Hey all, I'm Mark Belrose, and have been lurking these forums for some time but decided to finally get off my butt and register.

I've got two 1970 240Zs. The first is a nicely done VIN 72XX car with an L28 block, flat head pistons, .480 lift cam, and E88 head with big valves feed by stock SUs. The suspension consist of Ground Control coil-overs, bigger sway bars, etc... I've got vented rotors on the front and a disc brake conversion on the rear, and an R200 LSD. Its also got a fairly fresh bright red paint job done by a guy who has painted various award winning cars displayed in hot rod magazines. I used to autocross and open track it, and the nice paint quickly got dinged up following Porsches with steam roller stickies kicking rubber and rocks up onto my immaculate car.

Hence, the second 1970 240Z, vin 81XX. On my various work-related travels throughout the country, I noticed an old beat up 240Z with SCCA decals on it in an auto repair shop's parking lot in Ridgecrest, CA. I'd seen it for several years and had been leaning on the shop owner to sell it to me. It belonged to a marine who had since transferred to Guantanamo and hadn't been heard from in numerous years. The shop owner finally acquiesed and sold me the car with title and the old SCCA log book for $2k. The car looked ugly and my wife didn't like it in the garage. I'd told her I was going to part it out, but after a couple weeks of feigned sadness, she relented to my desire to restore and campaign the car.

It turned out to be a major find. I sure had not idea at the time. The car was originally raced back in 1971 at Riverside and Willow Springs by Bill Martin. It was once rolled at the Springs and the old bondo on the car's roof is very cracked after sitting for decades in the desert. The car had the following: original ARE magnesium rims, triple 44 PHHs, 1961 corvette cross-flow radiator, and most of the parts BRE sold back at that time. I've since sold the rims to Ron Carter for his beautiful BRE replica, as I was pretty nervous about going 150 mph at California Speedway on 35 year old mags. He also purchased that car's original motor. The current engine compartment is shown within the Racing Photos section shown on this website. If my wife knew the actual cost of developing the car, there's a distinct possibility I'd be single right now. The car is currently campaigned with the Vintage Auto Racing Association which runs at tracks in CA, NV, and AZ.

Very nice job. I love the look of the engine compartment. Can you tell me what the two hoses going to the top of the valve cover are for? Is this part of the dry sump oiling system?

Very nice job. I love the look of the engine compartment. Can you tell me what the two hoses going to the top of the valve cover are for? Is this part of the dry sump oiling system?

They're part of the dry sump system. The -12 vents the dry sump tank to the valve cover. The -10 then vents the valve cover to the vapor cannister which is mounted on the firewall. I seem to recall that we designed the entire plumbing system including pump, oil cooler and external filter, per the diagram in "How to Hotrod and Race Your Datsun". Since my tank is mounted in the rear right of the car, it required a buttload of stainless ($$$) to get it set up. Total oil capacity is 12 quarts. The tank is a Pederson and the pump is a Stock Car Products unit.

Other details: I run a 1961 Corvette cross-flow aluminum radiator without a fan. Typically during races I see 185 degrees water temp and 240 degrees for the oil. During my last race at California Speedway where the track temperature was 110 degrees, my oil temperature hit 260 degrees although my pressure remained rock steady. I'm not running synthetic, just Valvoline Racing 20-50.

Mark did Monty suggest that you run 20-50? He has recomended 30w racing for my U20 motor.

Mark did Monty suggest that you run 20-50? He has recomended 30w racing for my U20 motor.

Hey Ron. I've run 20-50 based on the recommendation of the guy from which I bought my original GT2 motor, which was also a dry sump configuration. Getting as hot as 260 degrees, I've even been tempted to run thicker viscosity oil except that the oil pressure has always been fine. I've heard as many opinions by racers regarding the best type of oil to use as there are cars on the track. I decided not to use synthetic as it gets a bit pricey changing out 12 quarts of oil come oil change time.

Perhaps that is an advantage of a dry sump system, keeps good pressure? We had that oil pressure dropping problem after a 1/2 hour run using multi-grade oil. Especially when the car switched drivers and went back out for another 1/2 hour, and so on all day long. After we installed the oil cooler and went to Redline Racing 40, it has been steady good pressure and the temp doesn't go above 220. Yep 10 qts. of that stuff gets my wallets attention. I'm actually concerned of not warming the oil enough on a cool morning and having too high of pressure! Currently using the MSA 4 row radiator and the water temp sits at 180 mid summer. We kick on the electric fan once back to the pits.

With an 8qt pan, oil cooler and 2qt accusump in the roadster I can relate to an oil change being a few bucks. I run consistant temps with my Ron Davis radiator and oil cooler (mounted in my front airdam).

Previous events I had internal motor issues that created hi friction problems that have now been fixed.

I run a solid 180 water and 220 oil (at the external filter) with my current configuration at Fontana.

I agree with your statement above Mark, and there could be good reasons to run multi weight oil in a dry sump configuration.

BTW: How were the Historic's Mark?

I have to agree my setup is a little screwy. I can sit there for 10 minutes warming up and never see my oil temp gauge start registering while my water temp gets very hot (having no fan doesn't help). Once on the track my oil temp quickly gets up to where it needs to be. I have to time the warm up process so that at the end of the first lap before green flag, the oil temp is good. So I guess having multi-viscosity oil may help during the long warm up process.

The Monterey Historics were great, with a large showing in the Datsun corral. A couple of them were unbelieveable, a 510 with a 300XZ turbo motor installed, and an early VIN 240Z with a Skyline turbo. The Grassroots Motorsports photographer got a nice shot with Bob Bondurant standing in front of my car. I'd like to somehow get a copy of that image. I also fell in love with one of the Lister Jaguars - I think I'll buy one with one of my spare millions.

Glad to hear that Bob made it over to the Corral. Who else showed up at the Corral?

John Morton was there briefly signing autographs. He was pretty short of time but tried to spread himself around as best he could. Pete Brock was busy in the paddock and unfortunately couldn't get away. A friend of mine talked with him the next day and Pete mentioned he thought the 240Z was the one of the best race cars ever, continuing to win major events decades after its debut.

Dan Haney was there in his nicely prepped 510 as was Bill Baker with his 240Z C Production race car. There were also two BMWs and an Alfa GTV, which Mark Davey arranged to show next to the Datsun race cars as those marques used to compete against each other.