1600dave

I'm flagging for the first three days, then competing in the regularity for the last two days. Worth it just for the free camping, plus should be nice and close to the action. Here's how mine sits at the moment - the head is in the purple container, the rest of it is spread across the garage floor, and the block is in the boot of the family car ready for a trip to the machinist next week. Should just about have enough time to get it back together before Easter :-\

Thanks !

Hi all, Just trying to source a set of 87mm flattop pistons to use in the rebuild of my L18 motor (yep, the 4 cylinder one, its not a typo). Can anyone enlighten me on what exact model of 280ZX came out with flattops in Australia so I can ring around a few places tomorrow ? From searching, all I can find is that up to '80 had dished pistons and '81 on had flattops (in the USA anyway). Is it the same for Australian-delivered ones ? I'd hate to order a set and end up with dished ones . Thanks

Has anyone used / seen others use / heard anything about the GroupHarrington stainless steel ones that Lurch posted an eBay link to ?

No worries - cheapest total price I could find was around $3000, and that was through a friend who imports cars.

You would also need to factor in a lot of extra charges on top of the actual cost of shipping - taxes / duties / GST / customs charges / quarantine / etc / etc. $1200 won't even go close to getting a car here from the states.

Likewise - send my form and money off today I take the view that its one of the very few chances I'll get to drive Bathurst. I was there last weekend with the Sydney Datsun Club, just driving round the track at 60k, can't imagine what it will be like at speed (well, in my case, at a slightly less rate of slowness ). It will probably be the only event I do next year, till the wallet recovers, but I reckon for the money, this single event will be far more interesting and exciting than doing a whole year's worth of track days at the usual old Wakefield Park.

Argh, what have I done Entry form is filled in, looks like I may be joining "Team Red" if I am lucky enough to have my entry accepted

Thanks - I've emailed Peter Hetherington, and had already emailed the FOSC guys a few days ago regarding volunteering as an official. Will see how things go. I would love to drive Bathurst at least once and this seems like a perfect opportunity. I'm definitely in the "have fun" camp rather than the "must win" camp. I have to be with my old 1600, I think the first thing I've ever got a trophy for was at NDN09

Nope, I'm not in a team / entered at all. I was making enquiries about officiating instead to get a bit of experience and see what it's all about before having a go myself. I suppose I could do the "official" thing on the first few race days, and compete in regularity the last two days ? I do have a few concerns - My lack of experience in regularity events. I've done a reasonable amount of general track days / supersprints over the last few years though. Don't know if I'd have the experience to have a go (or for my entry to be accepted). My lack of a "Z" (my old Datsun 1600 would be considerably slower than any Z, let alone a modified one). dat2kman - if you remember the Nissan / Datsun nationals, I was the guy chatting to you about your Sports 2000, as I have a couple of fairladies, and driving a pale green, ex-rally Datsun 1600. I think I managed 4:20 or something like that for the three standing-start laps of Morgan Park ? My lack of straight-line speed. I spent the weekend just gone at Mt Panorama at the Sydney Datsun Club's Xmas weekend away and was amazed at the length of the straights. My car would be seriously struggling for top end speed (maximum speed would be an optimistic 160 - 170 kph) I could be convinced to give it a go though. Do my qualifications (and choice of car) sound OK ? Lurch can vouch for my driving abilities (or lack thereof), as he was silly enough to have done a few laps of Winton in the passenger seat And Lurch, I'd let you co-drive my 1600 if I thought you could handle the awesome-ness and sheer speed of it

