1600dave

I'd heed Lurch's advice. Its gone, move on with your life. I very much doubt you'll ever get any compensation, no matter how much time and money you expend trying. If you do find a lawyer and get to court, by the sound of it your brother / his lawyers will just play the mental illness / not responsible for their actions card. And a general comment for all - take out laid up cover. My 1600 was on laid up cover at a cost of around $125 a year or thereabouts. They paid out $25K earlier this year, I got to keep the dead remains (they even arranged to have it transported from Albury to my home in Newcastle).

Have had very recent experience making a claim with Shannons. Mixed bag...... They have agreed to a full payout, I get to keep the wreck (I had salvage rights written into the policy) and they have agreed to having it towed from Albury to Newcastle at their expense and delivered to me. IOnly complaint is that its taken nearly 5 weeks to be assessed, although possibly because its was a little out of the ordinary - I had it towed from the towing yard to a very generous fellow Datsun owner's shed for storage out of the weather, and it was assessed from photos rather than in person. All correspondence after logging the claim seemed to be with the parent company rather than Shannons specific people, who tried to follow the script and tick the boxes for assessing a modern car (No, it doesn't have a proper VIN, just a 9 digit chassis number, etc) Ohh, and after many phone calls chasing up what was happening, they always seem to be "experiencing a higher than normal call volume" because despite ringing early in the day, lunchtime, afternoon, after hours, I think the quickest a call has been answered is 50 minutes, most times well over an hour and the record was 80 minutes..... I asked about when the money may be in my account and was told "we're currently experiencing a higher than noormal claim volume and it may take up to a month".... All up, not too bad, just very slow (and looks like I won't be fully paid out till at least 2 months after the accident) The tow car (insured with a different insurance company) was assessed, written off and money in my account a cople of weeks ago. But they were generally unhelpful and made me jump thru hoops over every little thing. Dunno which was worse.

Do your carbs have three little pipes (fuel in and overflow coming out of the carb at 90 degrees and another pipe sightly higher up at an angle) ? I worked on a friends car many years ago when he fitted HIF SU's, we traced tuning issues to the pipe that is at an angle not connecting to anything, and being open to the atmosphere. From memory, it was sort-of tucked away at the rear of the carb. Also, as well as being an overflow, he overflow is a bit of a breather / vent to allow for the ever so slight rise and fall of fuel level in the float chamber. Connecting the overflow to anything that generates vacuum or +ve pressure, no matter how slight, isn't a good idea - I once connected them up to the catch can whch also had the crankcase vent running into it, this caused all manner of issues for me that took ages to solve.... As Paul says above, they're pretty sensitive to float level. Not sure if you can on an HIF, but I set float level on the lder HS6 SU's by taking the dashpot and piston off and carefully measuring down to the level of fuel in the jet with a vernier calliper. You'd have to find what this shuold be for an HIF Disclaimer - its been a long time since I last messed with an HIF SU, I could be wrong....

I think it may be a Datsun 1600 R160 diff. Could be wrong, but I vaguely recall a lot of the R160 diffs in my collection have 213 on them. You really need a shot of the rear cover to be accyrately pick R160 vs R180. And take the cover off to get the diff ratio, its stamped on the crownwheel as a ratio like 39:10 (ie a 3.9 ratio)

Guy on the church facebook page seems like a bit of a goose....... He readily admits that neither the SU's or Mikuni's were tuned properly so I'd take his "comparison" with a grain of salt.

I can't make a suggestion for sizing for a zed, but having an MX5 with a leaky soft-top that lives on the street I'm a bit of a self-proclaimed "expert" on car covers. I have found the best of the ones I've used ver the last 8 years of MX5 ownership to be the top of the range ones from Supercheap.....They sell a few different rated ones, I use the one that has the highest rating for waterproof-ness (and is the most expensive, although not excessively so). I've also used one from Repco, plus a more expensive one from a dedicated "car cover" selling website (would have to look at it to be sure, its past its use by date for keeping the MX5 dry on the street but has been relegated to keeping the dust off the Datsun in the shed). The most expensive one lasted the shortest time before degrading / starting to rip. The Repco one lasted OK, but the front and rear elastics failed - the "belly strap" meant it didn't come off the car but in any sort of wind the front or rear would lift off the car and flap around. It also wasn't 100% waterproof, despite being claimed to be. Not too bad, but the car would be damp under the cover after rain and stayed damp for a while so cover wasn't great for breathability.The Supercheap ones lasted longest (still only maybe 2 years in full sun / rain all the time), fitted well and were 100% waterproof. Also had little vents and seemed to breathe well, if the cover was put on while the car was wet, it still dried out well. Whatever you get, be prepared to replace it every couple of years.

