C.A.R.

With the head back at LCR, it needed to be assembled. 240Z's came with an oil 'spray bar' that bolts to the side of the camshaft towers, that sprays oil onto the camshaft lobes. This is a poor design as the tiny tube and orifices' can easily block up with gunk and worse, the bar itself can fracture over time & fall into the cambox... Nissan fixed this later in the bigger 2.8ltr engine (L28) with an internally oiled camshaft. Thankfully Les had enough junk L28 heads in stock, so the cam towers from one were used on the E31 head, as they are a direct swap. Because the top and bottom head faces had been decked, a set of cam tower shims were installed to bring the camshaft 'wipe' back into the correct geometry. Next a suitable camshaft was fitted. As the engine is relatively stock, we didn't want to go to wild. The grind is from Clive Cams, and is a direct copy of a Wade 733a. It's very very mild with just a tad more lift and duration over a stock grind cam. Unfortunately the original valve springs were worn out so a good set of used L28 valve springs were installed, along with new thicker lash pads/caps and refaced rockers. It was all reassembled, checked and pronounced good to go - it's almost a shame to put the tappet cover back on! The tappet cover was also given the Hydro-blast treatment.

By now you might have noticed a major component is missing...? When the Z was delivered to us originally, the matching number L24 engine was barley secured in the engine bay - a couple of bolts and an occy strap! When we extracted it and I had a good look at what we had: Matching numbers L24 but the head was only secured with a couple of bolts, so I lifted it off. Everything 'looked' ok, but when I discussed the engine with Les at Les Collins Racing, he asked what the casting number was? 'E88' I said: 'That's a 260Z head' says Les. 'It should have the higher comp early E31 casting' Blast...! Another thing that was wrong and that I'd have rectify. The early E31 heads are REALLY hard to come by now, but undeterred I starting calling and emailing around - without much luck Then I called Paul Wolfe in QLD: "Yes I have one here, but it'll need a rebuild. And I could freight it down to you in a week or so if you want?" Yes! It arrived a week or so later expertly wrapped in carpet! Now I'm not stupid enough to think a 60yo aluminum Datsun cylinder is going to be ready to bolt on to an engine, I took it into Les Collins Racing and Les sent it off to Head Stud Developments to have it stripped, tanked, inspected & reported on. It wasn't good: the casting was soft, it had lots of water jacket corrosion, it was warped (typical), guides were shot, valve seats were shot, damaged threads... But it wasn't cracked anywhere, so that was tiny bit of good news. The quote to fix it from HSD was BIG dollars, but Les suggested that if I weld up the corrosion myself using his 3-Phase TIG, I'd save a lot of labour cost for Tony. So that's what I did - I spent a solid half day on the TIG welder in at LCR, welding up the coolant galleries and damaged thread bosses, heating the head back up with the Oxy/Act as required. Once finished, Les helped me Peen the welds down while the head still had temperature in it. But we weren't done yet! "Are you wanting to put a small cam grind in this?" Asked Les. I guess so? "OK, come with me - we have some porting to do." (!) Onto Les's porting table and he set about showing me how to basically port a cylinder head. Les ported an inlet & exhaust to show me, then left me to do the others(!) It was late when I finished... I'm still hugely appreciative of Les for allowing me to do this, because it's uncommon for him to show a non-engine builder how to port a head! The head then went back down to HSD for them to weave their magic: It was re-heat treated back to the required hardness, straightened, new hardend valve seats, new valves, new valve guides, threads repaired, new core plugs, coolant passages indexed and milled in, decked then hydrojet blasted. It was then returned to LCR to be reassembled: As close to a new head as we could get!

