A 50 year old Japanesse lady: SRL311 01228

[BlackbirdM3]

White knuckle morning drive followed by a 8 hour straight smile

That is why you wear gloves. You can't see the white knuckles...

Good to hear it made it up and back with no trouble. Also good work picking up an award on your first trip to Solvang. Was the burn victim roadster the one that won the best diamond in the rough award (again, as usual?)

Will

[mr.]

Such underrated cars, I love these things when built properly
Yours is coming along great!

[parkerbink]

Congratulations!

[2mAn]

White knuckle morning drive followed by a 8 hour straight smile

31st Annual by 2mAn

31st Annual by 2mAn

31st Annual by 2mAn

31st Annual by 2mAn

[2mAn]

Boom

New Pump by 2mAn

Fluids going in soon. Solvang looks like a strong possibility right now

[2mAn]

Well, finally back at it. Goal was to at the least get the old pump off. Mission accomplished.

Brand New Nissan Pump from Old man Stan
Pumped by 2mAn

Cant say for sure if the gasket came apart when I pulled the pump off, but that one corner could've been the culprit.
Pumped by 2mAn

Nasty but surrounded by new parts, and one more to come...
Pumped by 2mAn

Pumped by 2mAn

I was curious about my spacer, looks like it was made by Flex-a-lite themselves
Pumped by 2mAn

Installation will either happen tomorrow night or Friday. If I make it to Solvang for a day run on Saturday, I will be quite pleased with myself

[2mAn]

Great progress! Enjoy!

This car gives me a smile everytime Im driving it.

Those velocity stacks look good. Time to get the carbs balanced and the timing set, and you should be good to go.

Any leaks from the intake down the side of the block? (Hopefully not)

Will

No leaks from the intake side but.....Yesterday was a rollercoaster day. It started with wanting to get this annoying rubber brake pedal stop in.

Something so small shouldnt be allowed to cause so much frustration. I had tried multiple times to get this installed, but now I needed to. It was a "must"

What a day by 2mAn

got it in and was about to go take it for a test drive. My wife just got home and could tell I was happy, so she told me to strike a pose

What a day by 2mAn

I spent the next hour driving around Culver City/ Venice on the streets. I ended up putting about 20 miles on it, smiling the entire time. It was mostly street driving, rarely getting into 4th, so I wanted to get on the freeway when I was on my way home. Traffic on the freeway prevented getting up to 60 and more, but what I did notice is a slight coolant smell. My radar went on, and I was checking the temps, they looked good. Looked for any smoke from under the hood, nothing. The smell was there though, so I took it easy driving home from there. Got home and parked it. After I got out, I looked and saw this.

Ugh by 2mAn

Smile gone. I think its the gasket from the water pump because it was trickling down from the front of the motor. Im going to take this "opportunity" to change the water pump too, but I will keep the old water pump because I think its still good. Maybe use it to rebuild.

Not the end of the world, but the chances of getting this done in the next 5 days is super slim. Im going to try, but we'll see what happens. If I dont finish, I will probably just head up to Solvang for Saturday and come back that night.

[BlackbirdM3]

Those velocity stacks look good. Time to get the carbs balanced and the timing set, and you should be good to go.

Any leaks from the intake down the side of the block? (Hopefully not)

Will

[parkerbink]

Great progress! Enjoy!

[2mAn]

Well... ~30 minutes in the garage to get these on

Last step by 2mAn

and then they hide behind the filter...

Last step by 2mAn

Tomorrow I will button up a few things inside the car that need to get done, mix in some driving and then last step is to try and adjust the timing to 20* at idle.

[2mAn]

Awesome. I am glad for you.

wooooOO! hell yeah man! such a glorious feeling

Awesome!

Also, great place you have there!

Thanks Guys!

The garage is FAR from ideal, but I have an indoor spot to work on the car. It gets dusty and isnt blocked out from the elements, but its SoCal so its not like I deal with freezing temps. Just dust, and lack of privacy.

I should have the velocity stacks and airbox installed tonight, then its just a matter of wrapping up the interior details before the drive to Solvang next weekend.

[IceWhite]

Awesome!

Also, great place you have there!

[wworm]

wooooOO! hell yeah man! such a glorious feeling

[rzerob]

Awesome. I am glad for you.

