mspecr

Got around to assembling all four hubs, parts where taking up to space so had to start making room. All new bearings, seals, brake cylinders / pistons. Didn't have a tap for the m10x1.25 so just fine blade through a spare bolt hanging around to help remove excess powder coat. Struts assembled with Stagg shocks, shock boots, and wrapped in king spring - std height. Front Caliper Pistons : Protex #: DB2014 Rear Cylinders : Dorman #: W96878 + W96879 Front old badly pitted pistons.

So after reading " AK builds " epic post on restoring his fuel tank, was only fitting that I followed suit. Condition of mine well was solid sludge, and crusty remains. The gunk that came out when draining it originally was not healthy.. Following the instructions that came with the POR15 Fuel tank repair kit, I only did a small test with just the fuel sender with great results, mind you some manual scrubbing with a small brush went a long way. All up prob's total 3 hrs playing around with this thing. Fuel tank will definitely take a lot longer to break down the amount of sludge. It looked really bad from here, was seized good. soaked in marine clean for a good 20 min. use a tooth brush along the contacts and resistive track, be weary of the fine wire that's from the sender lid to the track. this cover plate can be removed by untwisting the top bent lip where it pass's through, gaining access to the resistive track clear the junk behind the resistive track and its mounting pad. check the range, 10.5 to 93 ohms, seams to work great.

Only a minor update. I managed to score a bargain via gumtree, one rb26 block and crank for $50... I didn't believe it at first, so I quickly called and told the bloke ill grab it straight away, For this price expect issues.. and sure enough, melted 5 / 6 pistons and 2 / 7 spun mains. I was only after a block anyways i grabbed them both. Taking it home and pulling apart, I discovered it is a n1 block (24u cast) loaded with a long nose crank - winnings ! Cleaning it all down, doing a very attack with a die grinder, I went straight to Harris Engines Osborne Park. So explaining what I " wanted " and then translating to what they will do, the following work will be done. Block decked / torque plate honed, (to suit new forge 86.5mm slugs ) Line bore / hone, ( using ARP mains for this one ) Replacing core plugs. Oil Pump drive to be replaced with a new Oil Pump Drive collar. Polish of journals. Rotating Balance. ( inc Harmonic Balancer and Clutch assembly ) The old crank I brought also to see if that is salvageable, everything inc mag particle. Lot of scale came out of it .. The worst of the lot, a hone alone ain't going to fix this. still scaly .. hard life but its seen better days, this drive is getting replaced. The Nitto oil drive held up really well to the abuse, all thou you can just barely see the contact pad, easy less then a mm. quick cleanup. taper the drain holes to suit the gasket, more will come later. Roughly a week- two week turn around, and that's taking their time. I was hoping for a month to help save room in the garage... thou I guess not. The head I will get around to a full tear down later, hopefully it shouldn't need much work as long it comes up flat, maybe a quick lap we shall see.

Top Job with details to boot. ! def Sticky worthy haha. Keep up the great work.

Sorry its been well over due for a update. Been away for work months *literally* at a time, however perks for being away you get to order things and its Christmas when you return ! So to begin. Under body items powder coated. Over all I'm quite happy for the quality of work, coverage was even done into some of deep areas like the hollow sections of the front sub frame and rear suspension arms, which i didn't expect to be done but they did. Very minor clean up is required in some areas ie. tapping threads and removing left over masking tape.. but overall this saved me hours of work is well worth the $ spent. After cleaning a few items up. On with some new bushes. mmm lube... comparison picture from before blasting and powdercoating.. Sent my bolts away to get re zinced.. $80 bucks up to 20 kgs.. for me it sounded like a bargain ! till i added items up off the Z that only came to 6 kgs... Sooo... I managed to scrape together all the loose bolts i can find from prior jobs and even items that was not related but " might be later " to add to the pile. Again this is a batch process,, some are expected not to be perfect when finished, prior to doing this its worth taking pictures of selected groups of items to help you sort out your collection.. also grab a few tackle boxes / organiser cases.. you will need them. ones that didn't make it.. The before pics. I did order some std height king springs. The rear set was fine however I got a front set that suit a holden.... *grumbles*... so that had to be sent back, the correct replacements have a 3 week lead time... ... the culprit Should of powder coated the originals in yellow..

Hit a milestone, shes finally up on the rotisserie And it doesn't look all that bad from under neigh surprisingly.

