1971 Nissan Skyline 2000GT (Hakosuka)

[mlracing]

Not too much happened recently but for the sake of documentation I'll add it here. I picked up one of those C-Tek chargers which worked wonders on one of the old batteries I had in storage but no bueno on the Skyline one so I need to buy a new battery for that. No major, they're around I just haven't got to doing it. A couple of small rubber bits did arrive though the other week so got to installing them.

Nice new rubber seal around the bottom of that cowling. Can see a bit of rust on either end of it as well as perhaps some quick repair done. These are common places for rust on Hakos so I suspect when the time comes I'll have to pull all that down and repair it properly. Repair parts are available for these areas.

And these little rubber caps for the wipers were busted as you can see in the top picture. Replaced as per bottom picture.

Yep, thrilling stuff.. but it keeps the momentum going I guess.

[mlracing]

Hako makes it's first official public outing. I was asked by one of the organisers of a car show if I could bring the Skyline out to have on a Nissan stand. So I agreed. It's crazy to see the size difference between old and new.. everything has just become so much bigger.

[mlracing]

Oh apparently I haven't updated this for a while..

Finally had an afternoon free to do some work on the Skyline. I now have all the parts I was waiting on to work on the underbody and suspension parts. 

The reason it's taken so long as I wasn't super keen on taking bits apart then taking them apart again so my main hold up was getting OEM top hats so it's one less thing for it to fail on when it comes to inspection time. These finally arrived thanks to a Hako owner in Aus (Kevin, if you're in the scene you'll know him), total legend. 

When it came in the car was on cut springs, common in old Japanese cars so no surprise but it was no good here. Picked up some ZOOM brand low springs in our last container and today's task was install the fronts. 

After about an hour and two trips back home I managed to get one side done. Once I'd figured it out the other side took about 20 mins. 

Yay for OEM.. but that top nut is not correct as it was the one used with the camber adjust top hats.. I'm guessing I can just keep it there as it's doing the job, just doesn't look super great. 

Noticed this underneath too.. big dent on the sump which looks like it's cracked but it's not actually leaking. Perhaps someone repaired it in the past. 

However I have a feeling I'm missing some bits to complete the OEM top hat assembly as it still making clunking noises when I turn the wheel. The spring seats correctly but I'm not sure if just above that is meant to be something else before the top hat goes on above the upper spring seat. Also yeah the boots are goneburgers and maybe both the shocks are leaking.. yay!

Took it out for a hoon around the block to make sure it was working ok. Initially pulled hard to the left but once I went full lock to lock a few times it sorted out but still pulls a little to the left. I suspect I knocked something while I was under there. Not sure, probably worth going for alignment anyway

Short outside video - https://www.instagram.com/p/BQE6iE-AG8M/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Still, one thing less on my list. 

Hako makes it's first official public outing. I was asked by one of the organisers of a car show if I could bring the Skyline out to have on a Nissan stand. So I agreed. It's crazy to see the size difference between old and new.. everything has just become so much bigger.

[mlracing]

Today sort of went ok.. I have since decided changing the brake pads in this car is a giant pain in the ass though. Plan today was to put the new discs on and new pads, sort of worked out. 

Check out these badboys, furious stopping power!

The main hurdle I had after working out how the hub and disc comes off is this.. the piston at the top could not be pushed in enough to allow for one of the new pads to go in while sliding over the disc. What I ended up doing was a bit naughty by using one new pad and one old pad (which still had a bunch of material on it anyway) so I could slide it over the disc. Perhaps I need to get the calipers rebuilt or look to upgrade to the MK63 which most people go to.  

I've only got one side on there now as I ended up going out for a lunch longer than anticipated and got back late but it spins around and looks good. Once I get the other side on I'll take it out and see if they actually work.

Made the mistake of opening the door while it was on an the jack.. Just a little bit of chassis flex in there.

Plus side, rear springs are captive as do I'm not going to change them for the other springs. Oh, and I found that the hub nut was finger tight, so that was a pretty good find. Thanks cotter pin for keeping me alive!

