Refresh Part 2, 1971 Z with L26

[saridout]

hey motorman7, i'm doing an engine bay refresh right now too and thought i'd share my (lousy iphone) photos. for me, though the masking was tedious, the cleaning part was the worst. down on the insides of the rails was just impossible to get clean, even with a pressure washer. i sat on the crossmember for 8 hours i'm doing a color change to BRG, and i'm going to put on the first coat this weekend. very exciting! i hope it turns out half as well as yours is looking.

[five&dime]

Make sure you wrap that foil really well. It's a great trick but it also allows paint to creep in if you don't wrap it right. I used like 3 boxes for my 510

[saridout]

ok will do!

[Gychasgy]

Hey motorman7 if you really need a vacation and a lengthy refresh..... I mean rebuild... you could drop by Indy and help me out with my 260Z! I am looking forward to seeing the rest of your post though because I have an L26 engine as well so hopefully it will give me a bit of inspiration... Oh and I love your 240Z, truly beautiful.

[motorman7]

hey motorman7, i'm doing an engine bay refresh right now too and thought i'd share my (lousy iphone) photos. for me, though the masking was tedious, the cleaning part was the worst. down on the insides of the rails was just impossible to get clean, even with a pressure washer. i sat on the crossmember for 8 hours i'm doing a color change to BRG, and i'm going to put on the first coat this weekend. very exciting! i hope it turns out half as well as yours is looking.

Looks like a good start! I went through a whole role of tape and it probably took me 4 hours of taping for my bay. Seemed like forever. I love Lacquer Thinner and Steel wool for cleaning things, it works great. It tore through the old paint pretty fast. Just make sure to vacuum and clean well before painting or you will get the steel wool hairs in there. Looking forward to seeing the finished product. The BRG color is very nice.

My son wanted me to paint the silver car Yellow. I love the color but figured that silver would be a little more stealth and result in fewer speeding tickets. Now he's trying to talk me into black racing stripes for the silver car. We'll see.....that's too far in the future to think about now

[motorman7]

Took the day off and had an enjoyable time putting parts on the motor. I should be able to drop it in tomorrow, maybe have it running by the end of the day if there are not too many interruptions.

Here is a picture of the Bolt Kit from Eiji at Datsun Spirit. This made putting things together pretty easy.

Also got my zinc parts back from Les at Classic Datsun Motorsports. They look great. It was actually cheaper to zinc all of the parts than order the bolt set. If the bolts weren't in such bad shape, that is all I would have done.

Got the valve cover bead blasted. That is also worth it for the looks. The black was horrid. This looks pretty clean. Not bad for $40. Not sure if I like the oil cap, but my son likes it so I will leave it for now. Still have the original.

Here's some pics of the motor. Hopefully will have this baby installed and running tomorrow...Monday at the latest.

[Gychasgy]

How much did the bolt kit run from Eiji at Datsun Spirit?

[motorman7]

How much did the bolt kit run from Eiji at Datsun Spirit?

$135 plus $10 shipping; $145 total.

[saridout]

hey motorman, your block looks real good. i was putting my head on today and broke one of the head bolts got it out of the block, but now i have to wait for the new bolt to get here next week. here's a photo of the brg for ya.

[motorman7]

hey motorman, your block looks real good. i was putting my head on today and broke one of the head bolts got it out of the block, but now i have to wait for the new bolt to get here next week. here's a photo of the brg for ya.

The BRG looks great. Maybe I will get one that color some day. Make sure you clean up the overspray there before you put too much in the engine bay. It's easiest to clean when it's empty. Lookin' good, keep it up!

[motorman7]

Well, got her all back together and it looks good; much better than the before pics. I have a small problem though, there is an exhaust manifold leak on the the number 5 cylinder. I will need to pull the carbs/ intake and exhuast manifold and re-do the gasket. I ran out of copper gasket and didn't put much on. That is part of the problem. The other is that the headers did not seem so align well on the head during installation. They are the MSA 6 into 1 headers and they seem to sit a bit low on the head. Will re-check the fit when I pull everything off and see if I need to grind the attach tabs a bit so it rides higher.

Total cost for the refresh was just under $500.

Below are some before and after pics.

[=Enigma=]

Very nice work again. How many hours of labor did you spend on this?