coupe72001

A couple of weeks ago I changed the head/headgasket and bolted a set of triple Dell'ortos onto my L28 skyline. I did the job at a mate's factory, but ran out of time and light. We really rushed the final stages of bolting it all together, but it started up, and it limped home with an exhaust leak and some backfiring. The head/cam had been previously set up correctly by a cylinder head place. I decided to patch up the things that we had rushed, and I redid the manifold gasket to eliminate the exhaust leak, then I studied up on how to set timing, and bought a better timing light. When I took the rocker cover off, I found I was one tooth off being timed at TDC. Cant remember if I was advanced or retarded though. I corrected the cam timing, so that the notch in the cam sprocket was aligned with the right side of the line on the cam tower (a la the factory manual/how to build a Datsun engine). Then I statically timed the electronic distributor so the teeth were aligned. Then I turned the engine by hand, then tried to fire it up, but this time, no go. It turned over, but wouldn't fire. I called RACV, and they had a play, finally doing a compression test, and declaring I had no compression on any of the cylinders. Ergo, the timing is out right along the valve train. I checked the cam, and tried it at a few different settings - advanced and retarded, but couldn't get the damn thing to fire again. There is a chance that the factory marking for a correctly timed cam is no longer accurate because my cam has been ground. Any ideas. Anyone want to come have a look? Ill pay for your time with beer and/or some cash, and if you get it running you can have my firstborn child as well. Cheers, Drew I'm in St Kilda East, Melbourne by the way.

This is them! They are prone to rust, so check your new baby over carefully, and cut out any corrosion pronto. There are a ton of other model skylines to poach parts from. Are you thinking of keeping it stock, or modifying?

Well you're in the right place. I've owned a ton of C210s and have two on the road now. I stock as a rock and the other modified to hell. What would you like to know?

Ricky - that really sucks about the flanges. I feel sorry for not doing more research about R200's before recommending you go down this path. This won't make you feel better at all, but out of interest I pulled a (Datsun) univesal joint driveshaft out of my (Subaru) clircip-type LSD and had a look at how my diff guys got the damn thing to stay in place without it falling out. Turns out there is provision for the bolt in there. Either the subaru R180 diff comes with a redundant bolt hole, or the diff guys recycled some of my Datsun diff centre. For being so ignorant about how to cobble together diffs from various models it looks like I got off lightly compared to the headaches you have been having. I did Ghostriders trick of jacking up the rear, and both wheels turned, so it is an LSD, not the original open-wheeler.

Insurance shouldn't be too bad for an unmodified auto sedan compared to other cars. The fuel economy will be a bit sad compared to modern cars, but not awful. Im no R31 expert, but general rules for checking out cheap and cheerful cars are: - Look really carefully for rust, e.g. under the bonnet, on the underside of the doors etc. - Look for oil that is leaking from the engine. The cleaner the better. - Check the amount/color of the exhaust smoke as a mate revs the car. A little blue puff as you turn the key is ok, but it should clear immediately. - Bounce the thing like crazy on its springs and see how long the car takes to settle. It shouldn't bob up and down several times before coming to rest. - Look at the gap between the panels. An uneven gap hints at a previous smash. - Stick your head under the car and study the rubbery bits. No cracks is good news. - Look for matching/good tread on all four tires. Uneven tire wear is a bit of a worry. - Look at the previous owner. Buying grandpa's beloved car is a much better idea than buying off some dodgey hoon. Also, think about getting RACV total care or something similar. Lots of free towing and roadside repairs if things do go wrong (which is pretty likely) in the first year. Good luck!

I'd also part with mine for $20K. I'd reinvest 3/4 on a new C210 or 240k project and keep $5,000 for beer.

I don't think you are going to get much useful info out of the classic skylines forum. I'd think about posting your question again on hybridz.com or www.classiczcars.com.

I climbed under my car yesterday to have a look and noticed something odd. I purchased a a late model r180 Subaru LSD centre, which is a flange and circlip type, and yet I am still using my original Datsun halfshafts, which are not the circlip type. The original Datsun bolt is holding the halfshafts in place. There are two things I can think of: 1. The fellas at Jack MacNamurra diffs have a clever way of adapting Datsun halfshafts to a Subaru diff centre without the use of Subi flanges or making hybrid half shafts etc. 2. They kept the Subaru limited diff centre for themselves and gave me back a the original Datsun open-wheel diff! Hopefully its the former.

Pick whatever you can. The original wheel, gearknob, hubcaps, centre console and radio, and the chrome eyebrows on the front guards and around the taillights are all worth grabbing if they are halfway decent, as they are really hard to get, as are straight bumpers (bit of a stretch) or any rust-free panels. Don't worry too much about mechanical stuff, you'll probably find better stuff on later model Skylines. Good luck with it.