[mlracing]

Finished up the other side today and took it for a spin. I also took a couple extra pictures as a future reference potentially for anyone who needs this info as it took me a while to work this out.

So in order to remove the brake disc from the hub took a bit of trickery for the average Joe. I suppose if you had a press handy you'd use that but this way is just as easy. 

First step of course is removing the bolts. Not too hard with an impact gun.

Then bolt the hub to your wheel like shown above. Get a piece of wood or something similar and use it to hammer down on the brake disc. Moving around the disc eventually it should slip off the hub. I found this was quite an easy way to do it. Still took some decent hits but worked out good. One assumes you're replacing the discs at this point so risking damage on them isn't really a major concern.

Then you end up with this, as you can see bearing and seal removal is not required but it's good to check them while you're there.

Springs have settled a bit and actually look really good, about the same height as it was before. 

Still getting clunky noises and I'm fairly certain it is the springs as I can twist them by hand when the car is in the air but they are still captive. So perhaps just missing something more to push down on the top. The alignment is fully out of whack and almost certain it has positive camber now! It got quite wobbly on the motorway earlier at about 80-90kmh, so definitely need to take it to alignment shop. Although I'm not entirely sure how much adjustability will be available.

The ball joint looks like it is OK but when it's on a lift I could check it better.. or more likely someone who knows what to look for can check it better. Also, the new discs work very well. Might just be my optimism but feels like it pulls up a bit better.

[mlracing]

It's been ages since I've really done anything towards this so I decided to start tearing down the L28 that I have. When I got this I knew the bottom end wasn't good but the head should be fine. Feels like there is some mild port work done and I'm told the cam is quite big.

I just wanted to put these on so I could make doort noises.

From memory there was a bearing problem but as it looks like it was sitting around for a while partially assembled before I got it I'll need to take it somewhere to be inventoried and see exactly which parts are there, which are not and what can be reused. Might be easier to just get another block and put the head on.

Also managed to find some OEM castor arms and some urethane bushes to replace the bent one on the car which will come in the next container. Things are happening.. slowly.

[mlracing]

Quickly took the car down for an alignment this arvo to try and work out the pulling to the left situation. Well have a look at the "before" spec below.. haha!

As they didn't have a listing for hako on the system I figured Kenmeri woud probably be closest. One of the front caster arms is bent which is causing some of that issue and the toe adjust arms are a bit shit but managed to get them back in line. There is a lot of rust underneath so I'll be loading up on repair panels in this next container! Went to stop in at the compliance place on the way back but it was closed

Also I think I need a GT-Kai badge.. everyone thinks it's a GT-R and are crushingly disappointed when I tell them otherwise haha

Oh, so result of alignment car definitely feels like it drives a bit straighter, still pulls to the side occasionally but I think that may be as a result of my spring situation. I received a few more bits for it from Kevin san (the aussie guy previously mentioned) so one day I'll get to putting those in and see if that makes the difference.

[mlracing]

Woohoo best day at work ever, I found the Butaketsu Laurel-type indicators that I thought I'd lost forever. 

Original

Years of gunk and nastiness

New

No more orange ! They don't fit super well because they're not made for this car but with enough trimming and fiddling I could get them to sit flush. They'll do for now.

[mlracing]

New caster arms have arrived with the most recent container shipment. So that was today's task.. pretty straight forward. 

So the reason I needed to change the driver side one was.. well as you can see it's bent. Looking at the area surrounding the front mount I would say it's taken a punt. 

If I had more time I would've done an oil change too.. oh well maybe in another year I'll get around to that

[mlracing]

Quiet afternoon at the shop so I thought hell with it, I'm gonna fit these triples on the car!

I've ordered some new jets to bring it back down to OEM spec as at the moment they're way too huge (came off L28, big cam). Highly likely to run like garbage on the 2L but whatever, will look and sound sweet haha. Give me motivation to get an L28 working.

Obviously there are a few things to work out before we can try to start it.. such as fuel hoses, coolant hoses, throttle and so on so there's a bit to do.. but they look rad! Will have to polish up the trumpets for sure!

And annoyingly still the left brake caliper sticks. The whole brake system could use a going over so I will look into rebuilding the front calipers. 

