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Nissan C80
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Author:  Lurch [ Sat Oct 17, 2015 10:13 pm ]
Post subject:  Nissan C80
I bought this off a kid out near Malmsbury in western Vic, a couple of years ago for $650.00 after being egged on by Graeme Harlor from NSW.
Truth was that I'd been casually looking for a 'Tow Truck' for a little while & when this popped up I though 'that'd be perfect!'. How wrong I was...

When I collected it, it had NO brakes, it over heated & once I got it home (a 4 hour drive through Melbourne!) it was in slightly worse condition than I expected :(

Before I drove it home:
[ img ]

Home:
[ img ]

[ img ]

The mighty Nissan H30 engine!
[ img ]

At some point in it's life it'd been used for carting Hay, as evedenced by someone standing on the roof to load the bales:
[ img ]

This was going to be an issue - crack exhaust manifold:
[ img ]
Author:  Lurch [ Sat Oct 17, 2015 10:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Nissan C80
I thought about my options for a few weeks, but the Ol' Boy had different idea's & persuaded me to crack on with the repairs...

The brakes needed attention first & foremost and as the fronts were leaking, I removed them sent them off for reconditioning. I got them back with new Stainless sleves fitted - at a cost of $125ea.
There are FOUR of them :(

Next was the brake master cylinder, but this proved much easier & cheaper as it shares the same O-rings as International, Bedford & Dodge trucks of the same vintage, & I was able to reco them myself.
At the same time I fitted new front brake hoses courtesy of Enzed.

We bled the system, took it for a drive around the yard & immediately blew the rear wheel cylinders :cry:

Nothing else for it - strip the rear axles down to access the rear wheel cylinders.
At which point I got a surprise - curved wheel cylinders!
[ img ]

I managed to find a Nissan part number for the rear wheel cylinders (NLA from Nissan), so a call to Auto Surplus was made & they were able to cross reference & find me some replacements O-Rings.
Thankfully the cylinder bores were in VGC after a light hone & I was able to rebuild & refit them - I now had working brakes!
Author:  Lurch [ Sat Oct 17, 2015 10:48 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Nissan C80
With the brakes sorted, it was time to concentrate on the over-heating issue.

I attempted to back-flush the radiator, but I was getting an awful lot of mud & rust coming out & not a lot of water...
Nothing else for it - I dropped the air scoop, pulled the radiator and took it into my local radiator shop for them to pull the tanks off & flush the core.

An hour later I get a phone call from Big Jim from the Radiator shop: "you core's stuffed mate, but I can get you a new core & reco it for $530.00..."

:cry:

This POS is getting expensive...
New radiator it was as I couldn't find a replacement or a different solution.

When I removed the radiator hoses, the water pump outlet that the top radiator hose connects to had corroded away. The bearing was also a bit notchy.
Thankfully as the H30 is the 6cyl version of the H20 4cyl found in Roadsters & Forklifts, new water pumps are easy to come buy - there goes another $100.00...
[ img ]

I also bought a new thermostat while I was at it, as there wasn't one in it when I bought it!
The cooling system now seems to have stabilized in temp, but a dose of Kero & water to flush out the block is in order...

Next was the the cracked exhaust manifold to fix, & so I bought a new manifold gasket from Nissan in preparation:
[ img ]

I removed the manifolds & then attempted to weld up the crack with a cast Iron welding rod, but sadly the material the manifold was cast from turned out to be un-weldable... :(

We pushed the C80 into the shed & it sat there for 12 months or so while I tried to find a solution...
Author:  green200b [ Sun Oct 18, 2015 12:11 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Nissan C80
Looks good Lurch, keep the updates coming :)
Author:  Lurch [ Sun Oct 18, 2015 8:46 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Nissan C80
green200b wrote:
Looks good Lurch, keep the updates coming :)
Oh, there is more to come Alister!
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The C80 wasn't 'completely' forgotten however - the Ol' Boy's interest in it got the better of him.

The C80 is stored at my parents place (I have no room at mine) & one night I popped around after work to find the Ol' Boy had
replaced the broken side indicators with some Pajero items, fixed the non-working headlights, tail lights, front indicators, horn and a couple of other non-working electrical items.
I got a bit enthused again, so I began the hunt for a replacement exhaust manifold OR a set of extractors.

A common failure with the C80's was a cracked exhaust manifold, so on the few C80's I know what are running, they have extractors fitted (Graeme's in NSW being one).
Phone calls to various exhaust company's yielded no results sadly :(

I resigned myself to the fact that I was going to have to begrudgingly build a set of pipes myself, so I procured some H-series exhaust flanges via Lou the Datsun Roadster specialist,
as well as a box of mandrel exhaust bends, & started planning...
At the end of last year (2014) I happened to do some work with a pommy bloke called Tim, who as it happened was a bit of a guru at building exhausts & extractors.
Tim was so much of a guru that he actually spent time working in Cologne, Germany for the Toyota F1 team building their exhaust systems.............

