Hi guys!

I'm a new member on this website and am in need of a bit of wisdom from some of you Datsun gurus out there!

I've just picked up a beautiful old 67 bluebird (411) sedan. body is near perfect, no rust, nice paint, re-trim, bloody gorgeous.. BUT! big old hole in the side of the block. The little j13 appears to have chucked a wobbly and thrown a rod.

I've been doing some research and decided building another J13 is perhaps a little counter intuitive considering there age, performance and availability. After doing a bit of floating around online I scored a nice little a12 with a h89 head from a bloke on this web site! I have given the motor a bit of a tidy up and am currently in the process of getting the lil donk ready for a transplant.

While there is an abundance of info out there in internet land about all things Datsun, I'm having a bit of trouble finding any solid info regarding an 'a' motor transplant into a 411 birdy..? I gather custom engine mounts will have to be fabricated, fuel lines, perhaps radiator hoses ect.. but there is still a couple of things that have got me a little bamboozled..!?

1) what chance is there that I will be able to retain the original gearbox and column shift? bit of modification to bell housing maybe?

2) intake manifold..? I've got a nice little carb package on the way with a 32/36 webski, adaptor and air filter, but what intake manifold will I require? I currently have neither an intake or exhaust manifold. Im considering having a set of custom tuned headers made up. I've spotted a few bargains on a12 extractors but I'm somewhat hesitant to fork out for a set of pre-fab headers only to discover clearance issues in the lil 411 engine bay. So whats the deal with the old dat intake and exhaust manifolds? I've read alot of info in the tech wiki section of this site (what a remarkable source of info! hats off to you blokes!) so I get the water heated manifold thing and I gather plugging the water holes in the h89 head will allow fitment of different intake manifolds, but all the intake manifolds I've been able to find online appear to bolt up to the exhaust manifold..? Is it possible to 'blank' off the flange on the intake manifold in order to run extractors? What options are there for this conundrum?

I'm very excited about this build and plan to take a bunch of pics very soon and start a build diary on this site!

I've attached a pic of the old darlin ;)

Any feedback is very much appreciated!

Thanks guys!

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