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Okay so I'm dragging this one back out because big changes are happening, the S38 engine experiment was a success in many ways and in a few ways not so much. So I pulled it and sold it on BaT, wonderful engine but it is just not supported anymore. I have rebuilt the e46 S54 M3 engine and that will be the new power plant. So far the swap is going well, the engine is in, transmission and diff are lined up and the custom driveshaft is being built right now. I should have it back in a week, next step is to have the BMW ECU re programed to eliminate all the extras that aren't needed and set to wiring it up. I finally got around to making the top of the radiator support removable, considering how often the engines come and go it will be a big help, just have smooth it out, do some filling/sanding and try to match the paint. The original intake airbox sticks right out into the shock tower and also had problems with the #1 and #6 cylinders having uneven access to air so I have opened it up will try to fabricate a custom funnel to the air filter.

I wish they would have stuck with the dual exhaust. It makes the back of the car look so much better IMHO.

I did the same when I bought mine back to life after 19 years. Removed the spark plugs so the starter had an easier job turning the motor. It took about 4 x 10 - 15 second goes to get the oil up to the cam.

Now I want Stroopwafles.

This is indeed a problem. The Nissan alloy mags use a special nut as shown above and rely on a tight fit for wheel centering. The shank diameter is not easily available in aftermarket lug nuts of this type, they are all smaller. The Nissan part number is 40224-R4670 and they are over $6USD each! Fortunately Dorman makes a replacement that is more reasonably priced. https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=1848480&jsn=531 DORMAN 611241 Just a note on the amount of run-out I had that caused wheel shimmy. 0.050 on one and 0.030 on the other front. Measured on the side of the rim as the wheel was turned by hand.

I have a fair few of those old OPTION and Car Boy magazines here at home. I recognised the car as being one of the old early 80s drag specials. Some of them had interesting ad powerful engines, but chassis setup for drag was not very well understood or developed at the time. From the same OPTION magazine issue, this is the same car as the rear view in the first post:

Hi Blue , the silver test car is a unique ! Do you remember I introduced Mr. Miyazaki who was a member of Euro S30 test team ? He said the man who was behind the wheel was him . I don’t know about the roll bar , it appeared different from the production model . I have this video’s DVD , it came as a bonus who bought the 1/8 Fairlady 240Z model . And the 100 books are also the most valuable part of this model . I actually don’t need the model , I wanted the DVD and the books . Kats

Thanks for that! I was told there could be piston scuffing if there was no oil up high in engine and to go slow by hand. Maybe i'll put some oil in the cylinders to follow the penetrating oil that's been soaking. I haven't gotten to the fuel tank as I'm not attempting to start it yet. Hoping to circulate oil and compression test for now to see what I've got. Seller under-reported the mileage by 100K but that's another story. I was told the engine was rebuilt 23K miles ago when it was actually 103K miles ago. Dying to see what the compression is. Gonna clean and test the radiator, replace water and fuel hoses and water pump as it's seized. Was sold to me with webers on and SU's in a box but I don't really want to screw with those webers. Intend to rebuild the su's, install em and then start it. I sold a 72 when I was 26 and I've regretted it ever since. Now I'm 60 and I finally have a Z again!!

Hi Blue , I added notes , I hope you get it . This data must be a " typical " for works rally cars, each car has each set up I think . Kats

I am sure this has been covered but wanted to share anyway. Since I have owned the car it has had the same tires on it, they were fairly new looking when I go the car a few years ago. The car has always had a slight shake or shimmy I guess you would call it that would cause the steering wheel to shake MOST TIMES around 40-45 mph. That is it would almost always have this shake but not always. After going thru all the front end parts looking for an issue, including take the wheels off and having them re balanced, I finally decided to try some new tires/rims. This dates back to when we had a 1974 260z that did the same exact thing, it came from the dealer with turbine rims (yes we paid for the "upgrade"). After several attempts to resolve a same shimmy in the steering wheel we return to steel rims and the problem when away. Due to the generosity of a member here (JSM) he let me try out some wheels he had been storing. They were steel rim with 205/60 IIRC tires. The tires I had were TOYO brand 195/70. the 60 profile means the diameter of the wheel in quite a bit smaller. After a extensive test drive at all speeds the shimmy is completely gone in my 280z :) I don't know if my alum mag is the problem or the TOYO had flat spots or still improperly balanced, but its nice to know for sure its a wheel issue. The 60 profile tire effected the reading of the speedo quite a bit, 80 indicated was more like 73 actual. I assume the analog speedo is not the accurate to start with but just something I noted (used the gps for actual speeds). The 60s also seemed to allow for a more "pep" as the engine wound up higher, I presume due to the smaller wheels making like a higher number diff ratio. I will still go back to the 70 series though since the look of the 60's just is not right with a 14" rim (just too small over all). I can see how the 70's really need a 3.7 vs the 3.54 diff for a bit more spirited a drive with the ZX 5 speed and its .75 OD. I have correct hub caps coming that should make the car look totally original. again a HUGE thankyou to JSM for letting me try out those wheels, with out that I would not have known for sure the issue without the expense of trying new stuff, now I know for sure.

Hello to all. . . Hopefully someone can shed some light. Starting a jan 71 car with 260 engine I just bought after 15 garaged years. Loaded the cylinders with penetrating oil, waited 3 days. Changed the oil and pre-filled the new filter with oil. Valve cover is off and I'm hand turning the crank and waiting for oil on the rockers. . . Seems like I turned 30 or 40 revolutions so far and still no sign. Do I keep going or order a new oil pump? Thought it would be there by now. . . . . Andy

I pay him to post stuff like that every now and then, thanks buddy, cheque is in the mail.