@ Brabham. your onto it buddy Its been a while thanks to being flat out at work and what not, plus its pitch black by 6pm.. which sadly is the time I get home nowadays. *shakes fist at peak hour freeway*. So its time for a short story... I started pulling apart my old RB. Quick history of my new boat anchor goes as followed, I built it about 5-6 years ago, and was home in a pewter grey S15 spec R, making a modest 450 with the most linear power curve on pump fuel. Life was great. 1st is useless. 2nd still useless 3rd. the same .4th interesting. 5th might blow this gear, being that it was a weekend car it was driven hard every time it was started. The setup listed below easy can develop more power but I never found the need being a light weight car.. as much as I don't like to admit this but I was the limiting factor in it. ( I need more skill in driving... but being half Asian it " should " come natural to me.. least I thought anyways. ... ) So somewhere along the line I got mature and got distracted by the idea of the Z dream, so the s15 had to go. ( this is where my 2+2 came about ). Prior the s15 leaving me I swapped out the drive line and engine setup, this is where I found my issue... a cracked block, not deck area but on the side between #3 and #4, this is more of a cast / structural fault if anything, a somewhat common problem on hard engines.. Looking into it, it can / might be fixed however you still have to tear it down, thou with lots of rbs around it seamed more cost effective in finding another block and machining that too suit, plus it gives me a chance to add / mod / start from blank slate. Here it sat in the garage under wraps for a good year or two. Specs : Later r33 GTR crank. (long nose) ACL race bearings. Eagle Rods. Cp Pistons @ 87mm @ 8.5 CR 272* (248* @ .050") In and Ex cams, 11mm lift. Greedy Adjustable Cam gears. Tomei Metal Head gasket set 87mm @ 1.2mm 1 mm oil restrictor Extra cam cover baffles. Nitto Oil pump 6 boost exhaust manifold Turbosmart 50mm wastegate. Garret gt3582r, .70 comp .62 rear ID 1000 injectors on HKS fuel rail. Vipec ECU. So it leaves me with a few options, 1. Find a block, get it machined straight to 87.. and throw in a new set of rings / bearings to suit. (pending current condition of pistons / rods / crank ) 2. Find a block, machine to 86.5 and obtain new slugs n rings and use existing rods ect ect. 3. Find one already built. Guess its time too do some number crunching. Doesn't look like much but this crack is just above the oil feed to the turbo.

A Fair bit of work has been put into her by the sounds of it, just needs to have them finishing touch's and you will be up and running in no time. Good luck with the build !

Happy birthday !

Yup indeed, I got a set of universal ones for the steering rack. Its the boots for the Struts I'm chasing. Just did a comparison between them as it was a good idea but they just fall short sadly but yeah must be bigger ones out there. Steering Rack universal boot : 18000 - Motorgear OEM strut boot top, Universal steering boot below. Top of strut boot. Bottom of strut boot. I'll keep looking something has to be out there that's close enough. Continuing on today was the mustache bar, same deal here had to burn out the center crush tube, while this was going on I was approached by a person promoting the greens movement. It was ironic outer all times to be burning bushes out in the driveway, lets just say they didn't stay for too long sadly. I could of left it burning till all the rubber was out, but the fumes where gassing me out of the garage, so I spent the time doing it mechanically. The rest was just masking odd bits and pieces, threads, studs holes ect ect. Standing up for Fremantle ! 44mm hole saw make quick work of removing left over rubber. die grinder, file and sandpaper cleans the remaining rubber. snug fit. almost there. Now its trying to find what else I have left out, then compile a list so the powder coaters know what is supposed to be there, last thing you want is to lose something and have no proof of its existence.

Haha cheers , " snow ball effect " comes to mind, and its a problem, frankly I " could " just leave it, but since it has to be inspected I may as well go the whole 9 yards. Presentation alone could be the difference in changing someones opinion. Which reminds me I haven't given much thought about springs, so cheers for the reminder. If you got time to do it, do it properly, nothing worse then going back to something you could of done when you had the chance to do it right the first time. Just my opinion.