[2mAn]

Heres the collection of the most recent updates...

***4/18/18***

I bought a Timing Light from HF and Harlan (a 311s member and the current organizer of the Solvang Roadster Show) came over to help out today.

We managed to get a few things squared away, and with his help we determined a few more things that need to be addressed. I had been suspicious about my alternator as JT can attest to with my paranoid texts yesterday. Harlan confirmed that theres definitely something wrong with the alternator. fun... I will call Jegs about that tomorrow.

The other thing issue, that Im in denial about is that I have a leak at the manifold, Harlan says its an exhaust leak. Will warned me that my insulators would leak and I would need to put something on them. Im still holding off hope that I can pull the carbs off and put something there that will seal that leak and my car will magically idle and drive happily. I still will need to deal with this alternator either way before I can drive it after this leak is sealed up. Im not sure how there is a leak though, he told me to pull it all off, put some Vaseline on the gasket (if I havent ruined it) and then tighten everything back up. Is this a normal thing for Roadsters? Seems so bizarre to me, but this is all new to me.

Harlan did help with the timing and I think its closer to being properly timed, but Im now really nervous that I may not make it to Solvang, especially if I have to pull everything apart again.

...sigh....


edit: In other news, I was curious what the final setup looked like on the exhaust, so I jacked it up at the diff and snapped these two pics.


After having it for a while, heres the flex pipe on the car. Couldnt get a better pic of this...

Exhausting work by 2mAn

and 2" Straight pipe all the way from the flex pipe to the old exhaust, was a pretty tight fit in the frame
Exhausting work by 2mAn

Curious about the rear section. I want JTs Resonator setup, but a friend has a 2.25" glasspack muffler he will give me for free and I can get some mandrel U- bends. Im curious why you guys run resonators only instead of mufflers. I know resonators are straight though, but Im pretty sure mufflers are too. Not sure what his muffler even looks like, so that alone makes me want JTs setup. who knows, I obviously have other things to worry about first

***Fast Forward 10 days to 4/18/18, I have a replacement alternator from Jegs waiting for me***

Finally got some time in the garage today and I made good progress.

New alternator arrived last Friday, but I couldnt get to it until today. I got the alternator done in like 20 minutes. Once that was done, I tried to fire it up to make sure thats good, but the battery sounded weak. Pressed on and threw the charger on the battery, while I pulled the carbs off to install the gaskets that were supposed to go between the insulators and the carbs. I used a thin layer of Vaseline on both sides of the gasket and installed the carbs back on. With that done, I tried to start it up, but again the battery was weak... ugh bummer...

Packed it up, but I will let it trickle charge over night and after work tomorrow, all I have to do is try and start the car. I really hope the car fires up so I can finish this job. I might need some help from the locals if Im still not driving it Saturday, I may still want some help but ideally I can drive it to a Veterans place, get some fine tuning done and drive it home. I need to get some miles on the car with all the changes before I make the trek to Solvang.

If its all good by the end of the weekend, I have a planned canyon run with friends early Sunday morning and I will drive it to work all week and then likely head to Solvang on Friday. Its getting close

*** anddddd Today***

When I left the car last night, it was essentially "done" minus the stacks and the filter but with dead battery. I let it sit on the trickle charger over night and figured Id deal with it today. Came home from work, ate dinner and I wanted to watch some Warriors basketball, but I knew I needed to try it out. Charger said the battery was good, so I disconnected the charger and let the car do it on her own. Took a little throttle assistance, but she fired up. I thought I will keep my foot on it and manually "idled" it at ~1500rpms. After a few seconds, I let off and she purred on her own... :devil:

https://youtu.be/xrxrKPZj0ww

I obviously couldnt just leave it like that, so I let it idle and warm up, ran up and put some shoes on, grabbed the garage opener and what not... Took it for a little spin around the block to give her some sunshine. I was smiling the entire time. Im still smiling. Tomorrow I will finish it up, putting the velocity stacks and airbox back on. I hope to put at least another 100 miles on it this weekend so I can know for sure if anything new pops up before the trek to Solvang

Barring any surprises in the next week, I will be in Solvang WITH my Roadster. This car makes me smile so much