Mark Maras

Just another jab at Lucas "The prince of darkness".

No, it doesn't sound good. At this point turning the engine over may be a waste of time. However, you may break it loose by pushing the car in gear, & engaging the clutch while it's rolling. While a rebuild for this engine may be inevitable perhaps a short term fix would be a swap. There are more engines avail. out there than cars. I'm sure a lot of members have spare engines for sale. Almost all of us have had buyers remorse as we discovered the true state of our dream. Often the project grows beyond our time, talent & money. Determination & desire keep the dream alive. You're about to discover how much of both you have for this project. Keep the faith.

My first impression is lean mixture. Round tops or flat tops?

This gem from my daughter "The only people that understand women are other women, That's why they don't like each other."

What color are your plugs? This will tell you which carb needs adjusting. If the mixture screw adj. is substatially different between the two the float level is off. The best source of info on SUs is the SU DVD from ZTherapy.

I don't think leakage is supposed to be normal. I noticed the same spots under my hood about six months before my fan clutch seized. I replaced mine with a flex-fan, You may want to start lokking for a replacement now rather than later.

The problem is fuel related. but checking the valve clearance first is a must do. These carbs are very simple to work on so don't be intimidated. Remove the air filter & housing. While another person operates the choke reach under each carb & check for full movement of the nozzles. With the choke on, grease the nozzles. Check the oil level in both carbs. With the carb intakes exposed, lift the pistons all the way up & let them drop. They should drop at about the same speed & should feel smooth. Pull the float bowl covers & verify that there is fuel in the bowl & it is about 19mm from the bowl rim.(warning, the gaskets will Pringle on you so it's a good idea to get new ones first).Turn the mixture screws all the way up & note the turns. If the float level is close the m. screws will be about 2 1/2 turns down. Let us know.

They are either made of gold or they are being held for ransom. I'd guess the latter. The key to this is getting the description and heading to your local hdwe. store that has a good supply of bolts. Even if you end up using the trial & error method to find the right ones, it will not only cost you less than $10,00 but the best part is you will have learned the bolt section of the store. You'll be surprised at the amount of time spent chasing down fasteners. My rule of thumb when dealing with bolt strength is, soft bolts stretch before they break and hard bolts will snap with no warning. I usually go for grade 5 vs grade 8 for general use. I'm not up on the metric equivalant but a quick trip down Google Way will get you the info.

On my 71 the "clothespin" springs, at the base, are not hooked in the loop. They are hooked on the back side. I really don't know which is right. As far as I know the head has never been apart. Is that a collet or piece of one on the right rocker?

If you're going to use a Datsun engine Rebello(sp.) is the answer for a high H.P. Z engine although 400 hp may be optimistic. If your choice is non Datsun, HybridZ has a lot of info on other swaps. These cars like lightweight engines. I've thought seriously about a 13B too. If you need info on that swap, I know a fellow near Portland who has put rotaries in; Triumph Spitfire, Volkswagen Beetle, MGB & many more than I can remember. He also rebuilds rotaries for the Mazda dealers & Bonneville salt flats. PM me if you want to contact him. I think this would be an excellent choice.

Welcome. You've come to the right place. Your story reminds me of my mom & my 396 Chevelle. She asked to take it to the store, next thing I know she's back inside telling me to go get my car out of the street in front of our house. She got it out of the driveway but it scared her to death. So she parked it in the street. Then she's on my dad's case because he's the one that was supposed to force me to sell it. Long story short, he drove it & I still remember the GRIN on his face when he came back, & the hell he went through with her because he said I could keep the car. Thanks dad. You will recieve lots of help from this club. Great info & willing members.

I use auto-resetting circuit breakers when working on specific circuits on my cars. They replace the existing fuse & are avail. at NAPA.

If the cat won't go for it, you may want to try them with milk & sugar. it's a possiblity that the PO's kids dropped cereal down the defroster vents. I've found some interesting things that were lodged in the blower fan that had to have come from the vents.

A couple of questions; Are there any other symptoms, Shifting, high speed vibrations, noise in any other gear? What shaft did you have to press in? Describe the diff. float.

I've never heard of all the rings going at once except lack of oil. Pull the valve cover and turn the engine over with the starter & see if everything looks normal. Before you give up on this engine it's worth checking the valve lash one more time. The adjustment doesn't have to be very far off to raise hell with the compression. If you go with the 200K engine it would be a good idea to take a c-test on it too.

First check the fuel pressure. Pull the outlet line & crank the engine over. It should squirt a fuel a couple of inches, once for every engine revolution. Check the fuel filters in the banjo fittings on the f-bowl tops. Turn the mixture screws all the way up & count the turns. 2 1/2 is about normal. If these are considerably different it is an indication that the float level is wrong. A quick search of "Quick & dirty carb tuning" will get you the details you will need.The best info I've found is from ZCarTherapy. They have a DVD on just SU carbs that explains all you need to know.

My 71 had a single choke lever from the factory that operated both chokes. The missing lever was for a hand throttle (20th century cruise control) & was discontinued shortly after production.

I had this problem a few years back. After trying all the suggestions above with no success, I finally pushed the wheel studs back which allowed the drums to rock & allow more movement. I was able to pull the top of the drum out & with some leverage pull it off.The bottom shoe was the one that was stuck on both sides

Remove the bungies & use duct tape, Red Green comes to mind. You gotta admit, it would be fast & effective.

I had a vibration in my 71 that I could feel in the stick but I pretty much ignored it because I was trying to find the 800 lb. bumblebee that came around at 80 mph +. it was so loud it would drown out my AM radio. I went through the trans & linkage, then replaced all six u-joints. b-bee was still there. Next step was to take the drive shaft to have it balanced. as it turned out the shaft was bent ever so slightly.They retubed the drive shaft, put in Spicer u-joints, & gave me a lecture on why I should never buy anything but the best. I couldn't stop grinning at the difference. It not only eliminated the stick & the b-bee vibration, but a few more that I assumed were normal. Check the d-shaft balance & go from there.

The PO of my car used crushed rock & solvent. He reportedly rolled the tank around the yard for a couple of hours to clean it. I don't know how well the chain will work but I peeked into my tank after he cleaned it & it is shiny now. Good luck

Oil pump shaft & dizzy installed wrong, no cam oiler tube, valves adjusted in fractions of an inch not thousanths. I'm sure there is a lot more POs creativity that I haven't discovered yet.

Z Manna?

Hey Geoff It sounds as if you may have caught the dreaded "As long as I'm in here I might as well". Actually, I'm glad that you are able to move on to bigger & better things. Thanks for keeping us up on the latest successes.

That is, without a doubt, the best looking roadster I've ever seen. I drove a friends 2 litre occasionally back in the mid 70s. In comparison to a MGB, which was my wife's first car, the Datsun wins in all catagories. Don't get me wrong, an MGB, with the top down, is great fun but a Datsun takes the fun to a higher level. I've always had a roadster on my wish list along with a 510. Enjoy