Flashbacks in Dattos

I've been hanging to get back in my car and do some khanas with the club again. Money, time and kids sport have been frustrating me, but the other day I got an offer I couldn't refuse. The chaplain of the club offered me a seat in his Datsun 1600 (510 for US readers) for a day on the skidpan.

Of course I said, "Yes please!"

The car in question is a pretty serious machine. It's nothing to look at, really kinda ugly, but it's got everything that needs to be there. The irony is, not that long ago, 510 shells like this went to the wreckers. However, as the price of these sky-rockets, more and more slightly bent shells are getting straightened and returned to use. Which is precisely what's happened here.

Pete, the owner told me, "it's been pulled completely straight". I smirked, but that's the truth for most of these old campaigners. Years of bingles and offroad exploits have made for tired, rusty shells. This car was mostly rust free, although it's recently had some surgery too. Along with all that, it's been plated, reinforced and stiffened up wherever possible. Underneath, it's as good as anything competing in the NSW and Australian rally championships across the 70's, 80's and 90's when Dattos reigned supreme. Added to that, it's got a completely adjustable rear end, proper springs and Bilstein shocks. The brakes are discs all round.

Pushing all that around is an L18 (1800cc SOHC, non-crossflow) engine with twin Italian Weber 45 sidedrafts and not a lot of exhaust. It's also got a HUGE 3 core radiator that will put up with anything (and a thermo fan). Pete told me it's a "Low compression, Southern Cross spec motor", "Don't be afraid to rev it, it'll sit on 6k all day", and "give it plenty of beans, you can't hurt it". Behind that was stage 2 racing clutch, a 5 speed gearbox of unknown origin and a 4:11 ratio, welded diff... I'll come back to that. Pete admits the 4:11 diff is a little tall for motorkhanas, but the car doesn't complain.

Amongst all the fun, we had the usual flat battery/running out of fuel/fan not working/didn't want to start dramas that go with a track car that isn't driven much. Sitting in dummy grids had the plugs starting to foul a bit, but a good thrashing fixed that quick.

It is bullet proof. 

At the beginning of the day, Pete took me out in the passenger's seat to get the feel of the car. We took off out of the start garage and on the first turn he reefed on the hydraulic handbrake. As the car threw me around in the seat, a childhood memory came flooding back...

It was nineteen hundred and eighty seven and I was at a scout jamboree. I was 13 years old and feeling mighty homesick. But there were plenty of cool things to do. One of them was a car club that was giving kids a ride in "rally cars". The weather was crazy hot, dry and to be honest, I found the car noisy, slightly violent and a bit frightening. I got thrown around in the racing seat and I couldn't see much. I don't know if I actually enjoyed it. For some reasons though, I went back for a second go. I don't remember if I got one, but I was smitten. I'd always liked cars, but now I was keen for a "rally car". Specifically, it was the beginning of a long love affair with Datsun 180B's (some people call them $1.80s). The car club was the same one I'm a member of now.

I found out, on telling Pete this story, that the car I rode in that fateful day back at the Jamboree, still exists! It's still in competition. In fact, last year it won the Alpine Classic Rally at the hands of Jack Monkhouse.

I'm sure it's had plenty of love since 1987, but I was pretty blown away to hear it's still so successful. Now back to the Datto at hand...

It is, a pretty agricultural piece of kit. The car has a control panel you can see to the left of the wheel. None, I repeat, none of the gauges work. If it's too hot, steam comes out of the bonnet. If there's no charge, the motor dies. If the fuel runs out, it stops. You get the point. It is however, pretty electrifying to drive. It doesn't idle that well and the timing chain tensioner is worn and rattles, so you can't let it sit on a low idle. The throttle is heavy and the clutch engages an inch from the top of it's travel. You have to push the brake a long way into the floor to get it to stop after using the hydraulic handbrake a few times.

But oh man! It's so fun. 