Time for an update! By September we'd checked fitment of all the parts on the 240Z so the 'dry build' was complete, so there was nothing left to do but pull it all apart and prep it for high-build primer. Annoyingly my painter decided to take a month off from Mid-September to Mid-October, so the project stalled for four weeks, but once he was back we could begin. My painter cast his critical eye over the whole thing, then once he was happy the WHOLE car was dry sanded inside and out with 240g soft pads, prep-solved, masked up and tinted high build primer was shot at the body & panels. With all that done and the primer dry, the body shell and front guards was back-taped, so the underside could have stone chip applied. We spent a LOT of time on the underside of the Z to dress any of our welding repairs and also fix any of the average work done by the little Japanese man on the production line in Yokohama... As we wanted to do a 'better than factory' job of it, the underside frame rails are also masked off so no stone chip is applied to them - this makes for a more atheistically pleasing look. The seams are then seam sealed, then the paintable stone chip is applied: And the inside of the guards: This whole process of masking, then de-masking takes bloody ages... But it's all worth it, because next the ACTUAL colour is applied!!! When I first received the Z it had been media blasted and all remnants of the original colour were gone - along with any paint code sticker. However not EVERYTHING had been removed and Epoxy'd over - there was the remnants of an original grommet for the fuel tank vent pipe - still holding on for dear life - and when I carefully peeled it back... YES!!! I consulted the factory colours for 1970 and there it was: Nissan 907 Green! So that's what it is being returned to. The body shell was then prep-solved, seam sealed, primed and Direct Gloss colour was applied (wet on wet) to the underside of the body over the stone chip, then the engine bay and cabin. All I can say is that it looks bloody amazing - even straight off the gun in DG! Needless to say my painter is a legend. I'm stoked and Tony the owner is over the moon to see colour on it finally! Now we start bolting the driveline in to make it mobile...

He's long left the community, so I doubt you'll get a reply.

You'll spend years in litigation, the lawyer(s) - if you can find one to take on the case - will suck up any and all funds you have now and after the case is settled, and untimely the #48 is still gone. Nothing good will come of it. My advice: Finish you other Z, never speak to your brother again and MOVE ON.

https://zfactory.au/Datsun-240z-10-piece-diamond-Vinal-kit-p492658888

I've got one in Warragul. PM me.

Don't be silly Andrew. Just bring it

2024 Christmas BBQ! It's on again! Date: Sunday 8th December 2024. - due to clashes with Datsun Day, Challenge Bathurst and Classic Japan. Time: 11am Onwards. Location: Same as previous years, Gordon and Sharon's property in the outer East near Lilydale. Please prey for dry weather! PM me for the address if you haven't been before. Bring your Zed, food and Drink and a chair. The wood fired BBQ will be provided. Bring your Wives , partners and kids. All welcome! And we will be having a special remembrance for the passing of a one of our long time members.

GORDONS' ALIVE!

1973 Datsun 240Z Chassis Number: HS30-101011 Matching numbers. Factory Automatic. ODO showing 28347 miles. Body and paint restoration completed in 2014 in its factory orange exterior paint code 918. Small paint blemish around the LH dogleg panel, otherwise the paint is immaculate. Mechanically excellent and drives without any issues. Interior is excellent, apart from a small split in the drive seat. Comes with a large history file. Currently on club registration so will be sold unregistered, however a Victorian Roadworthy certificate will be supplied upon sale. It's rare to find a Z in unmolested original condition, so in-person inspection is recommended. Selling on behalf of the owners. $70k neg Viewing by appointment in West Gippsland, Victoria. Automatic to Manual transmission conversion can be performed for an additional $5000.00

10 years! Time flys... Jamo drops into my shop with his Z a few months ago. Unfortunately he'd clipped a wombat with it which had shattered the spoiler and damaged the RH front guard, and he wanted to know if we could fix the guard and paint it. Not a problem. In July he dropped it off. Jamo had fixed the fibreglass spoiler himself, but the guard had a crease in it, so we tapped the crease out and then prepped it for paint. Straightening the guard: Feathering the paint back: Base coat: Clear: The Z got a cut and polish, then we reassembled it:

This was sent to Gav - Shocking news today about Linton: "Hey Mate I'm Stacie - Linton's daughter. Unfortunately I have some awful news to share and I wasn't sure how to go about it but as I saw you had messaged with him on a few posts and am an admin I'm reaching out to you. I wanted to let you and the Vic guys know that dad was involved in a fatal truck accident on Tuesday 23rd of July at 615am. He was ever so grateful to this community and really enjoyed the Christmas BBQ in Melbourne and the help he received from all of the members on the forum. Would you please share this information for anyone who knew him. I don't think there will be anyone but I'm happy for you to share my mobile number with a a few trusted members if they wanted to make contact at all. The only name I can think of is Gordon? I'll attach the Facebook link which has his memorial announcement on it. If anyone is included to leave a memory or message there they can. Sorry I couldn't get a more specific link. Apologies for delivering the news this way https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100026160045544

News today via bookface that Loui has sadly passed away RIP mate - it was great to know you.