Running oddballs overseas. Latest arrival Renault Trafic Mk1

The shopping list for the Nissan starts here.
Build date is June 1996, motor is GA16DA.

From the handbook in the glovebox -
Engine oil: quantity 3.2L, 20W40 or 20W-50
Gearbox oil: EP90 (temp range freezing to 40*) or 80W-90 (for ambient temps below 40*
Cooling system quantity 5.5L

Sparkplugs BKR5E / Borch FR7BC
Belts :
Alternator 11720 50Y00 4PK805
Power Steering 11720 D4007 4PK810
AC 11920 77A00 4PK830

Autodoc website has engine options of 66/70/72/80 PS, vehicle ID plate & logobook don't specify which.
www.autodoc.de/autoteile/kuhlwasserschlauche-leitungen-10200/nissan/100-nx/100-nx-b13/4301-1-6

Questions: is the N13 motor from a Sunny the same as the B13 ? 
Any suggestions where I can look for parts??

Archive photo from when the car was on the road.

Might be wrong but I don’t think Nissan ever made a B series engine. I always thought B13 was the body style designation given to the Nissan Sentra? Dad had one in SouthAfrica. Didn’t end well. He over took a milk tanker which then decided to turn into a farm road. He parked the Sentra in a field that only had one tree in it, the trailer acted like a trebuchet and launched the 6 month old Bosch dishwasher about 200m and then embedded itself in the fork of the tree. How they both walked away from that can only be testament to how safe the car was. The cam box was embedded in the bonnet,the roof the same height as the bonnet with two bulges where the head rests had been. All seats broken and the car about 40cm shorter on the left side and 40cm longer than standard on the right side. The only thing not broken was one tail light. Mom and Dad discharged from hospital the following morning with no broken bones or lacerations. Dad was well happy because it was the third time the dishwasher was going back to Bosch under warranty, but because the farm was in the back end of nowhere, he was muggins who had to get it to the Bosch service centre every time 🤣🤣. Last time he had to take it anywhere, and fair play  to Bosch who replaced it and couriered the new one down to the farm  free of charge…

A few more bits today:
Tickover is ok if you keep the revs above 1500, any lower and it dies so I guess there still some blockage in the idle circuit - more carb work needed.
Slight water leak where I disturbed the carb/manifold gasket, ok for now but needs fixing next time the carb is off.
Carb acceleration pump does nothing, I stripped it when the carb was apart, both check valves (ball bearings) are free but the rubber seal on the piston is tight in the bore.
Central un-locking works, shame it doesn't lock so you need to manually lock the passenger door.
The radio (original Clarion with separate cassette deck) is dead, fusebox is ok, low priority but I'll look at fitting a newer Pioneer hifi.
Fun times

Ah, the rare wooden dash model too Best of luck getting it going.

Anything useful on here? en.renault-club.cz/manuals.php?ddlb_category=11&ddlb_model=65

Dear diary, 2 updates :

The van is now mine, I have keys & some paperwork in the sellers name, he is going to keep looking for the lost logbook and reapply if needed.
Where it's parked has to be cleared by the end of the month so I'm allowing 1 week to get it started and drive it up the field + 1 week to arrange a flatbed recovery 
Putting the key in is not helpful, fuel gauge shows 1/2 tank with the battery disconnected but goes below zero when the ignition is turned on, screen washer works ok.
I was hoping the oil light would work but all dash lights are out apart from the low fuel warning.
Lights / indicators / hazards all work even with the key removed 
The glowplug timer relay in the engine bay is missing (new is £40-£90 ), water inlet to the interior heater is snapped (I've bypassed the heater).
I have an earlier logbook here. Colour is "White + others" which is great news as I can pick any colour scheme as long as I keep the white roof. A flowerpower / hippy surfdude scheme is tempting just for a laugh 
Buyer bought it as-is and has no history, I got mixed messages about it using oil / running low on oil so all I know is it's not seized. Fingers crossed the engine isn't scrap!
Starting procedure: Molegrips clamp the snapped battery terminal in place, hold the glowplug harness cable on the +ve terminal for 10 seconds, jumper wire to the "run" solenoid, hold the starter relay against +ve terminal and hope ! I'll take a charged truck battery and a gallon of fresh diesel on my next trip and see what happens...

Nissan progress:
Carb rebuilding has taken more than 3 days so far, tickover is now stable a lot of the time but too high - it did run happy for 10 seconds but needs more work.
The carb has an idle circuit controlled by water temperature which makes things "fun".
Next step is another strip and recheck the float height / jet seat & needle as it's high - you gotta love the glass widow in the carb float chamber so you can check the level 
A small exhaust leak appears to be the downpipe / front pipe joint, not a priority.
Another quick test ride went well, brakes are ok - front disks are now polished, handbrake works.

The van is alive, beers are happening as we speak

I bodged the wiring as planned, blew out the air filter housing (important as the filter is missing !), spun it over once to check the starter worked, tickled the glowplugs, gave it a sniff of easystart and hit the button - it fired up sweet as a nut and was happy to tickover

A quick 5-point turn showed everything important works, the bypassed heater hose is holding water, now I *just* need to hack down the waist high grass then it's time to drive it up the hill and somehow bump it up over the lip at the top onto the road.

I'm sure going down was easy with gravity to help, going up won't be as it looks like 1 wheel will be off the ground when it tips from "uphill" to "level road". Traction would be an issue even with 4WD / limited slip diff and I'm sure it has neither I see fun times ahead !





Not going according to plan. The lady was supposed to be flying today to start a weeks holiday - good for her and great as it gives me time to smuggle get the van home and cleaned before she sees it. She cancelled her trip early today due to a foot injury. Not too serious for her but it makes it difficult for me to get the van here without her seeing it

Any advice on how to bleed a Lucas CAV system? 

I now know the fuel tank got punctured so <somebody> could drain the diesel - seller told me about it today and apologised for forgetting to mention it when I bought the van 

The motor started nicely using the fuel in the lines & system, now it's dry so I've run new feed & return lines to a jerry can to get it running so I can move it about.
The primer bulb isn't pulling fuel through to the filter and I'm not used to diesels working on diesels so this is new to me.

All helpful suggestions are welcome !

It's alive and back home, I'm happy and the lady of the house can see the potential so I think I got away with it.

Under load when hot it smokes a lot and knocks badly when given throttle - suggestions and ways to test would be welcome?

I think at least one of the glowplugs has popped, if that exploded when then relay died do the bits normally blow out of the exhaust or damage the valves
/ pistons / bores?
Is it easy to remove the head on these 2.1 D motors? Happy to do valve stems if that's the problem, prefer not to split the motor if it's worn pistons / damaged bores.
Do the glowplugs need to come out to lift the head / is it easy to remove the glowplugs so I can check them for damage?

Advice about belts & tensioners / waterpump if I take the head off?

The last half of the trip was scary as something was making a new noise - after I got home I found out I'd turned the heater on and the fan is loud. Oops 

Generally a compression test on a Diesel is done via the glowplug opening. That said removal of glowplugs can be challenging, especially if they've been in a long time.
Cylinder head removal would usually be possible with glowplugs in situ. 
Not familiar with this engine or its quirks (it's French to there WILL be quirks) to advise further.
Sean