1. XR500 pistons were popular here in Australia in rally 4 cylinder engines back in the 80's. I knew a few guys that ran them, have no idea what they used for rods or how they made them work though. 2. Depends on the thickness of the piston crown for both options. Depending on your setup (valve sizes, cam lift, etc) you may need both. Ideally you'd mock it up and check valve to piston clearance. I run L28 flat tops in an L18 and would have had just enough clearance with a 72 degree cam, but I put valve reliefs in the pistons anyway in case I moved to a higher lift cam at any stage. 3. See point 2, depends on specs for piston 4. Should do 5. Ultrasonic tester is cheap from China. Mine set me back $60 or so, and they were Australian $$ so not many USD at all. Or strip it down and take it to a machine shop to get measured up. I'd do this first, before buying pistons (or anything really....). I've seen people say they needed to go thru a stack of blocks to find one that would go that big. 6. Can't see why it would be. Will .25mm be enough (depending on whether its a press fit pin or fully floating) to allow for any misalignment / movement. Of course, depends on the rod itself and how easy it would be to remove metal. I can have a look if you want, have a set of Maxpeeding FJ20 rods in the shed. Keep in mind for your budgeting that you'll almost certainly need to buy 2 sets of FJ20 rods, doubt you'll be able to buy just 2 to make a set of 6. Plus I'm not sure where you get FJ20 rods with 21mm small end ? I still reckon its a lot of messing around for not a lot of benefit given your engine goals when L28 rods and flat tops would do the trick. I understand what you're trying to achieve, I love tinkering and messing round, just trying to be devil's advocate

Yeah, fair call. I believe (could be wrong) flat tops were 1.5, dished pistons were 2mm ? The set of rings I used on the last lot of these pistons I put in an L18 were a set of 6 for L28 so at least some L28's have them. The first lot of rings I bought at the time were 1.5mm though and didn't fit (ie these ones....) I don't know enough about L28's to know what came in which car. As an aside, L28 flat tops seem to be very desirable and in short supply at the moment. And 86.5mm 2,2,4mm ring sets are also hard to find.

Pistons gone. Open to offers on rings

Selling 7 x .020 oversized L28 flat top pistons (yes, 7 of them, courtesy of an engine assembly mishap....) These are sold as L18 / L20B 60 thou o/s pistons which equates to 20 thou over L28 pistons (ie 86.5mm). Only difference is that these take 2mm top ring rather than 1.5mm that L28 use. Complete with pins but no rings. Full disclosure - as they are sold to suit L18 and L20B, these are a set of 4, plus 3 from another set. I've weighed them, there is only 2g difference between 6 of them, plus one that is another 1.5g heaver again. Looking for $350 the lot. Also selling a set of chrome Hastings rings to suit L28 pistons in the same size (a purchasing mishap....) $50. Free postage on pistons, postage at cost on the rings.

Based on your stated requirements, I'll suggest stock L28 rods, L28 flat top pistons (oversized if you desire) which will then give you more room in the budget for stuff that will make a much bigger improvement.like some head work and a mild cam. Also, Z22 pistons are dished so not the best choice

Bluebird. One of the "middle" models in the Bluebird range. Base model had plain steel wheels, top of the range had alloys, and in the middle got these with chrome trim rings. GLX or GX or something along those lines ?