I'm a bit of an amateur panelbeater who has done lots of rust repair work on my Datsun project over the last year or two. From the pics, the front guards and dogleg look to be about as easy a rust repair as you'll get - easy sections to form from scratch and weld in. The rear guard at the bottom and the fuel filler area don't look too difficult either (depending on how easy it is to access the rear of those areas for a bit of hammer and dolly action). The wheel arch is potentially the most difficult to hand form because of the amount of "shape" in it, and the door skins are potentially difficult as well due to needing to weld in a few inches of new metal the entire length of the door skin - may cause warping. If available and economical, I'd put new door skins on, and repair the rest by cutting out all rust and forming new replacement sections. Ironically, the only commercial "rust replacement section" I bought for my 180B SSS coupe needed almost as much reworking to get it to fit properly as it would have taken to hand-form a complete replacement section. That is my opinion based on the photos and how I like to work though, at the end of the day (since you're not doing the work yourself), I'd chose a panelbeater and let him decide as to how he would prefer to do the work and advise you on the cost of each option. Both new panels or repir sections welded in should be just as long lasting. The longevity will rely on how well rustproofed the repairs are rather than whether the panelbeater repairs or replaces the panels.

Thanks for that, pretty much what I thought regarding driver experience. Could potentially make it difficult though, if for example half your team's driver entries are accepted and half aren't - you don't have a team anymore I'm sure the organiser's have it covered somehow though. I was looking on their website and the only event listed for next year (besides Bathurst) is one event at Wakefield Park. It'll be interesting to see what effect the closure of Oran Park has on circuit availability for many of the "club" type events I have no intention of entering this Easter but it is something I'm going to do in the next year or two, hence my curiousity. I love getting out on new tracks and Bathurst would have to be the ultimate challenge. I intend to get down to spectate this Easter

With this being a "team" based thing, how do the organisers go about deciding who is accepted if the event is over-subscribed ? ie, say in a 6-person team, if 5 members of a team are highly experienced, but one has never been on a track before. Is it possible that the one with no experience won't be accepted, leaving the "team" as a 5-car team ? Or are entries accepted or rejected on a "team" basis rather than looking at each individual driver's ability ? And by looking at the supp-regs, a car with a non-log booked alloy cage would be eligible for the regularity relay if its on historic / club rego ?

I find it strange that although it is pitched firmly as a "Z" nationals, it is still "open to all Nissan/Datsun Vehicles". If it is to be a "Z" event, why invite others ? The more cynical might suggest that "all Nissan/Datsun Vehicles" are invited (perhaps tolerated might be a better word) purely to make the event more financially viable ?

I suppose I should own up to that one as well - I've got one of those "pop-up" caravan things ( a Jayco Eagle). Drove up to South West Rocks (about 3 hours from home), started setting up the van by using the 15" shifter to attach the jockey wheel, put the shifter down in the closest handy spot (on the roof of the van), wound the van roof up and finished setting it up. A week later, holiday's over and it's time to fold the van down. Hmm, where's the shifter so I can remove the jockey wheel ?? Dunno, I'll borrow one off someone else and get a new shifter when I get home . Drive the 3 hours home and while unhooking the van, I discover the shifter sitting on the roof . I still don't know how it didn't come off and go thru either my rear window or the window of someone following me Maybe I should give up towing stuff altogether

Here's my brand new trailer, just arrived home from picking it up in sydney. I'm so pleased with it, I'll take a few phone pics of it coming home for the first time. Finally got it up the steep driveway and almost into position. I'll just unhook it off the trailer. Ooops - half hour later, this is where it lives now. Wedged in the neighbours fence. Luckily the fence stopped it, cause its a steep run down to their house Had to get a tow truck to rescue it - was almost worth the cost of the tow truck just hearing the driver's stories about all the other "rescues" he'd done (mostly worse outcomes than mine)

And here's the 4 cylinder version http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&sl=ja&tl=en&u=http://page.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/123894452&rurl=translate.google.com.au&usg=ALkJrhgDjB7jWa1MQ7stMw2YWLZh0nkFmA

They put the slide in backwards I'd say the photo has been "reversed" in photoshop (or whatever they used to edit it). Given that its in the UK (RHD), the brake master cylinder, etc is also on the wrong side (LHD) in that pic.

