Shawn’s ‘72 Driver

[spriso]

Remember that Nissan made the L-18 engine until about 1980 for the Japanese market, and they were found in many different cars. I have seen all kinds of weird variations (front sump, rear sump, and the dip sticks on both sides) of the L-18 engine over the years. We used to buy these engines from the importers and had to change oil pans/dip sticks to suit the 510... Loved those high-compression L-18s for $499 (those were the days!)

Michael

[Byron510]

I'm reasoning that it might be some kind of Z18 simply because of that wacky oil filter mount, which is definitely a late production component, yet it is the short deck height block, and has that strange dipstick placement. The motor you have a picture of is a Z18E, but keep in mind there is also a Z18 carb motor, and, jeez, who knows, as long as it works. hehehe

EDIT - now that I think about it, the motor should say right on the block's pad if it is a Z18 or an L18. Byron, inquiring minds want to know. Which is it???

I took a quick look through the dirt and definately saw 18, and I'm pretty sure it was L18. But now I'll have to check and confirm since suspicion has been cast out there..
This block has to be special, and later as Michael says. Look at the boss for the four bolts holding on that adapter - this wasn’t standard on L18's was it? The first time I can remember seeing this was on Z22 blocks, no? Anyway, I will look into the number pad, and post what I find next weekend. The block is a gold colour, however i have seen this even on l16's of the PL510 era. I'll look at it some more next weekend. It is intriguing I must admit.

Byron

[James]

Wonder if could have come from a propane L-18P?

[Byron510]

Wonder if could have come from a propane L-18P?

Is this a forklift variant of the L18 James? The filter orientation would support a tight fitting engine. Is there any documentation of such an animal? I thought that the R series roadster 1600 was the forklift motor of choice from Nissan?

Byron

[James]

From what I can tell A series were very common as well.
I have seen an L series in a forklift a long time ago (always have to check out whatever has "datsun" on it!)
I also remember that I found some L series gasket kits that were for a forklift, which happened to be quite a bit cheaper than what I could find for car parts.
Wiki lists an L18P for whatever that's worth.

[Byron510]

We’’, not much has happened in the last few weeks. I managed to get really quite sick. I worked on Shawn’s car feverishly (no pun intended) right through the Christmas break, and managed to work myself into a case of pneumonia! Never had it before – man it’s not fun. So I spent the better part of the last three weeks trying to shake it off. So with most of the lung issues clearing up, Shawn and I put a good 8 hours into the car today.
Shawn started by re-installing the old carpet. It would have been nice to replace it, but it was in OK condition so he decided to re- use it for now. Shawn also finished off installing the vinyl trim under the rear window, and installed all of the door sill plates and related aluminum trim. While Shawn was on trim duty getting high on spray glue fumes, I started installing the brake master cylinder and the brake lines. Shawn had cleaned them up and painted them in my absence over the past few weeks. Since I was working under the hood, I pulled out the wiring harness. Its condition looked ok, but there has been a couple spots of butchery. Also the old tape was coming off, so I unwrapped the whole works, just cable tying the original junctions, and hanging it in place. I think I’ll use some of the plastic wiring loom over the harness later, but I first want to hook up power and spend a day removing wires that simply have no function any more, such as the emissions hookups which are long gone. I also painted up some of the linkage bits and throttle bell cranks (removed the throttle switch), installed the heater core since Shawn had the carpet in by this time, and then set the dash in place.
Shawn and looked at the completely disintegrated seals on the air box, and decided to stop at this point until we can find a solution to replace the foam seals on both sides of the air box.
Then we installed the glass. I used a slightly thicker ¼” nylon cord this time; I found a really tightly braided smooth piece of rope at a local hardware store that worked really, really well. It’s a keeper, replacing my trusty old 3/16” nylon rope that I’ve used for years. After the glass, I installed the front and rear seats. We’ll be on the lookout for a rear seat as both are in rough shape, especially the bottom half. And neither piece match which does stand out.
So it’s starting to really come together, soon we’ll be installing the motor/trans and cut the hole in the virgin floor for the shifter.
Byron

[Byron510]

And soem more from today.
It's starting to look complete - now all it needs is a drivetrain!

[510rob]

that is a really nice car - you guys have done a really nice job on it!!!

[Byron510]

that is a really nice car - you guys have done a really nice job on it!!!

Thanks Rob, I just can't wait to see it on the ground on Matt’s old Panasports
Even though it's only been a few months, it feels like years for both my brother and myself. Shawn is going to have a nice ride in the end, though. The car is turning out really nice. It’ll have a small exhaust and a soft suspension, and will look great.

[thisismatt]

Nice job, Byron. Try changing your camera to spot metering if you can and then focus on the headliner, then it will try to expose the headliner (spot) correctly and overexpose the rest of the scene.

[James]

This is coming out really nice. Very envious!
I dated a girl with a 2 door this color, miss it (the car) quite a bit.
Did you ever figure out your engine numbering issue?
Make sure you get rid of the pneumonia - it can stick around a long time, and even come back months later.
Can't wait to see it done.....

[NICKLE&DIME]

Nice work. I really like the color and the detail in the engine bay. I was wondering if you would post pics of the transmission tunnel mod.. Is that a grill to a truck in the background hanging on the wall?

[Byron510]

This is coming out really nice....
Make sure you get rid of the pneumonia - it can stick around a long time, and even come back months later.

I'll watch the pneumonia, no worries there. I'm going to have an X-ray in a couple of weeks, doc wants to check for any scaring so that we'll know it's beat. Thanks for the advise, it's well taken.

Nice work. I really like the color and the detail in the engine bay. I was wondering if you would post pics of the transmission tunnel mod.. Is that a grill to a truck in the background hanging on the wall?

I wasn't planning on any modification in the tunnel, just cutting the shifter hole for the ZX 5 spd.

Good eye on the grill. It's a 56 F-100 grill out of one of my father’s on-going projects. He decided that his custom truck wasn't custom enough, so this grill came out, and a set of canted quads are on their way in.. another book could be written on this project....

Thanks for all the kind comments, they help me keep going at his fairly fast pace on this project; it's going to be a nice car for my brother.

Byron

[Byron510]

Well, Shawn and I are starting to realize that this project has become more than a paint job, and is looking more like a restoration.
Shawn spent a bunch of time today re-doing all of the seals in and around the heater core, air box and cowl vent seals. The closed cell foam tape is a bit stiffer than the old open cell stuff, so some adjustments had to be made. Here is Shawn’s work yesterday.
For a car in our sometimes cooler and wetter climate, good performance from the heating and air system is always a good plan.

[Byron510]

While Shawn was working on assembling the heater core, I got to work on plumbing in the clutch line. I bought a 5’ long piece of pre flared brake line tubing – it was about 8” to long, in case you were wondering, so I did a bit of a tubing circle at the clutch end to hide it. It took some time, but I followed the original path of the clutch line (ecept for the bottom bit to use up soem length!), and it turned out pretty good. Shawn and I then in stalled the dash frame so he could finish installing the heater parts. I went to work on assembling the flywheel, clutch and transmission on the engine. Then mounted the engine on the front X member and got ready to slide the whole works under the car on a dolly.