I can't comment on emissions type plumbing on a 260Z, the one I used to mess around with had this all removed and ran a pair of British SU's that had been fitted early in its life. Connection to the carb is one way, fuel only flows into the float chamber not back out again. Again, can't comment on where the overflow is vented to on a 260Z but the overflow only comes into play when something goes wrong to cause the float chamber to "flood" or overfill with fuel (sticking float chamber valve / sunken or holed float). If all is working correctly, you should have nothing coming out the overflow. On one of my other Datsuns with SU carbs (a 180B SSS) the overflows are simply plumbed back into the air filter. My race car (Datsun 1600) has the overflows dumping onto the ground via a long hose to stop them spilling onto the exhaust and causing a fire - its never had anything come out the overflow for this to be an issue (and maybe scrutineers haven't noticed......) Carbs don't really need any pressure to work. They would run quite happily if you sat a mower tin or similar in the engine bay and ran a fuel line into the carbs (providing the fuel level in the tin was slightly higher than the carbs), bypassing the pump completely and running on whatever pressure you get by a few inches of "head" in the fuel line. The British HIF SU's you have should be fine, assuming they are in reasonable condition and jetted OK (only way to change the jetting is to swap needles for ones with different taper). They will most definitely be way easier and cheaper to get parts for than Datsun / Hitachi type SU's. The HIF SU's were fitted from the factory to a number of British cars of the early-ish 70's

They're British HIF SU carbs, the most recent variation on the old SU carb. The "IF" in HIF is "Integral Float Chamber" - they don't have the float camber stuck on the side, its built into the bottom of the carb. These guys probably have parts / rebuild kits - https://www.sumidel.com/ As far as how they work, they are pretty simple carbs. Pump sounds fine, it'll pulse fuel as it runs off an eccentric in the engine. You don't need much pressure, all the pump does is keep the float chamber full, the carbs suck fuel out, unlike an EFI system that squirts fuel in so will squirt more or less if pressure is higher or lower. Float chamber works exactly like the cistern on your toilet. Its a little bucket of fuel that feeds the carb. It has a little float that acts on a valve to cut off fuel when its full, then opens to let more fuel in as the engine uses fuel. Just like your toilet cistern has a float that acts on a valve to allow water in when you flush, then shuts it off when the cistern is full - only difference is the float chambers keep fuel at a more or less constant level by continuously opening and closing at even slight variations in fuel level. From there, fuel goes into a little vertical tube at the base of the carb (the jet) and just sits there waiting for engine vacuum to suck it into the engine.. A tapered needle rises and falls in the jet, which alters the amount of fuel going into the engine. Needle is attached to the bottom of the piston which runs within the "suction dome" on top of the carb. This is open to engine vacuum so it rises and falls (and therefore needle rises and falls) according to the needs of the engine. This is the only real "trick" part of an SU. One suggestion - since you're not familiar with carbs, are you using the choke to try to start it ? There is no notion of "cold start" like there is with EFI, the only way to give it more fuel when its cold is to pull on the choke which will richen up the mixture. You can't even pump the accellerator like you can with other carbs as there is no accellerator pump.

Yeah, just stick a fuel hose into a jerry can or mower fuel tin and away you go. If it has twin carbies, I'll assume they are SU's. Two types - early ones with float chamber separate and off to the side of the carb, later ones had an integral float chamber that you don't see. 260Z typically would have the later ones but heaps of cars had them converted to use the early ones. Not much in the way of seals and diaphragms in the earlier SU carbs (assuming that's what it has). Small fuel line from float camber to carb could have hardened and cause the choke to stick, rubber tip on the "needle" in the needle and seat that keeps float level correct could be perished but it should still fire, may leak fuel if anything is perished but should run briefly even if you have to shut it down to prevent it spewing fuel everywhere. It may take a bit of cranking at first, the pump will have to fill the float chambers first, its not like a car with an electric pump - fuel only gets pumped while the engine is being cranked over as the pump runs off an eccentric on the end of the cam. Bit of "Start ya Bastard" down the throats of the carbs will get it to fire sooner and fill the float chambers. Disclaimer-I've never pulled the later "flat tops" carbs apart to see exactly how they work, may be more rubber "workings" that can deteriorate in them. You're not missing anything, fuel and spark and it should at least fire and try to run.