1970 Z Refresh...biting the bullet

[five&dime]

or they were employing children, or drunks (but not drunk children)

[motorman7]

I picked up the yellow and silver zinc plated parts today as well as a new clutch disc, throw out bearing and pilot bushing. Also dropped the flywheel off at the machine shop to be surfaced. The pressure plate looks good, so I will just clean that part up. The block is painted and the freeze plugs replaced with new brass ones. Actually, the old ones looked to be in pretty good shape, but it is probably best to have replaced these in the long run.

Still spending a lot of time cleaning. Will continue to assemble the block once the head bolts come in.

Rich

[Carl Beck]

Hi Rich:

Good idea on the freeze plugs - be sure to paint them blue. Did you use a coat of Permitex or some other sealer when installing the freeze plugs? If not - or even if so - I'd run only water in the cooling system when you first restart that engine.

1. if you have any leaks - you only lose/clean up water

2. if you put anti-freeze and water mix in - then it is thinner and can leak were water alone would not. Running only water gives everything a better chance to seat in, as the engine goes through a few thermo cycles.

That engine compartment is going to look amazing..

FWIW,

Carl B.

[Mike B]

Shouldn't the coil bracket be cad plated too?

[motorman7]

Shouldn't the coil bracket be cad plated too?

Hi Mike,

I originally thought that the coil bracket should be the yellow zinc color (due to the exterior corrosion), however, the un-exposed inside part of the bracket was definitely the silver zinc, so it was plated with the silver zinc finish. Most of the parts were in this condition where the exposed surfaces showed the corrosion, but the unexposed looked vitually new. The brake line clips as well as most of the bolts were a good example of this.

Rich

Edited June 24, 2009 by motorman7
incomplete thought

[motorman7]

Hi Rich:

Good idea on the freeze plugs - be sure to paint them blue. Did you use a coat of Permitex or some other sealer when installing the freeze plugs? If not - or even if so - I'd run only water in the cooling system when you first restart that engine.

1. if you have any leaks - you only lose/clean up water

2. if you put anti-freeze and water mix in - then it is thinner and can leak were water alone would not. Running only water gives everything a better chance to seat in, as the engine goes through a few thermo cycles.

That engine compartment is going to look amazing..

FWIW,

Carl B.

Hi Carl,

I used the permatex for the freeze plug installation. The plugs were a very tight fit, 35mm's.

I was debating on painting the freeze plugs or not because they look kind of cool unpainted, but to be true to original they must be painted (although I will try and forego the drips). Will probably paint these up after work today.

Also, will post a picture of the new clutch disc here later. It is an original Nissan part (old) with the yellowish material, like my old one. It actually looks too pretty to install.

Rich

[Carl Beck]

Shouldn't the coil bracket be cad plated too?

Hi Mike:

If you look at the 70 Sales Brochure - you can see the engine compartment - and it looks like silver on the coil bracket.

FWIW,

Carl B.

[motorman7]

Commentary to follow

[five&dime]

It better be delivered by John Madden if we have to wait for it

[motorman7]

I painted the freeze plugs this AM. Looks like they came out well. I took a pic (see above) of one of the engine cylinders. On all of the cylinders, you could still see remnants of the original cross hatching. Not bad for 96K miles. Also, both cylinders and head were fairly clean with just a small amount of carbon build up.

I threw in a pic of the old and new clutch disc. The yellow/tan color looks pretty nice on the new one. The old one is well worn with a bit of burn on it. Also, picked up the re-surfaced flywheel and headbolts yesterday. Bought a new throw-out bearing. The pressure plate is in good condition. I will clean the surface with some 600 grit sand paper before assembly.

Put the head on this AM. It looks nice on the block but still needs a little clean up on the back end. I cleaned both surfaces with a sharp putty knife to get off the residual gasket material. Then cleaned both surfaces well with lacquer thinner. Put about 4 coats of copper gasket compound on the head gasket prior to assembly. We (son and I) then put the gasket and head on and threaded bolts (with permatex on threads) in loosely till they were flush. After dealing with one issue, we torqued all the bolts down per spec.

The one issue we did have involved the hole with the earlier broken bolt. the new bolt would not thread in easily to the hole. We still had 1/2 inch gap before flush and the bolt was too snug to hand thread. I ended up taking two of the old long bolts and slicing grooves in them to make them look like a tap. We then 'Tapped' the hole till the long bolts were flush to the head without the washer. We then took the new bolt with washer and proceeded with the torquing sequence. I also added one pre-torque sequence to 20 ft-lbs prior to the 35 and 47 ft-lb sequence.

Willl most likely take off Friday to finish the engine bay clean and wax. May get the motor in by Saturday. That would be nice.

Sorry, I am no John Madden

[motorman7]

I put on the timing chain this morning. Attached are pics showing the chain markings next to the cam and crank markings (both one link advanced, 42 links apart). I was looking for a 'white' link, but actually the marks are 'O's. Kind of like the Oregon Ducks 'O'. Rotated engine from crank and everything ran smooth.

Spent several hours cleaning the paint in the engine bay with Maguire's cleaner wax. The stuff works great. Had to get a toothbrush to clean the edges and under brackets. Still have more to go. Will likely do a little touch-up paint work in some areas, but overall, it's looking pretty good.

Also cleaned out the transmission bell housing of oily matter. Still some stained parts, but I will let that remain.

Starting to clean the brake lines. I was originally going to zinc them but everything was working well and tubes are not that bad looking. I will do a light clean of the lines with 0000 steel wool and then paint with clear enamel to prevent corrosion.

Also, being that I am over 45, I set myself up with a nice cushion in the center of the engine bay. If I was younger, I am sure I wouldn't need such luxuries.

[Diseazd]

What you have will work........but on the timing chain it should be mark to mark.