Part 14

Intakes and Carburetors

This car started as a California emissions car, which means it had a smog pump, an afterburner, and a whole lot of other emission crap that we absolutely did not need or want (including something lovingly referred to as a "rat's nest").

Before removing anything from this car, we had purchased a JDM (Japanese Domestic Market) 6-port engine, complete with intake and carburetor that had already been de-emissioned.  This is the engine that I'd already rebuilt, but I hadn't done anything with the intake or carb (those were Van's domain).

When it came time to rebuilt the Nikki carb to get it ready to install, Van had second thoughts.  Rebuilding carbs is not really that fun, and he'd found a new intake with dual Dellorto side-draft carbs on the Internet for fairly cheap that was supposed to fit our engine. 

When we finally received them, we went to test fit the intake on the block.  Lo and behold, it doesn't fit!  There's a shock.  Turns out the lower portion of the intake is designed for a 13b engine (we have a 12a), so it won't work.  Looks like someone will be rebuilding a Nikki, after all...

After hours of cleaning and polishing, Van had a newly-rebuilt carb (there are a few pics here).  When he went to test fit, he noticed that the throttle cable bracket appeared to be mounted on the wrong side of the carb.  I realized that this was a JDM motor and carb, and in Japan they drive on the left side of the road, so their cars are right-hand drive.  Will nothing go smoothly on this car?

After a few minutes of disassembly and reassembly, he had it sorted out.  We then noticed that where there should be a port to attache the vacuum boost for the power brake master cylinder, there was nothing but a slug of JB Weld.  Sabotaged at every turn...

Van recalled that the guy we'd bought the engine from had it installed in an MG, which don't have power brakes, so he must have blocked off the hole.  We do have power brakes, and we'd like to keep them!  Van took the intake home and got it all cleaned out, but now we need another obscure fitting to adapt to the vacuum line.

Hopefully it works...