geojaxon

Got the engine pulled out of the Nissan. I am thinking i'm going to do a simple rebuild of the engine. that way it will never have to come out again. (fingers crossed) when I got the truck it came with a whole gasket kit and a timing chain and guide. I will use those and see if there is anything else that might need machined or repaired. I'm going to get an engine stand this weekend. Then i will separate the trans from the engine and get this rolling. I still have the wiring mess to deal with but i have a wiring diagram and i'm going to just go very slowly to decide what to cut and what to keep.

Very cool truck you got there. good luck with getting her rolling again.

I got the can am box and the mounts on order. I had a couple of friends come over this weekend and we got the old engine out, covered it up and put it in the bed of the truck. We moved the truck to the side of the house where my Jeep is sitting. Now I have space in the shop for the Nissan and in about a week and a half when the registration runs up I am going to start labeling and taking the KA out of that pile of bondo.

Long time no update so I am going to get one started today. Lots of things going on in my garage right now and hopefully the Datsun will get the reward for all this work. I got a little tiny camera and stuck it down the spark plug holes and checked around. Every one of my pistons has a dent in it from the valves just like someone else showed me in their thread. One on each side of the piston. The valves are toast and the engine is a no go even if it was timed right. I started removing everything to get this engine out of the truck and as i went I kept finding things that were not making me feel good about how this truck was put together. all the wires that connected to the carb area were super melted and covered in electrical tape to hide how bad the wires were. down by the transmission none of the wiring was connected. Im guessing thats for the reverse lights and maybe something else? I got feeling pretty worried about how crappy of a job everything in the truck has been done. I checked with the wife and she said i could do whatever i wanted so I decided to go big or go home....i bought a 1990 nissan with a great running KA engine and 5 speed and its time to try to get that swapped over to the 620. It came with a really nice aftermarket exhaust for like a civic or something. It's all chromed out but makes it sound pretty ricey. I can't complain for the price. It also has all the gaskets for a rebuild and a new timing chain I can install if needed. I should have the motor out of the 620 by next weekend if everything goes as expected. then its time to park it and switch to pulling the KA and all the wiring that will be needed.

I need to stop being so lazy on the weekends now that its warmed up and go junkyard diving!

Just found this yesterday. Im a huge fan of classic country. Pre 1985 or so this fits in with that really well.

That expression is priceless thanks thisismatt for the perfect screen grab. haha

Good looking car man, sure is in good shape for the year. Those seats look good, now I need to search the junk yard for some like that to put in my 620.

78 620 for sale in Utah if anyone is interested. My wife says 7 vehicles is enough already and won't let me have it. http://www.ksl.com/auto/listing/3644274?ad_cid=4

Hey everyone! I was able to get a little work done over the weekend but I got stuck. One of the shocks is not going to come off correctly. I was able to get the upper part disconnected and the lower bolt that goes through the shock eyelet was undone but the bolt is siezed inside of the shock eyelet. I have heated it up and tried pounding with a hammer. I think I am going to have to cut this bolt on the inside of the mount and then find a replacement bolt. I got all the other shocks on and took off the bumpstops everywhere but the drivers front where the shock is still stuck on there. I broke out the wire wheel and went to town on the rust under the fenders and then painted with black rusty metal primer. Hopefully this will keep everything from getting worse until it's time for body work and painting. I am going to try some spray can undercoating where the old stuff flaked off. Everytime I work on the old pickup I find something else that needs replaced. All the ball joints and tie rod ends are destroyed. I will have to order new ones once my car fund has built back up a little. With each part I take off I find another thing I want to fix or make better, This wasn't supposed to be a frame off project! lol

For the lowering kit I went with 3 inch blocks from ebay and they went on super easily. I ordered some new shocks as well since the drivers side rear keeps getting bound up when jacking the truck up and down. I will install them when I re-index the front and adjust to make everything even. I also got a new driveshaft carrier bearing since mine was trashed. I decided to take the whole front end apart and found where someone has done some major repairs to the front clip behind the grill. It looks like it must have been pretty smashed up and they mangled it back to mostly where it was before. You can see all the bondo trying to make it look smooth. I am draining all fluids sometime this week and should be one step closer to taking off the front of the engine to try to set the cam timing up. I got a tiny USB camera to check down into the cylinders so I can see if anything inside is broke really bad. That way if its destroyed I can just pull the motor instead of trying to mess with setting it up. I even took off the fenders and I ordered some primer and undercoating. Im going to prime anywhere there is bare metal and spray this cheap undercoating where the old stuff has fallen off. Im not trying to make this perfect but just pause the rust for a few years until I can really get the truck painted the right way.

I'm no expert but I know that the valve lash can contribute to the loss of compression if it's setup incorrectly. Also the camshaft timing would control your valves and if set wrong could lead to loss of compression. My L20B had the camshaft gear setup wrong and had no compression when tested because the valves were not closed when they should have been. If your truck runs you are at least not as bad off as me. I would start with checking the valve lash.

Those Taillight housings look great! I need to do that on mine. and the Grill .... and the emblem. Thanks for the inspiration haha.

Spent a couple of hours in the garage on Saturday. Lowering blocks are finally installed and the old gal looks pretty good. One small issue though the fender gap is about 2 inches higher on the drivers side. I checked under the truck and even the axle to bump stop is about that much off. Makes me wish I would have measured axle to frame before I started this. I know that the shock on the drivers side is binding up a little bit so that might be some of the problem but I need to investigate further to figure this out. I was going to try to measure the leaf springs from end to end to see if the one side is different. After double checking the blocks and the u-bolts none of what I changed would make it this much off. The funniest thing is when I get in the truck on the drivers side it squats just enough on that side so its even. lol I went back to the original pics I had of the truck and even there it seems to lean a little to the passenger side. I'm betting its the springs being messed up a bit. oh well its an old truck what can you expect. I need to adjust the torsion bars next in the front to get that down a bit, or maybe I should get back to work on the engine issues. Anyone with a lowered truck have load assist shocks with a coil spring on them? https://www.amazon.com/Monroe-58417-Adjust-Shock-Absorber/dp/B000CGEJDQ I was thinking it might help stiffen the back so I'm not banging off the bump stops too much. It looks like they have air shocks that might fit too. Any suggestions?

Ok so way too cold in my garage to hold metal tools. I was freezing before I got any work done. I did take some pictures of the inside but its pretty rough. The dashboard is cracked under the carpet cover the seat is even worse and the moving blanket seat cover is about the most disgusting thing ever. I was going to wait until it was driveable before I worked on the inside but just taking these made me feel gross i might need to push up the timeline on that project. It has a CD player that is not connected right. The glovebox falls off if you open it. Its at least fixable and I have getto restored a truck interior before so other than the stereo wiring I am looking forward to making this a nice place to spend some time. You can see the original white that the truck was at some point too. When I get her running hopefully the gauges and lights will work. I'm thinking new black carpet on the floor, fresh foam under a nice new seat cover, new shift knob and a nice steering wheel cover without all the bacteria.