Windows not empties)