Quick! From Brindabella Motorsport Forum: hey mate iv got one at home $100 bucks its yours , the panels are stuffed the body is stuffed, its a 4 door gx, depends what you are chasen as its still got some good pickings on it give me a call if you like ill tell you whats good and whats bad, the reason i want $100 is that is what i will get for it in scrape, which i would hate to do as i know these are very thin on the ground. car is at silverdale, 30mins from penrith. dave 0414413236

Sorry mate, both upper and lower totally different. D

Found your 240k at the local wreckers! Score! You can find a C210, occasionally a 240k, for under $1000. You might need another $1000 in bog though! There are still a few sedans around, but the rust, especially under the front lip of the bonnet, is often horrific, the seats torn, or in the case of the ebay car above sunburnt, the dash cracked, and typically there are great big bloody holes in the interior where the original radio was cut out and replaced with a nice mid-eighties tape player. Often the cost of welding up, retrimming and finding replacement parts for a C210 padock- basher is more than the cost of a decent, original granny-spec car. Still, I can't help but wonder what the best offer he got for it was. As for "it's worth more in parts" line (slaps forehead)...

Mechanical probs like a leaky water pump for the 240k are NOTHING compared to the difficulty of finding one with a decent body/interior. Nice work!

I have a parts car in Campbellfeild Vic. Its pretty rusty, but should have some useful bits, like the bumper ends etc. I might have some doors that, while not perfect, might be better than yours.

You have almost no chance of finding decent c210 coupe doors. You may have to weld new sections into what you have, and finish them with locks etc from a donor car. Funnily enough, I just picked up a rusted out C210 sedan. Unfortunately its auto, its in Vic, and shipping big stuff like the L24 to QLD is going to be painfully expensive. r30s with L24 engines are pretty common (2 on ebay this week) and don't go for much money, you could probaby find something closer to home. Better yet, you could invest in a rusty 280zx or Nissan Patrol and try to grab a complete L28. Finally buying rings, bearings and a gasket kit and rebuilding the engine you already have isn't a bad idea either. If you still need any little fiddly bits (locks, boot striker, roof console etc) that wont cost you a fortune in postage, let me know.

Cheers for the answers guys. 1. From memory Prince Skylines are tripple 40mm Webers and Ricky you run tripple 45mm webers. However at this stage ANY info about setting up tripples is useful as there must be some similarities between weber and dellorto. 2. I'll sort out the crank breather like you said Ricky, and Ill post some pics of the carbs and we can compare. 3. Ill borrow a balancer from a mate who lives nearby.

I finally ditched my SU's, and are now running tripple 40mm Dell'ortos. They run, but I know very little about how to set them up correctly. Any pics, tips, resources would be greatly appreciated. I need to know really basic stuff like which hoses should be connected to the manifold? (There is provision for one large and two small hoses.) Should I now cancel the water hoses on the right side of the block that water-cooled the SU manifold? Should I cancel the breather hose on the front right side of the block, or loop it up and plug it into the rocker cover? Does anyone know how to balance/tune adjust the idle etc? Cheers.

I want the webers so much! But not enough to ship over the entire engine... Good luck with the sale.

Ive got the pics of rust, but cant post them from work. Bonnet has rusted right through, def. needs welding. Big bubbles under mirror on door. Big bubbles in undercoat on sill under damaged door. Not horrific stuff, but will probably need welding! Rest of body + interior look straight and clean enough. I'd buy for sure, part am sick of my credit card!

Can you remember what sort of state the sedan was in? The pics dont really show how rusty she is or what state the interior is in. Always handy to have a spare white skyline with a black interior, when you own... err, a white skyline with a black interior. Cheers

Doesn't want it to go to the Middle East, but selling for Middle East prices. يا حمار!

My memory is a bit crapola due to the huge amount of beer that I consume, but wasn't this 240k sold on ebay for 2.5G about a year ago? I seem to remember that the plate on the firewall (the one with the VIN etc.) had gone AWOL, making the car non-road-worthyable/race car only in Vic. Correct me if I'm wrong, my memory really is a bit on the vague side.

The 240k and the C210 are different cars in Australia; however, oddly, I have some advertising material, like this: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Datsun-Skyline-240K-...A1%7C240%3A1318 that refer to what we'd call the C210 as a 240k. In Australia the 240k body shape was from 73-77 (look for a metal grill), the C210 was 78-79 (look for plastic grill with round twin headlights) and the C211 80-81 (plastic grill with square headlights). At a guess the ratio of C210s to C211s is around 20:1. Auto to manual early skylines are about 50/50. There are plenty of people (like myself) who have assisted in sending early Skylines to the Middle East, where they have cult status, who have gone on to regret it - as these Skylines have become substantially harder to find in Australia over the last three years. Infuriatingly, large numbers of skylines that didn't make it to Kuwait etc. have been long since sent to scrap metal locally. Despite all of this, early Skylines still pop up now and then... and happily, they often end up in the hands of enthusiasts, rather than randoms.

That's unreal - original everything right down to the am radio. Sexy.

I wish. Mmmmm... triples.