Hi all - I've got a few questions about SU's. I'm looking for a pair of 1 3/4" SU's to use on a 2 litre stroker motor in my Datsun Fairlady. Anyway, I've found these for sale - can anyone shed any light on what these carbs are ? Hitachi or genuine SU ? Is it possible to fit genuine british SU needles to hitachi carbs ? The stock 240Z carbs will need rejetting to suit the 2l motor, and I was wondering what to use ? Or an even more obscure question - anyone know if parts from the 240Z Hitachi and the Hitachi's fitted to the fairlady U20 motor (USA only) are interchangeable (this might be a source of appropriate needles) ?

Nope, that would be Graeme Harlor's setup. He has a "few" parts for numerous model Datsun's

Yep, extremely hot day Great location though - I spent most of the day under the Sydney Datsun Club marquee I was a bit disappointed that I got more attention driving my brother's 350Z than I usually get driving my Datsun 1600 . And the fact that I kept getting told to park in the "Z" club display, by just about everyone from the gate attendants to a "Z" club member who chased me down as I was parking with the SDC. This was my first decent drive of my brother's 350Z (Newcastle to Sydney), got to admit its a beautiful car to drive . So precise in the steering, nice and firm ride, very willing motor. And hows the truck setup ? Nissan truck, with the Datsun 1600 race car on the tray, towing a trailer with the 1600 coupe on it

Likewise - mine was around the same price to build (using 2nd grade steel, and a few bits I had lying round). Holds my 180B coupe shell + motor + gearbox + front x-member without a problem. http://datnet.org/Technical-f35/Tech-Articles-f9/TECH-ARTICLE-How-build-rotisserie-t21.html

Devcon Flexane may work ? I have a book detailing its use in making reproduction car parts. http://www.freemansupply.com/DevconFlexane80Fle.htm

Datsport sell one that is designed for the SC14 supercharger off a Toyota, but it mounts the ribbed pulley section behind the "V" pullley (ie the other way around to the one in my photo). For me, that moved the supercharger another 2 inches or so further back, resulting in more problems with supercharger and engine mount trying to occupy the same spot. So, the one pictured is home-made to better suit the Eaton M45 supercharger I'm using. Basically, its a stock L18 pulley that has had the inner surfaces ( ie the face where the crank pulley nut is, and the "underneath" part of the "V" pulley) machined flat on my lathe, combined with the ribbed section that I machined off a CA18 pulley. The CA18 was used as its an appropriate diameter to give the amount of boost I wanted. To join them, I turned up a lump of aluminium so that it was a shrink-fit inside the L18 pulley and also had a little locating ring to accurately locate the ribbed piece. Eventually the ribbed section will be attached to the aluminium piece with bolts, and there will be another set of bolts from the rear of the L18 pulley into the aluminium block (in case the shrink-fit isn't enough to hold it in place). At the moment, its all held together with the big vicegrip you can see in the photo In the photo below, the ribbed section is on the right, the red pulley on the left is the original L18 one, and the shiny alloy bit inside the stock puolley is the custom-made part that joins the two pulleys.

Here's my effort (on an L18) It is pretty tight getting it all to fit on the passenger side. I am in the process of making custom extractors as I couldn't find a standard set that went anywhere close to clearing the blower that's mounted in the air-con compressor's spot. For me, an issue was that I couldn't mount the blower any lower down, as it fouled on the engine mounting bracket - I'm not sure if the mount is set further back on a six cylinder block, may not be a bad as it is on a four cyl ?? I used an Eaton M45 off a mini cooper S - would be too small for an L28, but perhaps its bigger brother, an Eaton M90 off a supercharged commodore, may be a cheaper alternative to the sprintex ? The Sprintex would be nice though !! As far as intercooling goes, I'm using a Subaru RS Trubo water-to-air setup. It will be mounted in the front of the passenger side of the engine bay (between the strut tower and the radiator support panel). Gives a very simple pipe arrangement - a few inches of pipe from the blower to the intercooler, the another few inches from the intercooler back to the throttle body. Again, I'm not sure how well it would cope with the demands of the bigger engine. The issue I had with an air-to-air one was pipe setup - since the blower and throttle are on the same side of the engine, it makes arranging piping more difficult (and longer).