Managed to swing past a local powder coating joint in O'connor to discuss what they can do for me, turns out they do in house media blasting also. In mentioning about how they want things masked one of the gents gave me roll of black tesa tape which was quite nice of them. While masking away I came to the rear control arms and was pondering the idea if i should remove the old bushes now or later. I had the new bushes here so I went and measured them to see if they will fit, the existing bushing with its outer cage was roughly around 30mm, so these had to go. bondage tape. new bushing get these. burn this. poke the hot tube out. find a saw. make 4 cuts in a compass. I was light with cutting so i didn't go to far. Fold in like so. using a 3 jaw bearing puller and the rear wheel bearing spacer for the backing press till it falls out, wd40 helps. clean up the hole / burrs with some sandpaper, wipe clean and test fit. Repeat x4. The diff mustache bar looks to be a similar method, I'll get onto that tomorrow. Guess its better to burn them out now instead of fighting later and trying not to damage the new paint later.

For this week I had a craving for pulling things apart, so the victims where the front struts, rear struts, and both sub frames. I did actually attempt to clean up the parts, but for the time and effort it seam a logical choice to get them blasted and powder coated. Here wd40 is your friend. Just for reference : Strut Bearing : Nachi - 28TG52 Front bearing set : Outer NSK - LM11949 Inner NSK - LM67048 HUB seal : KC 48 62 6 Rear bearing set : Outer NSK - 831Z-16C4 *note this has a extended inner race on one side which should be sealed, mount this side most outwards / closest to hub face. Inner Nachi - RLS10 HUB seal : 43232 E4100 Surface rust finish. Only 1 boot survived, anyone know of alternate replacements for these ? cylinders looked great, thou i will throw in a re seal kit while everything is out. * The outer rear wheel bearing with its extended inner race and sealed edge. Pulling apart is easy, putting it back together is another, I'll go more into detail when we come to that part. I heard stories of people having issues pulling out spindle pins which I was dreading, lucky enough mine came out easy with only a few taps phew... Only question now should I leave the old bushes in or remove prior to powder coating ? There all going to be replaced at some stage.

Keep up the great work Jeff, coming together nicely.

Great to hear another Perth owner, Welcome and enjoy the ride. Frankly you cant put a price on experience and being older she has lots..

This statement is so true !!!... And this one as well.. I see what you mean I contacted a fair few already to get there vibe on the situation and its bit of a hit and miss for the gents ( so far ) over here. I have found one that's quite reasonable with only requiring emissions gear like charcoal canisters from the newer engine to be installed, even thou the car wasn't installed with one, but he seams interested and willing to discuss further. Still a few more that I haven't contacted yet but there starting to get quite distant from where I am located, this is somewhat a task in itself really :S.

... Straight to the priority list then, will start hunting down a engineer 1st thing Monday. Appreciate the heads up Peter.

Peter you where reading my mind , I just started brain wrenching on how I am going to tackle this and currently I have the following : 1 : McKinney Motorsports - Bolt in kit ( engine and gearbox ) link http://www.mckinneymotorsports.com/prod_240+260+280Z+parts 2 : CXracing - Bolt in kit ( engine, engine sump and gearbox ) link http://www.cxracing.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=CXR&Product_Code=ESK-OP-RB26-240Z&Category_Code=240Z 3 : Castlemain RodShop - Bolt in kit (engine and gearbox ) link http://www.rodshop.com.au/index.php/datsun/240z-260z/em081-nissan-engine-mounts.html 4 : Custom - Just like your brilliant example, I do like how your able to keep your twin pipes tucked well up in that tunnel. 5 : Custom v2 - Moving the original internal mounting frame, cut a section out and place it lower down the tunnel, mod the normal Rb / skyline to suit new location. Idea i found came from here. link http://www.zcar.com/forum/10-70-83-tech-discussion-forum/343874-my-260z-project-awaiting-rb25-2.html Comments i have thus so far on each of them. 1 . + Bolt on kit +/- Mild steel / power coated construction. +/- The have a sump to suit the RB on that same link, tailshafts, intercooler ect ect - Seen other threads of engine mounts failing, they look small to me. - I don't like how the Rb box is on more of a counter lever instead of being directly supported under it. 2 . + Bolt on kit plus sump ! + Loving that massive sump flange to keep the engine rigid, also this man Adam Hutchin made a good decent review on this sump with his thoughts and opinions https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szlPTCeMrus +/- Most reviews I have read say there quite good with a few odd saying no.. +/- They sell other bits as well intercoolers, turbo kits exausts.. ect ect + Stainless Steel construction for engine mounts and gearbox. + Uses OEM RB gearbox mounts - Same as above with the McKinney, the gear box is counter levered, this seams to be the norm for a bolt in job thou by the looks of it, it is however a thick bent plate designed to take OEM mounts. 3 . + Bolt on kit +/- Don't have the Rb25 gearbox a ( FS5R30A ) listed on there website but can contact them about it. +/- Ha vent really found anything stating " how good / well " this particular kit is, Im sure some one has use them ?, feel free to chime in. 4. Looks easy and straight forward, supports directly under the gearbox where it needs to be and same time braces the inside chassis rail via crush tubes, what more can you ask for , The only question that comes to mind would be, the consulting engineer.. ( yet to find one ) would he /she accept this method ?. Reason being as i didn't list any body modifications in my application to DPI.. 5. Similar to question 4. body mod and DPI. Overall all of them need some sort of mod to fix / adjust / tune, just haven't decided yet.

