SpeedRoo

@Kats the early record car had the spook front spoiler, faired in headlights and tail spoiler. What was even more remarkable it had the early rear diff setup with the forward mounting point and angled driveshafts. Considering these supposedly caused vibrations in the standard 240Z they obviously weren't a problem at 150mph!

Found it @Carl Beck https://forums.hybridz.org/topic/55944-windtunnel-test-data/

@Carl Beck very interesting reading. I remember seeing that report somewhere, can you link to it still? Blocking off sections of the radiator opening seems to have the biggest effect, as we mentioned earlier in the tread.

The purpose of the undertray is to speed up the airflow under the car to reduce overall lift. It does cause cooling problems but careful attention to ducting and venting the air from the engine bay keeps those in check. At ordinary legal driving speeds none of this really has much effect but as you get nearer to 100mph the aero has a much bigger influence. The reason the Z432R has the undertray is to homologate the part for racing use, without the front airdam and cooling mods it wouldn't actually have much effect on the cars performance in normal use.

@katsexactly right about the engine bay pressurizing and increasing the drag. We spent a lot of time shrinking the size of the openings and also modifying their shape to cut front end lift and drag on my Aston race car. To de pressure the engine bay we vented the bonnet and ran some Gurney flap lips to help evacuate the stale air. I may try it on on old 240Z bonnet I have and see what happens. There is an old article from one of the car magazines over here in the USA that compared various aero mods.

To give you an example of blunt nose aero, this car has a Cd of 0.326, CLf of 0.92 and CLr of 0.60. It also has a much larger frontal area with a width of 6 foot. The blanking plate to reduce the opening was key in reducing the drag.

I didn't realise the 240Z was such a draggy shape in both standard and modified forms. For such a small front area it creates a lot of drag. Blunt noses can actually be very aerodynamic, the problem is the openings at the front, whether blunt or sharp, they have the biggest influence of the drag and lift figures. Would be interesting to see if they tested the car with the radiator intakes closed off and the effect.

Is the whole report available to view @kats Should make interesting reading. Does it make any reference to aero imbalance due to the large differences between front and rear lift coefficients?

Happy to oblige. PM me you address and I'll get it boxed up and sent to you. Roo

Looking for an early 4 speed transmission cross member for my May 70 03802 240Z. I have a 1972 cross member but it's the wrong one for the early 240Z I have. Happy to swap my 1972 mount for an early one if anyone is interested. Thanks, Roo

If anyone can track down the details it will be you Kats! I love the period photos of the 240Z construction, an insight into a different time in a different place.

Great news they kept those records @kats Would be great to see the manufacturing process notes detailing how the 240Z was built and how long it took for each step. Hopefully they can give you access to the records and document the build for a 240Z. Always interesting to see the original overspray on parts of the car and work out how they put it together in sequence. I wonder if they kept any original photos with the build records.

Great work @73str86 Always good to see a 240Z resurrected rather than broken up. Keep up the good work.

Doing a rebuild on a 05/1970 L24 engine and looking for advice on pistons. Need flat top +0.20 or +0.30 83mm pistons, anyone bought any recently and know what is still available? Usual suppliers all out of stock.

Love the BRE paint scheme, must have looked fantastic when it first appeared in 1970. Look forward to your build on this one @motorman7 , always enjoyed all your other restorations over the years. They have been an invaluable resource in helping me try and get things right on my cars.

3D printing gets a bad rap sometimes because the designer had no idea how to design the part to be 3D printed. Done correctly it is an amazing tool that is capable of making many intricate parts that can't be made conventionally. We use it a lot for aerospace and automotive components, material choice is critical and also print orientation to ensure the correct load profiles. We use FEA analysis and optimization software to get the strongest parts possible.

Finally tracked down an original set of 1971 plug leads (had to buy a complete car to get them!), they are different to 1970 in having white lettering and the #6 plug boot with a 45 degree bend. Just have to model that up in Solidworks and print out a test piece. The 1970 wires and boots are all sorted and modelled. Print samples work fine on the test engine.

