I know it will turn out great and you will be proud of it. That is the real reason we do it. Like a lot of other hobbies, you shouldn't do a cost analysis. I throw all my receipts in a box for the next guy to add up!

Amen!!! I would not dare to go add mine up!!!

I worked on assembling the differential today.  I bought this differential from a salvage yard probably two decades or more ago.  It came from a Nissan 4X4 truck.  The ratio is 4.11:1.  I sourced new bearings, seals and a lock nut a while back from a Subaru dealer, as they had better pricing than the usual place I buy new OEM Nissan parts from.  The old bearings were very useful for pressing in new bearing races and seals.

    

 

I lightly cleaned my 12 ton press up, wiping all loose dust off of it, and put it into duty.  I still haven't bought a 20 ton press just yet, something I put on my to do list when the 12 ton wasn't enough to press the control arm bushings out of the rear control arms. 
 

    

 

    

 

I made a lever arm to hold the pinion from turning so I could set the spec on the pinion nut.  I set it to 132 ft-lbs using my new, digital torque wrench.

    

 

Next, I will be installing the Quaife lsd unit. 

7 hours ago, inline6 said:

assembling the differential today.

Do not forget to check the alignment of the gears.. see some youtube videos about that! Otherwise you might hear a BIG crash in your diff some day. very important that the gears come together on the right spot

 

You can alter the gears by shimes left or right, ad or retract.. 

I am progressing with the differential assembly.  

  

What the heck is this???

  

 

uh oh.

I think they might be talking about cleaning up the roughness of the cast iron casting if it interferes with the new unit you are installing.

Well, I tried fitting the carrier inside the differential case, and it doesn't fit, but not by much.  I think more than roughness of the casting will have to be removed, like with a high speed die grinder.  I have already installed the pinion and related bearings.  So now, if I have to grind away material, I will have to seal the pinion and all cavities within the differential case to keep bits of sharp metal from finding there way in there.

I haven't found any info online about this "mod" to make this unit fit.  

I created a separate thread with details about the LSD installation in the R180 case.  I'll be picking back up on that project soon.  However, I go to retrieve the painted car body on Thursday! 

Here's hoping that the outcome is as good as I have wished for.  

 

I posted in a separate thread, but will include this in the build thread here also, along with a couple of nice pics:

 

Edited September 25, 20231 yr by inline6

Over the weekend, I worked on the engine a bit more.  The oil pickup tube gasket was missing, so I wasn't able to put on the oil pan until that arrived Saturday.  

All of the oil pan bolts are original.  I torqued them to 42 inch lbs - a little under 4 ft-lbs.  I used a Nissan competition rubber oil pan gasket.  These are better than the cork ones that are typically available.

 

The header is some kind of sexy with the engine flipped over:

Edited September 25, 20231 yr by inline6

In my 21 pages of instructions to the painter (yeah, I know... it is silly - that's why I keep referencing it!), I provided a bunch of pictures of the original paint on the undersides and in the wheel wells.  My thought was that while they were spraying the car, they could attempt to replicate the factory overspray.   

They did not, but provided me with a pint of mixed and pre-reduced paint so I could do so.  Here is the before with pics taken a few hours ago.  Note that most of the underside of the car is black.   
 

    

    

    

 

Along with one more pic of before, here are all of the after pictures.  I replicated what I found on my car with regard to silver color - wheel wells and spare tire well mostly painted, inner part of the floors and transmission tunnel - not so much.

    

    

    

    

    

Car dolly wasn't removed for color and clear application by the painter.  So, I did remove the front dolly and touched up the bottom of the frame rail where that was bolted to the chassis.

    

 

 

Edited September 25, 20231 yr by inline6