On a wet skid pan it's a hoot. I didn't get the hang of really drifting it, but it wants to and when it starts it's quite progressive. You think, "if I back off, it'll spin out", but it doesn't. It just looses a bit of drift angle. The steering is pretty darn heavy. It's got LOTS of caster and quick steer spindles, so it's only a few turns lock to lock. But you have to hold on, coz it kicks back. If you let go of the wheel it centres FAST! I stalled the car on the first test due to this, but by the end of the day I was used to it. It is a real arm workout at low speed, but it works well enough once you get going. I suspect it would be a lot easier to drive on the dirt where the rear end would do the steering.

My daughter and I had a tops time. She loved being thrown around in the passenger's seat. The motor is very loud in the car. Up near the top of it's rev range, the combo of induction and gears just screams. It bellowed like a mutant sewing machine trying rip it's way through the firewall. But it has nothing on the welded diff. I knew they were not great for the road, but man. At low speed even a gentle turn was met with a LOT of resistance, lurching, clanking and clunking. It felt like the car was twisting in the middle. I won't lie, it made me shudder every time (almost as much as the car did LOL). I raised this with Pete who told me, "yeah it always sounds like that". Again, once under power, both rear tyres lit up and it was in it's element. With more practice, the car easily dances around. Longer faster tests lead to big slip angles and lots of laughs.

There were a series of other interesting rides out at the track the same day. This Toyota 86 was hiding something sneaky. The owner was fighting under-bonnet heat.

At lunchtime in the pits, we came across this ancient Morgan 3 wheeler. Sensational stuff.

 

Check that steering wheel!

I've yet to receive the results from the day, but I just don't care. Getting out on the skidpan was rewarding enough. Being able to do it in the datto was a HUGE bonus. Thank's again Pete!

Poor old paint... and other adventures.

As with all things, stuff never happens when you expect it to. So on the one night when I left the car outside (due to having woodworking machines spread out) it decided to rain. Now, to be honest, it didn't stress me that much. I have an extremely "lasse fare" attitude to washing cars. I figure, the dirt helps protect the paint. LOL :)

Well hopefully.

There is another reason I don't often wash the beetle. Whenever I do, I literally wash paint off it. Unfortunately, after 60 years the paint has become powdery at best. Really I should expect it because the car has sat under the harsh Australian sun during it's life. Yes, it was garaged a lot of the time, but in the end, no paint can last that long without some bleaching and fading.

I was heartened to see a recent episode of Jay Leno's garage, where he described his practices of "wiping down" his cars rather than washing them. The gullwing mercedes in this episode is somewhat similar in paintwork to my beetle...

The upshot is that I've taken to waxing my car regular instead of washing it. Seems counter intuitive, but the car is a little dusty, but not much more. The rain shower washed most of it off the other day anyway. The problem with a shampoo/detergent wash is two things; it washes delicate paint off; the detergent/soap in the formula will penetrate below the paint in bad spots. Either way, it just speeds up the rust issues in a car with a suspect finish. What you really need is something that will seal the paint and metal again. Hence the wax. I've been using the first version of Nxt generation tech wax. The bottle is more than a few years old, but it works well enough.

The other day I did the roof/bootlid (the most worn areas) of the car and today I did bonnet and front guards. The other parts of car have been blown over. It always surprises me how well it comes up. The paint literally shines afterwards. You can see it's sealed. Which as I said, is pretty important...

Here's the bonnet after waxing. As you can see, it looks shiney, but you can see the pitting. There's also exposed rust on the left hand side along that ridge on the bonnet. You're may be thinking, "that doesn't look too bad", until you see the old nappy I polished the wax off with.

Now some of this is old wax and there is a little dirt there too, but mostly, the grey is... factory VW paint. Sadness. You can see why I have no desire to get soap and water near it in a concerted way. The bootlid has already been polished through in one spot. I'm pretty liberal with the wax too. Where there are chips in the paint of rust, I pile it on.

In the end, the car looks pretty good afterward. I took the liberty of adding extra wax under the edges of the guard as well this time. Hopefully that will slow the rot down there.