Why settle for this when you could have a brand new, still in the box 280Z engine! https://www.ebay.com/itm/275898478727?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D1110006%26algo%3DHOMESPLICE.SIM%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D250320%26meid%3Dbfd39797ef364edf8a07677310865c6e%26pid%3D101195%26rk%3D3%26rkt%3D12%26sd%3D256108725951%26itm%3D275898478727%26pmt%3D1%26noa%3D0%26pg%3D2047675%26algv%3DSimplAMLv11WebTrimmedV3MskuWithLambda85AllKnnRecallsAndCassiniVisualRankerWithIsoCalib%26brand%3DDatsun&_trksid=p2047675.c101195.m1851&amdata=cksum%3A275898478727bfd39797ef364edf8a07677310865c6e|enc%3AAQAIAAABUJhgQCVQMNiMdHWIfVoOoEEV17BTrzrJIBLpH%2B7G1tmr6LbW6GxCi5cJVuKARaIw8u8a18iuW1XB4GguG2sb7sx96fY6TQxzseCoM4VvEpmPcYoYmZxMJ1MbToI5%2B1xtOEsTNZGisyNqUAVOA3%2FuhVLnLj9ODsnQrIJAJppmAvGamRrwHW36kmdGZm14r1aBHrI4AiUgn7tdeGaT4UHwSPYXvm5MsWiqCOB6vvaiyvZJHf27JAg2fP%2B8xIOP5ah6GRwOGIiY2HX1L0kWm%2F9rX0SSeWCsvALZr5yu%2FVIuEsWAEAbUPbG2vp0DFbqyDxmKi75aMTSl%2Fr8dImLaJmfZV2GHzJgd%2FtO0iMzBboQds%2Bq1wiiujuWTdxm3fmOJSXO9BPvt4OugUs%2FctswpY5oARv%2BZY5lIiHx4zKg0Fz0kLeKQ3kLnGqEPVxDw%2F1go0DmqLA%3D%3D|ampid%3APLX_CLK|clp%3A2047675

Are you sure your car did not have any undercoating? My 05/70 and 08/70 have some type of protection under the paint. Even the very original BAT $310k 240Z that was built in May 1970 has it.

Well that makes me feel better, was searching everywhere thinking I had misplaced it! You guys rock. In return for your help here's something that may interest you. I'm trying to restore my May 1970 240Z with NOS parts. Needed a clutch cover and disk, preferably original Nissan parts. Well found the clutch cover and also 4 clutch disks. Bought two of the disks, part number on the box is 30100-Y6800. In the 240Z manual that cross references over to the 30100-E4300 original part. https://www.carpartsmanual.com/datsun/Z-1969-1978/power-train/clutch/1 Got them delivered today and it has Atsugi F225DC stamped on it like my original. They have 2 left in stock, at $41 each they were a bargain. https://www.ebay.com/itm/145031142351

No not going around in circles because it's springtime in Oregon but looking for the governor spring that goes in a 5/70 240Z distributor. When I took mine apart to refurb there was only one spring inside. Here's the part I'm looking for in case some kind Z-ster has one sitting around looking for a good home. It's part number 6 on the lower left of the diagram.

Seems a prolific 240Z car and parts collector in Florida is selling up lots of original Datsun parts on EBay. https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?item=275781539731&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.m3561.l2562&_ssn=jim240z3cgt Some of the unobtanium bits posted so far.

You may want to remove your original post to be fair to them.

Never had any problem with them. Placed a few orders lately and they were very quick shipping and items were exactly what I want and needed. Covid and supply chain problems have made business very difficult for a lot of companies recently but I've never had any problems with Z Car Depot. I think it is unfair for people to unfairly malign them on this site before checking on all the facts and trying to sort the problem out privately. Just as we don't unfairly criticize people's cars here we should probably extend the same courtesy to the vendors that help keep our cars on the road. There are less and less of them as the years roll on.