Resuming.. For future reference don't do it this way... You will just make so much work for yourself that's not really needed, since I do have a screw loose or two I went with it. That old saying " if it ain't broke don't fix it " came to me later.. Tack the firewall back in, well the replacement. not original. Pulled apart the battery tray from the firewall, happy I did as I found some surface rust hiding. tack the battery area back in. locating missing holes that was missed during welding. the nasty part. Overall theirs not to much left in this area, just pin holes to fill and finalize grinding.. On a good note my rails came in, this is actually a 2nd order as the 1st one went AWOL and is apparently being sent back to the US, according to the post office it was declined 3 times.... which was odd as I was never left a note and was to late to follow it up. The Bad Dog Parts are quite solid, also they came in raw from so these do need to be prepped prior to being installed. Just for a experiment i picked up a vibratory tumbler off flee bay for odd bolts and nuts to clean up. Worth a shot as there are many small items that I need cleaned up and If it works should save me countless hours with a wire wheel, As it only got delivered late today I only had some sandblasting media to test with, probs not the right stuff but I ll try anything these days.. China plug ! Test subjects (fixings from one front strut / brake assembly ) minus the 50 cal shell. http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w3/mspecr/1974%20Datsun%20260z%20build/repair%20progress/th_20160526_170225_zpstyyxnrqr.mp4 Its actually quiet, which i like, Ill keep updating random experiments with this thing.

Awesome thanks Lurch, will do some homework

Oooo looking mint, Quick question what is coating inside of the block for ? Is it also done in the coolant galleries as well ? excuse my ignorance.

Will do sir ! Actually I was going to do this http://www.viczcar.com/forum/topic/10196-rudolfs-22-update-6516-video-update-give-me-feedback/?p=176480 Thou currently since i have my donor .. going to attempt to do cut that entire corner out and see if i can graft it into mine. Thanks for the kind words 260NZ, haha nah I have all of them , thou I force myself to at least do a hr or two a day, more on weekends. This girl ain't going to build itself unless i get the miss's to learn to wield a grinder and the mig, - One can only dream... So I decided to try to go with chopping my donor for that battery tray area / floor piece as it was in mint condition. Its worth mentioning that the later 260z floor panels have different indentations and there chassis rails are more deeper then the early versions. If this way doesn't seam to go well I will just do what Rudi did on his, and I guess the same as many others have done in a similar fashion. chopped. This inner stone guard? , was brazed, and welded on and frankly I couldn't save it. I still have a spare at least. I have gone over board with this approach.... thought being it all goes in once piece, the con to this is that there are many small trims that have to work to make this fit. Rough cut. Rough cut. Rough Fitment, to see what else to be trimmed. But you get the general idea. Here in this pic you can see the different floor pan design, being a floor I'm not overly too concerned at this point, thou I have massive amounts of excess material to trim to make this work. Work in progress.

:S I'll be sure to take my time on it, cheers for the heads up. I have been staring at it for a while still contemplating how to go about on it. Thanks again for the kind words Jeff ! Ok so this week, I sorta got distracted and was playing with one of my other toys, so nothing really got done on the 260z besides a " very " minor clean up in garage. Not a 260z thou still a nissan this all happened because i found a inter cooler the back shed and thought I would make use of it. Had to reduce the size of my original oil cooler to 16 row, lose the original power steering cooler and replace with a davis craig trans cooler. reroute intake pipework to suit. Still more stuff to do, but it will do for now. Need to get a power run done so I know what a stage 1 rb25 does in a patrol on 33". Mark. - currently distracted.

Top Job Rudi, great way to raise the bar on your build thread, makes it so much easier to be " more involved/following " in someones build. Keep them vids coming !

Top work as always, keep it up !