Too much crankcase pressure
In other news, I've been working hard to try and get the car to stop pushing oil out of the dipstick tube at higher revs. Various discussions with "Uncle Brian" led me to the conclusion that it needed more breathers than the one small breather car previous had...

There was a discussion about the merits of plumbing the oil vapour line in before the turbo in the intake. I was advised this was a bad idea for two reasons; Oil in the mixture will make the car ping; Oil is heavier than air and bad for turbos, just wears them out. So with no vacuum, we needed more breathing. One breather just wasn't enough, so off to the parts store (again) and I bought TWO more. Yes, the car now has three different breathers. Two come off the CB Performance breather/oil filler box. The other comes off the top of the fuel pump block off plate.

So welcome to "Pete's breather-o-rama". No they don't match and they look a little dodgy, but they do work. So far, the car is not puking oil on the exhaust and stinking like a nasty, nasty oil burning stinking thing. Is it however, still leaking oil from the sump. Which is part of the next challenge sort of.

Inadequate oil scavenging
As part of fiddling with various things, I recently pulled the intercooler piping off and found (to my horror) oil in the intercooler. Initially I thought it was coming off the filter, but no. It's coming from the turbo bearing. When you look at the bottom of the car, you can sort of see why...

The oil return from the turbo is the silver covered hose on the left hand side. You can see it reconnects to the sump via a brass fitting. The issue here is that when you give the car a boot load, some of the oil in the sump goes back wards into the turbo. Additionally, even when the car is sitting, the hose acts as sort of extension of the sump. Sure, the turbo is slightly higher than it, but not high enough to drain it properly via gravity. Another guy (fastie) warned me about this on a forum. I should have done things differently from the start. What I need is a scavenging pump. So I bought one off ebay...

I know what you're thinking, "that looking freakin huge!". You're right, and it is. Hmmm. It's actually a marine fuel pump for pump diesel. Apparently, it works fine as a scavenge pump too. It's also heavy. Extra hmmm. I've climbed under the car and there is simply nowhere to put it unless I move the water pump in the last update... yes, that's right. But that's ok, because it can move anyway. The upshot is, the oil return in the sump will be plugged up. This is good because I've worried since day one about a big rock knocking off the brass fitting and killing the motor. There's another reasons the water pump will move.

"Inter-warmer" radiator

I think I've mentioned this before, but the intercooler radiator is acting more like a heat sink for the engine/trans than evacuating heat from the intercooler coolant. Admittedly, winter temps have made it easier on the current setup, but once summer returns it'll be touch and go again. So the other day, this thing turned up.

For reasons I don't fully understand, it came without anything to hang it off. No flanges, brackets or whatever. I came with 4 small tabs with holes in them. I assume the idea is you have them TIG welded on. I haven't got around to that yet. The financial controller has told me to stop spending till we get reimbursed for a few work expenses. I spent a LOT of time laying under the car and surfing ebay for a cheap motorbike radiator to use. In the end, this was $200 instead of $40, but it's EXACTLY the right dimensions and seems far superior. I haven't sorted out water hoses for it yet, but I reckon I'm gonna use braided rubber hose. I could put steel or alloy pipe, but it's harder work and less forgiving to rocks and debris.

It will also mean I'm discarding the fan, which is a good thing. It couldn't cool an eskimo. I guess you get what you pay for and I didn't pay much. The wiring for the fan can run the water pump once I move it. And the wiring for the water pump can run the oil pump. Easy peasy.

More issues
I still have other issues to sort with a leaking deep sump. I suspect a permanent fix with silicon sealant might be the go. I also have to have better valve springs installed. Hopefully my mechanic can do that. The other continuing issue is ground clearance. I've got the new rubber for the torsion plates, I just need to jack the car up and I'm holding off til I do other things. In the meantime, "Ima grindin' on the muffler!"

As for tuning, boost is still at 5psi max. I'll look into that once I have these issues sorted. The car drives pretty well for what it is. It doesn't start great when it's cold, but it idles and drives well enough and I'm getting used to driving it. It must be pretty to run in now and there haven't been any real dramas.

Till next time...