yeah, it's happening. I had today off so dropped the Soarer off to a mechanic mate to deal with that nightmare - pulling off inlet manifold to find the leaks is not something I want to do at home.
MR2 is all fixed too. welded some 3mm plate over the chassis and reformed the mounts so that should be right now.
And the 120Y's tailshaft is in getting shortened 133mm (5.25" in the old money) Should have it back tomorrow. I threw the 180B SSS long 63a box in too. I like the dogleg pattern and know that's a good box - drove the Stanza it was in before pulling it apart. So it's all systems go. Had to cut 3" out of the floor to clear the shifter, and will have to mess with the console a bit but this was the best way forward I think.

Harry, that sounds pretty good to me. Bluebird 5 speeds are easier to get than Stumpy's or 63a's. The other thing is the 120Y has a sheet steel plate on top of the transmission tunnel, as I'm sure you know, so you might not have to cut too much of the tunnel, if at all.

Cars! 3 out of 4 of my collection of #OOPS#boxes are currently broken. The newest addition, the 3.0 V6 MR2 has cracked the chassis at the swaybar mount. Apparently a common problem with the early SW20s. I should have put it up on a hoist to have a good look at the thing when I bought it, I would have found this before it broke clean off. But it's no big deal to fix when you know a coach and body builder. This one will be fixed tomorrow - will be better than new with a bit of plating and extra bracing. I bought some 2nd hand 17" Buddy Clubs for it recently, which look far better than the 16" R32 Skyline wheels it came with:



Soarer blew a coolant hose last weekend at Lakeside, trying to improve the PB on the new 265 semis and backyard aero - spoiler and canards.
Can't see what's leaking, but it can only be the water coolant lines to the throttle body and IACV or to the factory oil cooler. I bypassed the TB & IACV lines yesterday but that didn't do the trick. I'll need to remove the inlet manifold to get to the oil cooler lines if I'm doing it at home. Might take it to a mate's workshop to see if it's accessible on the hoist instead.



And the 120Y... Gearbox is out now. Gave it a run in gear up on stands and it sounded pretty nasty, so definitely no good. The brand new oil looked awful when draining it too.
So, stumpy boxes are pretty thin on the ground these days, and it could be a long wait for one to come up. I'm keen to get this on the road and start using it again. The other options are transferring the internals from the 180B SSS 63A long box into the Stanza box, or fitting a long box - which is the way I'm leaning at the moment. It's the easy and cheap option, and I have 2 lying around. Also means tha tif the box breaks in future it's easy to replace. They're 5" longer in total length and to the shifter on the 180B SSS 63A 5spd - the 71B I have is a bit shorter to the shifter. It would mean shortening a tailshaft and cutting the shifter hole and console. I'll get a price on tailshaft shortening and decide...
I also made up some spacers for the swaybar so it clears the L16 oil pump now at full droop. That's pretty much everything else checked off the to-do list. Just need a gearbox!

There's a Stanza 5 speed on E-Bay at the moment, it's marked as a Datsun 5 speed, but mentions it's from a Stanza, it's in Vic & it's overpriced imho. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Datsun-5-S ... b4fd00:g:5TcAAOSwepZXSoqT . I have one that I'm getting as a swap for some parts, but it's still in Townsville, there's also a Stanza 5 speed sitting in the shed with no 4th & 5th gears if you want to try that for parts. Pity that's in Sydney, or you could have it. I reckon you try the box out before sourcing a new one, it might be quite good in spite of a dodgy synchro.
PS Photos, never enough photos

I finally got motivated - not easy when you have 4 cars all wanting or needing stuff done. I might be selling the Soarer to get back to a more manageable 3 cars...

Drilled clutch pedal for the hydraulic master cylinder rod. Did the wiring for dissy, alternator and electric fan. Throttle cable and bracket, radiator hoses, longer coil HT lead, new air filter and engine and box oil. Bit of flammable liquid down the carby and it fired straight into life - sounds pretty mean. Put the interior all back together - carpet console and seats were out for welding up underneath the transmission tunnel. Only thing left to do is the hydraulic clutch line - which I can't find! lol This is what happens when you leave things too long and have a messy shed.

I'll probably have to rebuild or swap the gearbox once it's up and running - a synchro shift plate was stuck to the drain bung magnet when I checked it was empty before the conversion... I do have a 180B SSS 63a dogleg long box for parts but it might be easier just to find another Stanza 5spd.

L16 I could do, was gonna stick with an A12, as licencing would be cheaper as I don't have a licence - don't have one as I have autism mind you I'm a lot more aware than I was last time I tried to go for it, mind you there are a lot more morons out on the road too...

Wierd. WA mustn't use NCOP? NCOP allows 3200cc NA and 2200cc turbo iirc.
What about an L16? Difference in performance between L16 and L18 in a mild street motor is not really even noticeable.

had planned on going L18 in my 120Y sedan (why it has a BW 68 and NOT the H145) but never been able to find a good L18

but now I want to get it rebuilt for the road, L18 is too much for a 120Y... seems that in WA a 120Y with a L18 is too much power to weight wise, but a PB210 is allowed a L20B... I'm curious if the PB210 shells are reinforced in a way that the 120Y shells aren't... or are they all like the same like 1970's ford falcon hardtops?

was gonna ask you to get a shipping quote to japan just in case :)
good keeper good choice!

I'm not planning on selling this one! Shouldn't have sold the last one really. But I prefer the coupes anyway.
No plans for an LSD or anything, it's just a street car/cruiser. I have 2 other cars for more spirited driving, both with LSDs. I'm happy just cruising around in this, not pushing to the point you need an LSD. The engine conversion isn't for maximum performance, just to make it a much nicer car to drive with effortless grunt compared to the little A series, and a 5spd box. Plus it's cool to have something a little out of the ordinary under the bonnet.