So I booked him in earlier this year & we got cracking:
[ img ]

2 looooong days & they were finished. I learnt a lot from Tim & the amount he does just by eye had me surprised.
After media blasting & a couple of coats of Pot Belly Black, they were ready to go on with the rest of the exhaust I built.
[ img ]
Author:  Imago [ Sun Oct 18, 2015 10:26 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Nissan C80
Something different. What's the H30 like to drive? Does it feel torquey and decent enough to use as a tow truck?

Keen to see where this heads. Keep at it, seems like your old boy has more motivation than you ha.
Author:  lampy [ Sun Oct 18, 2015 10:33 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Nissan C80
Good work lurch, looks like it will be a great tow truck in the end.
Nice lick of paint and the tray tidying up will make it look good
Author:  d [ Sun Oct 18, 2015 3:34 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Nissan C80
I like these old things, Richard on 1000.com also has a couple he is using to display his 1000 ute

I prefer the H30 and H20 almost over any datsun motor, they are tough as they come.

http://www.tomeipowered.com/BTE/index.p ... tory/2546/

was a 3 time winner with this engine :))))

In all honesty I thought the Cab 80 had the P40 engines like the Pootrols
Author:  Lurch [ Sun Oct 18, 2015 6:01 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Nissan C80
Imago wrote:
Something different. What's the H30 like to drive? Does it feel torquey and decent enough to use as a tow truck?
Keen to see where this heads. Keep at it, seems like your old boy has more motivation than you ha.
It performs very well, lots of torque & it will rev if you want it to. I normally take off in 2nd gear as 1st is very short. 1st would be perfect for a loaded hill start.
2nd to 3rd is a reasonable gap, but the gap from 3rd to 4th is HUGE, so you need some decent road speed & revs before you grab 4th.
When I bought it, it sat on 100kph all the way home without a problem (apart from overheating). I should probably fit a Tacho...

The Ol' Boy just doesn't want it sitting in the shed doing nothing! I'm motivated again, so progress will be made!
lampy wrote:
Good work lurch, looks like it will be a great tow truck in the end.
Nice lick of paint and the tray tidying up will make it look good
I don't own a vehicle with 'patina' Hayden, so guess where this is heading...
Author:  green200b [ Sun Oct 18, 2015 8:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Nissan C80
Quote:
I don't own a vehicle with 'patina' Hayden, so guess where this is heading...
Bare metal respray with House of Kolor custom mix?

Hopefully not. What are your plans, more of a tidy up and then a banana-back tow truck?
Author:  Stowers [ Sun Oct 18, 2015 8:51 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Nissan C80
This thing is awesome man I'll defiantly be checking for updates
Author:  Lurch [ Sun Oct 18, 2015 9:37 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Nissan C80
green200b wrote:
Quote:
I don't own a vehicle with 'patina' Hayden, so guess where this is heading...
Bare metal respray with House of Kolor custom mix?

Hopefully not. What are your plans, more of a tidy up and then a banana-back tow truck?
Correct! Candy Apple Magenta!

Yeah, more tidying up still to do Al, then clear coat the cab & then Banana back it :wink:
Author:  Lurch [ Sun Oct 18, 2015 9:44 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Nissan C80
So the observant of you may have noticed in the photo above of the extractors being made that there is also a manifold in place & some Hitachi's in view...

Late last year (2014) I happened to be speaking to an acquaintance of mine in Japan & in passing told him what I was up to.
I mentioned that it'd be great to take advantage of the new extractors (when I build them) with some better induction, over the tiny downdraft Hitachi...

A longer than normal pause occurred on the other end of the line...

"I'll call you back in a couple of days." *click*

A few days later, via a friend, of a friend... of a friend who had a heap of bizarre Nissan/Datsun 'parts' in Japan, I was able to purchase a very VERY rare manifold.

[ img ]

What you see there is a triple side draft manifold to suit a Nissan H30! :shock:
As it turned out, the manifold was 'apparently' originally fitted to a H30 powered Nissan President that was used for 'diplomatic duties' in Japan.

When I received it, it was badly damaged - cracked in multiple places, bent & missing it's linkage arrangement.
A few hours over a few weekends went into repairing it and getting it back into usable condition, and I already had enough parts in my collection to make a suitable linkage setup,
Interestingly the bolt pattern is for 1.5inch Hitachi's (SU's) and I already had a set of twin 1.5inch Hitachi's from a Stanza SSS in my parts bin and a friend in Melbourne gave me the 3rd one, after which they were all reconditioned with 240Z needles & needle tubes.

[ img ]

A couple of weekends ago I finally got a chance to install them on the H30, along with a custom fuel rail (made from 5/16 & 1/4 Bundy tube silver soldered together) and a heat shield I made
from some 2.5mm Alum off-cut.

(Not quite finished in this photo)
[ img ]

So after all this effort, swearing & banged knuckles, it was time to hit the key...
Author:  Anth510 [ Mon Oct 19, 2015 1:35 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Nissan C80
Very interesting, great to see something completely different.
Author:  SR20Datsun [ Mon Oct 19, 2015 2:50 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Nissan C80
Awesome. The induction noises coming from underneath the cab are certainly going to be interesting.
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