motorman7

Hi Terry, Yes, mine is exactly the same as yours on the engine mount (I have not moved the transmission so not familiar with that). I have one spacer on the passenger side and none on the drivers side. I will post pics a little later. You can see the outline of the spacer on the passenger side, no outline on the driver side. Also, the serial numbers of our cars are very close so perhaps they were done the same. Rich Currently I am refreshing the engine and it is on a stand, so you caught this at a good time.

Thanks! That's just what I need. Rich

Does anyone know the "official color" of the mounts attached to the engine (The pieces going from the rubber part to the engine block). On my original '70, I have one mostly blue and one mostly black. Go figure. They look to be originally blue with black overspray. I am doing my best to keep the car as original as possible, but this one has me perplexed. Would prefer to have them both the same color. Rich

From 26th-Z: "The weld marks on your oil pan signify an early engine; unique to the early cars. A damper plate was welded on to the oil pans because of vibration." My car was built in 3/70 which was a fairly early build, so I guess they were still modifying parts on the line.

I didn't think it was a big deal so I left it. I am assuming all links are created equal. I had probs with the chain tensioner gasket. The one in the 'Ishano/Stone' kit did not match the tensioner body so I had to re-use the old gasket and carefully apply gasket sealer. May see if I can locate a new one here.

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.

Personally, I am not so happy. Last two items I ordered were billed as NOS parts (Wire clamps and rubber muffler hangers). Neither arrived in an NOS bag and neither item looked like my original. I have taken him off of my favorite sellers list and will no longer buy parts from him. Z-connection seems a bit better. Got the NOS bag with item from Z-connection.

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

Commentary to follow

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

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

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

Was cleaning parts last night and ran across everything you noted above. It's really very amusing to look this stuff over. There is blue paint on the head, intake manifold, timing chain, cover and oil pan. I have one motor mount that is mostly black and one that is mostly blue. Among this there are the numerous paint runs on the (mostly) blue block. Very random and creative. I am trying to imagine the scenario's in which a paint job can turn out this bad on the assembly line. My two main thoughts are that the paint guys supervisor gave him 15 seconds to paint the engines, or they were employing children, or drunks (but not drunk children). Anyway, I posted a couple of the inspection marks which will remain. Rich

Thanks David! When I get this finished I'd love to join in the events. Rich

Thanks Rex, but I already have some picked out. Picking them up Tuesday. Rich

My son and I spent most of the day cleaning and painting parts. Most of the time was spent cleaning the aluminum pieces. We also replaced the rear seal with an NOS rear seal. I took a couple pics of the inspection marks; one on the engine and one on the oil pan. I decided to leave them because I thought they were pretty cool. Plus they are both on the underside of the engine so not very visible. Still not doing much assembly at this point. I will have to wait for the head bolts to come before I start putting the engine back together. Rich

Thanks for the input on that Carl, I will go ahead and order those. Seems like most manufacturers recommend replacement now a days. I will replace the clutch disc and get the flywheel turned as you mentioned. I will also replace the pilot bushing. Thanks again for the help. Rich

Hi Chris, The engine serial number is 005353. I re-painted the block Nissan blue, but taped over the yellow inspection 'blob' so it will remain. I also left the engine serial number unpainted and will put a clear coat over it. I will get you a pic of the oil pan later today with the inspection 'V'. I will see what condition the pan is in and see if just a clean will be sufficient. Maybe just some touch up. It reminds me of a 'tie dye' 70's t-shirt. The overspray on the engines is funny. The heater hose 'Y' had overspray on it. Makes me wonder how the first units were manufactured. Now, need to find out where to get new head bolts. Not sure if they can be re-used.

The cylinders look great, so I will not be doing anything with the pistons or crank. The cylinders actually have the original cross-hatching on them still. I was happy to see that. Not much carbon on top of the pistons either. We cleaned that off and taped to the top front and bottom before paint. We did have one glitch. Broke one of the head bolts off in the block. The bolt broke near the head so I have some body to work with. I put several doses of liquid wrench on (it worked for the smog rails). Will add more and work on this after the paint is done. Hopefully this comes out OK. I have learned not to rush this, let the solvent do its job. I originally did not want to take the head off, but had a very minor leak near the back (passenger side) between the head and the block. Also, it will be easier to clean and paint this way. Also allowed me to check the cylinders. Looks like I will need a new cluthch plate also. It is looking pretty worn. It has maybe 10K more miles on it before I hit the rivets. Time to change it. Rich

Well, we (my son and I) got the engine block out smoothly. As soon as it was out, we began pulling parts off of it to prep for paint. We stripped it down to a short block. After cleaning the block (wire wheel and lacuer thinner primarily) We wiped it down and I applied several coats of the blue engine block paint. It looks very nice! Will apply a couple more coats later. I do have one question though. What is the color of the oil pan? Mine is complete chaos. There is black over the blue and prominent weld marks on the outside. The is also a nice white quality V mark on the black portion on the bottom that I would like to keep. I am leaning toward black for the entire thing. I would like to tape over the quality 'V' and leave it on the pan. Rich

These are mine. Pretty close to original but with some minor corrosion. build dat 3/70 Rich

If I had $1K to put into it and a couple weeks, I could have it looking pretty sweet. Too busy with my own though. Just thought I'd post it here. Sad to see it wasting away in the sun. UV kills

A used car dealer is selling a '71 240Z on craigslist. I checked it out. The body is very decent and has minimal rust (dime spot under right rear hatch, trace rust in some body grooves). Paint is oxidized but most likely salvagable. Minor bump to right front fender. Engine needs help, degreaser anyway. Choke not hooked up. Previous owner tried to incorporate the 'cruise control' throttle. Unfortunately the car has been sitting in the sun on his lot for the last two years. 1 crack in dash in the middle. Sad to see this go to waste like that. Also, car is most likely 153K miles based on tires, drivers seat and PO mods. http://sandiego.craigslist.org/csd/ctd/1221124258.html