Datsun so called 1800 screamer

Alas not all is good in the land of the rising sun, the poor old Datsun has lost yet another engine. We are now down to the wire with the real engine for the car (The engine builder is still hard at it). So there I am pulled in, to look at the 1800 “screamer” and see if we can get that all together and into the rally car, just so the car can be shaken down before it gets the real engine.

No big deal, so today we spend an hour or so looking at the timing pulley for the head, and a couple more hours getting a change made to the sump (cheers Nat). Around 4pm we get to a point of fitting the sump, when Scott says “by the way the lads earlier in the week noticed one of the con-rod caps is blue, should we look at it?”. “Yea why not”.

GOOD JOB we did. its spun its bearing and turned both into razor blades, so thats another engine scrapped off, con-rod blue, cap blue, crank scored. So much for sweet engine for that rainy day clean up and re use in a car.

At the end of the day its not scrap scrap, just not usable right now, but it will get rebuilt next year as it should be with a trick head etc.

So that just leaves the very last engine in the workshop, a reconditioned 1800 which has been in storage for a while, so tomorrow its clean it down and try again.

All the bits we worked on today we will use, so no lost effort, just annoyance that yet again another engine turns out to be ruined.

Images below are the 1800 screamer engine which was looking fine till a chance remark about a colour. Note the nice thick bearing!!!