Looks like they made atleast a few shark gill Z's that moved: 3 Gill no drip rail 4 Gill with curved drip rail AND ROLL Bar! Chris you have helped connect some of the pieces!

Hi Chris, First. WOW.... you are great to see those "shark gills"! I thought it was just wrinkles from a first attempt at a vinyl top. That my help narrow the time of the wind tunnel and dust resilience test videos. (Sorry I ran out of "likes" for today but "LIKE" to you!!!!) Here is where I stumbled across the early testing video. The later part shows the neat stuff: https://global.nissannews.com/ja-JP/videos/video-e3f77bf0445dce99ca6040492d01a69c-240z_s30_heritage Some of the pictures above are from frame captures and tweaking of resolution and lighting to bring out points of interest I dug a bit more and found a few shots here: https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&rurl=translate.google.ca&sl=ja&sp=nmt4&tl=en&u=https://nissangallery.jp/ghq/mikoukai_201401/&xid=17259,15700021,15700186,15700190,15700256,15700259,15700262,15700265,15700271,15700283&usg=ALkJrhif64yf2GBxy6LKqyizt2dI9P0rSQ I believe the first Shark Gill car above is a plastic static model however the wind tunnel car seems like the one driven by Mr. Takei in the video. The drip rail also curves in the wind tunnel car! 4 Gill 3 Gill with curved drip rail, and very early spoiler design

I think someone added that, as I'm not aware of any Z from the factory having two switches there. It's normally either a blank, or a cig lighter. I believe only 72-73 Zs had the cog lighter, and your '71 should have had a blank.

Blue , we are learning every day! About the not pointy hood , I remember Mr. Tamura and Mr. Yoshida told me that they were trying to shape the hood front edge not pointy . Mr. Tamura did free hand drawings for me at the dinner table , he explained how they wanted to be the headlight case . You see “ r 5 “ next to the head light case . To match the case , Mr. Tamura and Mr. Yoshida were making the head light cover trim ring as “ not pointy “ . Personally , I am a big fan of its sharp edge of the case . Early original is the sharpest due to aging I think , later metal case is never be that sharp on top of the edge . Here is the reference thread which contains the report of a dinner with Mr . Tamura and Mr . Yoshida . Kats

I have that video. Be careful of the DVD 'region' because Japanese produced DVDs don't normally play in North American machines. I had to get an "all region" DVD player to see it. I have several other DVDs with the same dilemma.

@Randalla I discovered that the flange on my original down pipe was no longer flat after fighting the same issue for a couple years. Using two gaskets helped for a while. Ultimately i purchased a new down pipe and had it mated to my new Zstory exhaust then ceramic coated it and the manifold. Problem solved. Good luck.

Here is a good frame with the front grill. The bulge in the hood does not seem as pointy too.... but it could be lighting. Perhaps rubber in front centre of bumper too.

Yes , we need to ask him to talk about all the things when he was in a team . I also want to have an opportunity to see Mr. Takei the chief of the Euro S30 team . I found this car has the rear bumper overrider which Mr. Tamura originally intended for , but as you see in his drawings , this car’s overrider is not as cool as Mr.Tamura ‘s design. Also Mr. Tamura intended to put a rubber strip for center part of the bumper front and rear , can we see it in this silver car ? Kats

Last summer i had some 280zx turbo wheels under my 240z and discovered that the wheelnuts i use for the winterwheels (are aftermarket rims) are a different size diameter as they are not conical. That gave me a lot of shimmy issues! check the diameter of the wheellugs and the diameter the rims need.

Thanks Kats! I tried to get the video a few years ago but no luck. I'll try again. From just looking at the minute of testing video on the Nissan web site, there are many interesting details to investigate. That early roll bar is one for sure. If you look closely, it seems to have the side mount points (but not on wheel well) and the two vertical bars to the hatch floor like the production roll bar. Mr. Miyazaki is a true Nostalgic Hero; just like all of the others involved in the project! It is nice when you can identify the person in these old videos and make all of the connections. I am guessing the testing of the silver car may be spring 1968?

My 4/71 Z which I've owned since new has the ash tray and lighter in the center console like the one pictured above. No lighter in the dash. You likely have a replacement dash from a later Z. Dennis

Thought I would throw in a pic of the twins.

I’ll look...

Just had a look, I don't have a spare but we know someone who probably does, @zKars

That would be a good idea. Penetrating oil is not meant for that type of lubrication. Not sure cylinder pressure will tell you much until it's been running and the surface rust has worn off. The shifter probably feels bad because the bushings are shot. An easy fix.

I have solved steering wheel shimmy issues with new wheels / tires before also. My silver 240z has a bit of shimmy between 60 and 65 mph. It has new suspension components everywhere. I know for a fact though that my wheels aren't totally straight (and require a lot of weight to balance) so when I replace the wheels I expect all of the shimmy to clear up. At one point in my life I did find that straight wheels could shimmy with cheap tires. In that case a change to better tires solved it. As you mentioned too, I have found that wheels that take a lot of weight to balance often have problems with shimmy on a Z.

Turning by hand will not be fast enough. The oil pump has clearance inside that will allow the oil to leak past the rotor before it builds pressure if you're turning it slowly. Dribble some oil over the rocker arms and cam lobes and use the starter, with the spark plugs out, and you should be fine.

Attached: 1970 Oct Road and Track Datsun 240z.pdfEarly Article of Automatic 240z in NA

'73 - or at least the back window. Can't recall if that was available on earlier Canadian cars. Looks like a decent project ?