desertdatsuns.net

Good day today with some significant progress. I finished patching up the harness from the engine through the firewall into the passenger compartment and finally removed the last of the added on junk from the previous owner. With some starting fluid I was able to get the car to fire and run briefly. That brief run was really loud!!! I remembered when previously under the car noticing someone had plumbed in an electric exhaust system bypass. Being open, this had the effect of running an open header in terms of noise. I ended up removing the bypass and fabricating a block off plate, so the exhaust now runs through the stock pipes and muffler. I didn't have a chance to fire the motor again after completing and bolting up the block-off plate, but will tomorrow.

Not much progress today. Did verify that the block off plate quiets down the exhaust note substantially. Also replaced the clutch slave hose, which was badly cracked. The new looking manual fuel pump was not pumping any fuel. Took the pump off and verified it's working when the arm is moved throughout its full range, but not when bolted back in. Either the spacer is not the right dimension, the pump is not the correct one for the car, or the concentric on the cam is at fault. Will explore more tomorrow. Need to get the car running off a bottle with fuel, so I can dial in idle, tune, and determine if the carburetor is serviceable.

Finally getting back to working on Clarence again. Decided to remove all the emission equipment since I'm replacing the stock carb with a Weber 32/36. This required quite a bit of work, including some fabrication to plug holes left from the removed parts and having a baffle cut out of the cast iron exhaust manifold. Also lots of cleaning and painting to help tidy things up in preparation for the new carb. Here's where I'm at as of today.

What did you coat the exh manifold with? I have a 4/2/1 manifold that you can have if you decide to ditch that horrible 4/1.

It was sprayed with high temperature bar-b-que paint. Supposedly it will withstand temps up to 1200 degrees, but I'm sure it will flake off at some point. I'd like to hear more about the exhaust manifold you have. Is it a stock piece for an L20B? Could I use it with the intake manifold on my car? Thanks for posting.

I just sold my L16 on fb market today which had the manifold attached.

Sold my Z32 over the weekend so I can focus exclusively on the 710 wagon. Changed oil and filter today and heading to Prescott with Robin to pick up some "go fast" parts, Canon intake, header, 32/36 Weber and matchbox distributor. Getting those installed should get me a long way towards getting the car running properly.

Sounds like a nice find in Prescott! Wow, Z32, we hardly knew ya!

Got the new intake and exhaust manifolds all bolted up and thanks to Doc for the short section of downpipe I needed from the exhaust manifold to exhaust pipe transition. I also installed the Weber 32/36 I picked up in Prescott as well as a new air cleaner purchased from Pierce Manifold. Hope to fire the car up this week.

Looks great, Randy!