Yeah, and that debris will rot holes in the car fast. Some rustoleum in there would be a good idea or some rust converter

Hey, been following your progress. Great work! So, uh...Are you close to smogging it yet?

1 minute ago, AndysPlit said:

Hey, been following your progress. Great work! So, uh...Are you close to smogging it yet?

hah, right!?

I'm still waiting on my injectors to come back from the service shop. They've been very backed-up, but supposedly they're shipping out this week. He said they were a mess (leaking, spray pattern all over the place), and he was surprised the car even ran. Once those arrive, I should be pretty much ready to reinstall everything.

That said, I would've wanted to do all these little tasks before smog anyways (clean electrical connections, new injector pigtails, fix fusible links, repair chaffed wires, fix vacuum leaks, clean AFM, refurb gas tank)

And then there's the side quests that sometimes I just cant help myself from getting distracted with: removing bumpers, cleaning out the engine bay and undercarriage. I can justify these because they cost me nothing other than a little elbow grease.😅

Oh yah, and the car doesn't have wheels or tires yet, so I might need to address that🤪

But we're getting closer, and I'm taking my time and enjoying the process, spending minimal amounts of money because I realize this all hinges on appeasing the smog overlords...

Edited August 19Aug 19 by kcpope

Would be a good idea to check the EGR passages. The sealing surfaces are known to corrode and leak.

9 hours ago, Zed Head said:

Would be a good idea to check the EGR passages. The sealing surfaces are known to corrode and leak.

Removed the EGR valve just to do a cursory check. Regular carbon build up, but was probably still functional. Applied vacuum and the valve opened properly. There’s really no good method to clean the internal EGR passageways without major disassembly so I opted to just focus on the EGR valve itself, specifically the valve area that does the actual opening and closing. Shown in the second pic. Hit it with some brake cleaner and a toothbrush and reinstalled…

Intake manifold, typical carbon buildup, hopefully inconsequential.

EGR valve, bottom part is the actual valve

After…

Actually, I miswrote/misremembered. My understanding is that the wall separating the two passages corrodes away. The gases come in one side, pass up through the control valve and then on to the intake manifold channel. If the separating wall is breached you get full time EGR. @siteunseen knows.

@Zed Head Woah, that's interesting! Crazy that it's even possible given a cast aluminum intake that I would think to be immune to that kind of corrosion. I'll take a look in there for the heck of it...

I found one old thread about it. There's another out there somewhere from somebody that had the problem. It's not common. Your pictures actually look pretty good.

https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/56998-engine-rough-running-at-wits-end/page/2/

Here's another. Still not the one I remember, but descriptive.

https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/39246-a-few-questions-about-afm/page/5/#comment-359822

Welp, another little progress update. It's been wicked hot here for the past couple weeks so progress has been slow. 🥵 But I got a few things knocked out!

I think very soon I'll be turning the corner and putting everything back together. While I've got everything apart, I can't help but freshen things up. Currently I'm cleaning up the fuel rail and steel coolant lines of surface rust and giving them a coat of 2K matte clearcoat. The same clearcoat I'm using on the wheels, so I'm spraying it all together. Anyways, I'll post some before and after pics of that down the road.

For now, wheels and injectors!

Wheels: Wheels came out great, I'm super happy with them!😃 I called R&E paint supply, told them I'm looking for Datsun 690 golden mist metallic. They said they could get within 95% of the original, and I'd say they nailed it. I also got primer and 2K matte clear coat from them. The 2K clearcoat is the boss move here because it'll protect these wheels from typical automotive solvents that will eat up a 1K finish. I didn't bother trying to polish up the bare aluminum parts of the wheels because I would've been at it for weeks, and the dull aluminum finish fits with the rest of the patina finish anyways. This is one of those low cost, high visual impact projects that I quite enjoy.

Injectors: Got em back this week, woohoo! Maybe another clue as to why it wasn't passing smog. I sent in 6 OEMs (thanks to @siteunseen for providing me with some spares) and 1 aftermarket. Looks like the single aftermarket injector I sent in was flowing more volume than the other OEM injectors. I obviously won't be using it. Looks like the spray pattern wasn't great for several of them as well. Money well spent in my opinion to know that they're cleaned up and ready to go.

These were not fun to tape up. Had to use a razor blade to get everything crisp. The green 3M automotive tape was the right choice for the critical areas...

Here's what I used, all from R&E paint. Can on the left says sealer but it's actually primer. Guess it was mislabeled they said...

The end result. Really like that 70s gold look. Very Trans-AM like...

A bit closer up...

Oh yeaaaaaaah, the vibe is right🔥These with some white letter tires should be just right...

Injector report, I'll be using the OEMs...

Anyways, that's all for now. Slowly but surely...

Edited August 28Aug 28 by kcpope

Shoud there be gold on the 8 big holes in the wheel rims? I thought only the "cross" is in gold?

@dutchzcarguy You are correct, but aesthetically I felt that the OEM paint scheme makes the 4 gold spokes too prominent, and I've never been a fan of the "4 spoke" look, so I added some extra gold in there to add more interest and lessen the 4 spoke look. It was a stab in the dark, but I'm happy with the look.