After killing the first replacement rear seal (I blame myself but I went back and checked… it wasn’t going to fit) I ordered another seal next day delivered and it’s plastic sleeve fit neatly over the crank. The directions very specifically state to install it dry and it was a bear. The worst thing you can do is get it canted too far on one side and you won’t be able to get it back out unless you take the whole plate off again, and knock it out from the back. Here are some pictures for how the sleeve should have fit. Rear seal plate is torqued to 10 lb/ft.
After this I was going to get started doing the front seal. I’ve never worked on these 6BT engines so I am unfamiliar with what would need to come off to remove the front cover. I figured the fan and the crank pulley. Then I found out there is a 36mm nut holding the fan clutch onto the water pump… and I don’t have a 36 wrench. So that work quickly stopped and a wrench was ordered.
Going back to rear of the motor I started putting on the new adaptor plate that will mate this engine to a Ford ZF6 6 speed transmission. This adaptor is made of steel as compared to aluminum, very heavy. It fit nearly perfect although two of the holes were ever so misaligned. It probably wasn’t an issue but after the rear seal shenanigans I wasn’t going to test my luck. The last thing I need is to strip threads in the block. Stupid little costs and delays add up. I decided to drill out those two problem holes slightly which did the trick. Lots of threading bolts into holes, making sure threads are clear, debris free, and that I don’t drive a bolt to bottom out and crack an engine block casting. Adapter plate bolts are torqued to 60 lb/ft with Loctite 277.
Next up was the flywheel. This is a 2001-2005 Dodge 6 speed flywheel (PN: Luk LFW300) I believe meant for an NV5600. The center hole has to be bored out to accept a 6303 pilot bearing. It has been a while since I have used a machine shop and I wanted to try out the shop that will do the machine work on the Datsun engine, so they took the flywheel job and did great. To use this flywheel, with a Ford starter, and a Ford clutch, you must also use the Dodge NV5600 flywheel spacer from Valair space (PN: 580SPACER). Flywheel bolts torqued to 100 lb/ft with Loctite 277.
