[Roadsters] Engine rebuilding (was: datsun ealry 67 1600 head gasket.)

John F Sandhoff sandhoff at csus.edu
Thu Oct 23 22:57:48 MDT 2008


> In theory, you could loosen the rod bolts and  raise the piston
> slightly, but there is likely a ridge at the top of the cylinder bore
> which will prevent this.

Ridge reamer!

Place the piston at BDC, stuff a clean rag in the bore, use a ridge
reamer to shave off the metal ridge at the top. NOTE: this ridge is
the diameter that the entire bore USED to be. That it, it is not 'extra'
metal; rather, there is metal missing from the majority of the bore.

If there's enough ridge to keep from popping the piston out, then the
bore likely has enough wear that it needs to be cleaned up by a
machine shop - and likely oversized pistons will be called for as well.

If you manage to replace the pistons/rings without removing the ridge,
you risk breaking the piston rings.

ALSO, find out how much metal was removed from the head. If it's
been aggressively resurfaced a couple of times, it may start having
clearance problems with the domed pistons. BTDT.

Last note for now: Your valves have the 'datsun' logo cast into them.
If your machinist is anything but a youngster, he would have noticed
that right off and identified a Datsun head :-)

-- John
     John F Sandhoff   sandhoff at csus.edu   Sacramento, CA


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