Bruce Palmer

I doubt it, but the best way to check would be with the air cleaner off and with the dampers removed just lift and drop the pistons several times. They should fall unhindered. Without something happening to bend a needle, I can't think for the life of me what would have gone gunnybag in that department. With the choke off do you have some slack in the cables at the carbs. With the cables tight and the nozzles pulled down some you might get that racing in engine speed. Are our nozzles (or one) hanging down after the choke is off? Reach under there and see if one pops up. Just shooting in the dark....

Return springs are where they are supposed to be? None broken/missing. Had that happen once allowing one carb to do do just what the heck it wanted to do. I'd say you need carbs but that would be too self serving.... nyuck nyuck

Sounds liike you are ready to start with carb tuning. Our JUST SUs DVD will walk you thru the process plus....

Most definitely get in touch with us.. 503-587-9800 Based on what you've said, you are no where near ready to start it up. I don't know what Steve's schedule looks like but your insurance man will thank you for walking away from this for the moment. I just talked to Steve and he says he and Bill both went over with you yesterday what you need to do. If that's the case and you are going to do what they said, there is no better information going to be forthcoming here. If not work on it well away from any structures......

You may even find a line scribed around the inside of the inner tube which approximates the "fill to" line.

Okay, now this is getting way too silly. First thing to do is take the aircleaner off and raise the piston. With the damper removed, look down inside the tube you just raised. The top of that tube is were the oil should fill (at the most). Once the puck goes in, it will displace it's volume of oil and that's where it'll remain for a long time. Filling to the threads well, you know what happens. Any oil above the top of that inner tube will just get sucked into the engine and burnt

Me thinks that were I to live where the pavement temps got high enough to cause vapor lock, I'd be searching for a new location. nyuck nyuck 'Sposed to rip up into the low 80's now thru the weekend here in God's country......

The electric fan on the radiator with an adjustable cool down setting makes about as much sense as anything. Cars sitting heat sinking from the engine compartment plus what the sun's adding would benefit greatly, I'd think from a cooling fan on the radiator trying to get the cooling system cooled down to say 180 for 15 minutes blowing air thru the engine compartment whole you are in the hardware store. Your cooling system will think you are pampering it while in reality you are cooling down everything else..... too.

If you car has already been converted to the earlier round top carbs, we sell a dvd that'll help shorten your learning curve. Until then, get those brakes handled or the rest of "everything" won't matter....

One thing to consider would be to take a few minutes and call around to some of your parts sources and ask for price and availability if say a water pump, clutch kit and maybe front or rear wheel bearings. If you do have fixin' in the future, you should know how readily available parts are.

Two majot frailties with FIATS.... 1. They used a lot of Russian steel and you can almost hear them rusting... 2. They tend to go waaaaay overboard on the use of relays. Had a 124 Sport Coupe that I swear had relays for the relayed relays and never leave home without a spare fuel pump relay or two. Just my experience.. Would rather drive a British car with two moving parts than an Italian car with 127......

My only thought would be that with what you have going on you could be piling too much oil up on top of the head. I had that problem and went back to the non turbo pump and everything was fine. I think your pressures are fine just the way they are. Even at 5pounds at idle you are still moving lubricant through the engine. You aren't trying to blow the bearings out of the block just keeping things slicked up.

Welcome to the board. I enjoyed your parameters. Probably won't make any money but don't want to lose any money. Not leaving your self much wiggle room..... Oh, and you need carbs..... I'm paid to say that.... nyuck nyuck

Fill the inner tube to the top if you prefer and the puck on the dipstick will push the excess out when you install it or fill the inner tube to within a half inch of the top of the inner tube. This is one of those aitomotive things that will take care of itself. As stated above, any overfill will get sucked into engine and burnt....

Whatever you do, don't let this "pouring of raw gas into the cylinders" go on or you'll kill the engine..... I also would submit that that smoke could be from stuck rings which we have seen time and again from L-motors that have sat for extended periods. We can supply replacement "early" carbs, but have nothing that relates to any kind of fix for flat tops. Maybe someone here can direct you toward a flat top fix.

At 5,000' if they are fat and blubbery I'd take both nozzles up a half turn and see what improvement you see. Go 1/4 turns from there if needed..... Remember how many total turns you do going higher in elevation so you know how many to take back out when you get back down to the village from whenc you came.....

There are some eye candy shots up on www.datsunsnw.org

What do your plugs look like? Cold start injector not shutting off? Regardles to culprit don't let it go on very long. Get it solved!!

Be all over the question of parts and service availability. Find out how close at hand a repair facility will be.

That's good news. We thought that combination of dropping the float level and the nozzles at the same time would work to get you where you needed to be.

In these uncertain economic times some niche businesses are find the sledding a little tough. Want to buy some carbs? nyuck nyuck.....

About 10 minutes after the awards were finished maybe 12 rain drops splashed down so we can say if rained. Again a great turnout and someone did a vehivle count about mid day with 156 vehicles on site.....

Saturday update: The economy doesn't seem to have dampened the enthusiasm to go out and play. Today's turnout was phenominal, weather was great and parts vendors were more prevalent than I ever remember. The run for cash more than likely the reason for the huge parts displays. Tomorrow looks to be the same......

I think the lower float and lower nozzle thing warrants a try. Some oif this stuff can be over thought. High float and high nozzle puts the fuel level up closer to the air stream so it's easier to pull excess fuel into the air stream. Lower both down the tube and the same amount of air will pull a lesser amount of fuel regardless of where on the needle it is taking place.

After we talked I had a chance to talk to Steve Epperly the owner and resident "straight poop from group" about what you and I discussed. With everything I told him he said you may, in fact, have N-58 needles in your carbs. He called them a California smogger needle and just ran rich and crappy at all settings. Why a smogger needle would be thin causing a rich condition makes no sense to me but just to know there was one piece of crap needle in use at least opens the door to that being a partial culprit. We also agreed that a lower float setting and a lower nozzle setting would help lean thins out a bit too. Oh, and you're not extrordinarilly high where you are, are you? For folks above say 5'000' we can and do at times supply undersized nozzles to compensate for the lack of air. Good luck identifying the needles you have.