12/9/08

When I left off yesterday, I was about to go for a hoon in Shichi. So, I get to the shop but have a look at Barbecue Bob first. I remove his hood and start looking at things. John told me we’d either have to flip the cross member or modify a truck oil pan. I took measurements and the pan won’t fit even if the cross member is flipped. The sway bar is two inches too far back. I'm planning to modify a pan now. We have one so it is no big deal. I look at some other things and then move on to Shichi. I roll him out and change shoes. I lock up and head out. Remember a few months back when I went to Denton and complained about heavy blow-by smoke? Yeah, that never did fix itself. There were copious amounts of blue smoke coming from under the hood under acceleration. I turned back to the shop to have a look. Sitting at idle everything looked fine but when I blipped the throttle the K&N filter on the crankcase vent spewed forth a mighty cloud. I swapped the PCV hose from the valve cover to the crankcase vent pipe. Ray had told me at one time that the Datsun A-series engine needed the PCV system to flow from the valve cover, down the oil drain back channels, through the crankcase, and out the vent to prevent the top end of the engine from filling with oil. Apparently the drains from the valve area are just adequate and can use the assistance of flowing air. If the air is flowing up from the crankcase to vent the PCV from the valve cover, the return flow is compromised and can build up around the valve stems. I can see that, it seems logical. So why didn’t I have the PCV hooked up that way? Well, I did when I was running the DCOE. When I changed to the SU carburetors I bought that molded Nissan PCV hose and it seemed to want to run to the valve cover. I figured, “Well, Ray was full of it,” and routed the hose “backwards.” All was well until this new cylinder head. I wonder if they forgot to put valve stem seals on. Of course, I could have wasted the rings with the high RPMs that engine is now capable of. Anyhoo, I swapped that hose and blipped the throttle again. It still smoked but it wasn’t quite as bad. Next, I figured I might have a blocked PCV valve. I swapped out for one that rattled freely but I didn’t bother to suck on it to make 100% sure. Of course the one I took out rattled freely as well, and looked to be brand new at the time of carburetor installation, but I swapped them anyway. The smoking seemed to get a little better. I decided to gopher it and have my hoon. Yeah, it still smokes under heavy acceleration, but now with the K&N on the valve cover it isn't right under the big carburetor hole in the hood. It has time to dissipate a little before coming out of the louvers. I don’t see it as much is the point. I locked up the shop again and headed out. I took the usual southern route out to FM5 but began to worry about fuel. I filled up at the Exxon at 1187 and 377. I calculated that I'd burned about six gallons and was pleased to note that I got 6.1 gallons in the tank. The gauge was reading pretty low but I guess I need to run it dry sometime to see just how low it does go. When I was done filling, I took off up 377 to continue 1187. In Anetta, where the Aledo cutoff meets back up with FM5, I decided to continue west out Airport Road. I do like that little car. I finished up my FM5 hoon and called John to see when the Japanese Car thing was to start. He wasn’t going to be able to make it so I bailed as well. I took Shichi back to the shop and parked. I made a list of things I'd like to get done on that car over the winter since this was probably the last time I'll be able to drive it until spring. Most things are just general housekeeping and routine maintenance things like checking fluid levels and such. But there are a few other items as well. Of course looking into the blow by smoke should be a high priority. I want to rewire the front park and turn signal lights again as well. Right now I have the “bee hives” as the park lights and the “city lights” as the turn signals. Originally I had them the other way round and I want to go back to that arrangement. I also want to look into a different brake light switch arrangement. Right now the lights are activated by a pressure switch in the rear line. Unfortunately, I don’t always mash the pedal hard enough for them to light. I'd rather have them light up with just a brush of the pedal rather than only when I'm really on the binders. I was just thinking about a third brake light on the roll hoop but the Birkini top negates that one. We’ll see. Well, I need to go do some actual work type stuff so I'd better sign off for the time being. Yeah, I don’t have anything to add so I'm going to just call it a rant for the day.