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after reading a few posts on this (most recently the great write-up by hardway) i decided to go for it. my fan has been making some pretty horrible noises - whining, screeching etc. and the output was weak. picked up a honda fan assembly for $30 on fleabay, gave it a quick clean and got myself geared up for the job. i won't go into all the details, as this has been posted before, but i will whole-heartedly validate the improvement. the new fan is quiet and blows like crazy. couldn't believe how much more efficient it is at moving air. the design is basically the same, but the honda fan has a lot more vanes, which are smaller and it's a slightly larger diameter - about 1/4". this meant i had to open up the hole 1/8" all around, but that was pretty easy: just scribed the circle around the new fan, put the housing gently in the vice and went at it with an angle grinder, then cleaned it up w/a file. done in 15 min. the new fan fit perfectly - had it's own nice rubber gasket and the holes lined right up. i made some additional rubber isolator washers for the mounting bolts and used the large washers from the z. the honda fan comes with a little vent tube, which i believe cools the motor by pulling in a little air through the windings. i used a paddle bit to drill an 11/16" hole in the z housing and the hose plugged right in. the plug on my honda motor happened to be the same 2 wire T plug as the z, but i made a little jumper/extension to give me a little more room for the wires. the honda motor can run either way, so i tested the polarity, then clicked it all together. the biggest pita of the whole thing was getting the assembly out from under the dash, then putting it back in. holy crackers - what a miserable job. it would have been easier with the glove box or dash out, but i'm stubborn and was determined to win. and i did. while i was in there, i replaced the foam gaskets between the plenum and the fan and put a hose clamp on the vent hose that runs horizontally in front of the fan - this hose was continually falling off, not anymore. anyway, it was a successful adventure and now i hope to be able to keep my windshield from fogging up every time it rains!

This is funny, I just bought on of those advance style lights too. I spent a week trying to figure out whether or not I installed the dizzy correctly. Put the light it to see where timing was actually found it to 20 degrees advanced at idle with room for adjustment either way, to me at least confirming I have the dizzy drive gear in right. Then it slid of my front fender to be viciously attacked by my fan blade :'-( in anycase it still works great and I'm very glad I bought mine.

yes, i've come to expect a bit of disappointment from time to time with this project - but after reading hazmat's saga with rebello i'm not complaining. just means a little bit more of my time getting to know the parts before assembly... the blob of stuff behind the core plug is an example of the mineral deposits - i chipped/scraped off quite a bit and blew out all the debris. the "kitty litter" all over the cam came off pretty easily - it was just loose bits of mineral deposits that had shaken out of the coolant passages and stuck to the oil film on the parts. a little cleaner, a rag & compressed air and all is well again. while i had it on the bench, i installed my oil spray bar from larry hassler - it wouldn't fit on the last head because the rocker geometry was so off that the rockers were all the way at the top of their adjustment in the back and bumped into his rail - yikes. it was reassuring to see the bar go on with clearance this time. just to be sure, i used a sharpie to mark the rocker pads and spun the cam with a crescent wrench and the wipe patterns looked good. i managed to get everything cleaned, installed all my bits to the head, torqued it up to the block, popped on the cam sprocket with little drama (my little pink barbie hockey stick worked perfectly this time!) and buttoned up the header, intake manifold & various peripherals. don't want to jinx this, but i actually felt like i kinda knew what i was doing this time. i'm really beginning to appreciate the simplicity and straightforward design of these engines - a joy to work on. i wanted to get it running today, but ran out of daylight and was working outside in the rain under my carport - not getting directly wet, but chilly/damp with the occasional breeze sending some spray to the face so i called it quits before filling up the cooling system. will jump back into it tomorrow and see if i can get a jolt of life out of it (cue gene wilder's mad laugh from young frankenstein).

Well slow down dude! So it is a tooth off? It takes some luck and a couple of tries to get it right. Timing lights are good for troubleshooting. These cars are also prone to detonation so it's nice to know when you are close to those limits. The ole "advance till it pings and then back off a couple of degrees", works on most cars, but an unexperienced ear might not pick up detonation before it's too late. My argument for accurate or at least verifiable timing.

I did a search over at photobucket.com of the word "datsun" and came across these photos. I thought they would be appreciated here, of all places. from: flavioman's gallery from: trejo_rogelio's gallery http://photobucket.com/images/datsun/