PS: If you know of/have an L28 for sale holla at ya boi. Don't need most of the bits mainly just long block will be good. Needs to have been running, or still running.

[mlracing]

OK since last post I have got the smaller jets now, just need to put them in. I also purcased the throttle cable mount and hooked that up.. but then suddenly the stunt went horribly wrong..

As I was tightening the nuts to hold the cable in place it snapped off. The metal is so old and soft it had no chance. I was able to jimmy it up and make it work but I'll probably just go to a bike shop or similar and get a new cable made up. Can confirm it does work well and opens the throttle bodies

Also that white stopper thing seems to just dangle around and get in the way, perhaps not necessary for triple carbs.

Scraping off shitty old gaskets is not fun.. 

There's still much to do.. get the fuel lines sorted and also block off a coolant hose which used to run to the single carb setup. Thinking I'll just get a bolt slightly too big and wind it in with a hose clamp on it too. OK so there's not actually that much to do.. just some small things that take ages. 

Oh, and regarding the sticky brake situation.. I've decided to just upgrade the brakes instead of fix it.. because that's what you're supposed to do right? I've also been toying up getting a new stainless exhaust manifold in because that rusty one looks nasty.

[mlracing]

Went down to the shop and did some fiddling today. Short story, car runs on the triple carbs now, but won't idle. With a bit of throttle actually doesn't feel too bad but yeah long way from running nice yet. I purchased some new gaskets but turns out there were a few that weren't right so need to get a few more which I hope will improve the idling and running of the car. 

Old gaskets meet new gaskets.

This is where I set the timing. Originally it was a bit on the retard side but read that it should be advanced for triples and this seemed to be about where it ran the best. What I'm not too sure about is the vacuum thing on the side. I presume I've got a vacuum advance distributor so unsure if leaving that vacuum line unpluged will make it run worse or better as there's nowhere for it to go.

The new throttle cable looks and feels super nice, and it's strong too. A bit thicker than the original. It is a little longer though which is kind of annoying to route but seems to work.

Janky ghetto fuel hose routing seems to work.. no leaks amazingly. Ideally get an electric pump, fpr etc down the line.

So next on the list is to get the cold start/choke circuit working as I did find it would idle better when I activated couple of the chokes on the carbs manually. The interesting thing is even with the OEM single carb it wouldn't idle properly when cold (but it did run better than this) so I wonder if there is a different cam in here or something; it was always a bit lumpy on idle even once warm.

Specs on carbs anyway are:

Triple mikuni 44s
150 mains
200 air
60 pilots

I did get some 57.5 pilots but seems like it runs a little better on the 60s which is kind of interesting as Mikuni recommends 52.5 for an L24 which is about as close as USA gets to an L20.

[PranK]

Loving this!

[r32-25t]

So pretty ?

[CRSKmD]

fantastic. i think i have seen this before? but commenting to stay subscribled 

[mlracing]

7 hours ago, CRSKmD said:

fantastic. i think i have seen this before? but commenting to stay subscribled 

Might've if you've come to NZ sometime in the last year otherwise.. probably another one as the car is in my warehouse in NZ.

[CRSKmD]

On 1/30/2018 at 9:03 PM, mlracing said:

Might've if you've come to NZ sometime in the last year otherwise.. probably another one as the car is in my warehouse in NZ.

i was in NZ about this time last year!

[mlracing]

1 hour ago, CRSKmD said:

i was in NZ about this time last year!

Well then you might've seen it, what're the chances 

[VFRegal]

Looks great.

Not sure how current your posts are but I am running 60 pilots in my mikuni 40's.
L20 like you too.

 

 

 

 

[mlracing]

16 hours ago, VFRegal said:

Looks great.

Not sure how current your posts are but I am running 60 pilots in my mikuni 40's.
L20 like you too.

 

 

 

 

Yeah the posts on the triples is pretty current, I just did it late last year. I've not had it up to running temperature or anything yet to start the tuning; only managed to get it running end of last year. I'm thinking I still need to do plenty of jet tuning before it will run OK. Realistically the 44s are too big for the L20 but I had them laying around the shop so put them on