Somewhere along the line I remember seeing a quality control checklist used by Nissan for the program. Maybe that would provide some insights? Google search links me to what appears to be the New Zealand Z Car Club and no permission to view the attachment to the forum post which is a copy of the checklist.

I vaguely remember seeing it on here somewhere but cant find it.

24 minutes ago, Zed Head said:

The ad copy says that it came with Restoration literature. There's a picture of what looks like photocopied pages. Is there anything in there about the engine details? Or is it just vague statements about remanufactured engines?

@Zed Head I am aware of 2 promotional brochures related to the Vintage Restoration Program. One is red with "Rebirth" on the cover the other is yellow with "Spirit". I was able to purchase a yellow one from eBay, it contains an overview of the history of Z models up to the 300ZX and a little about the race cars. There is a copy of the yellow brochure online here

The vehicle came with a photo copy of the red brochure. If anyone is aware of either a digital copy or physical copy of the red brochure, I would certainly be interested in it. The Red brochure states the following regarding Engines:

The engine and transmission are completely disassembled, cleaned and analyzed. From the engine block to the smallest nut and bolt, the parts are laid out on tables, so they can be inspected and, if necessary replaced. When available, genuine Nissan parts are used. And in cases when non-Nissan are used, quality non-OEM parts are approved by Nissan engineers, specifically for use on these restored cars. All external engine parts such as the block, oil pan and air cleaner, are painted their original factory colors. Many ancillary components, including the alternator, starter motor and fuel pump are replaced with new units or ones that have been re-manufactured to our stringent standards.

@zspert thank you for the recommendations, I will pursue a full compression test and valve clearance checkout.

@HS30-H thank you for these great pictures!

I don't want to hijack the theme of this thread being about BaT and other online listings too much, but If anyone is interested, there are some really neat videos of the vintage restoration process in the links below:

Original Z Program Footage - This is video from Pierre'Z Restoration Program for Nissan

3 more Z program cars from Pierre'Z Restorations (I think my car might be shown at 10:44 mark but not sure)

Autoweek July 1997 - Z restoration program with Pierre Perrott at Pierre'Z Service Center.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by deanhuff

4 hours ago, Carl Beck said:

AER Manufacturing in Carrolton, TX remanufactured the engines.

3 hours ago, Zed Head said:

There are different levels though. Sometimes valve seats are checked for wear and just recut, or if they look okay they might just be lapped. Sometimes they are removed and replaced. That's the question at hand. If they were all removed and replaced as part of the rebuild, and the program was done after hardened seats were introduced, then they probably have hardened seats.

An old AER document probably has the information.

So the engines were reportedly 'remanufactured' at AER Manufacturing, but the photos from two different Japanese magazine articles on the VZ Program show a partly assembled engine (in one) and two in-process cylinder heads (in the other), clearly not at AER.

1 hour ago, Zed Head said:

I'm here for the puzzle.

There often seem to be missing pieces - or pieces that don't fit - in the VZ Program story...

45 minutes ago, 240 in OZ said:

Somewhere along the line I remember seeing a quality control checklist used by Nissan for the program. Maybe that would provide some insights? Google search links me to what appears to be the New Zealand Z Car Club and no permission to view the attachment to the forum post which is a copy of the checklist.

I vaguely remember seeing it on here somewhere but cant find it.

The document is 34 pages long, it doesn't mention who did the work. It also doesn't mention who did the body restoration, paint and assembly. There were at least 5 Datsun restoration companies involved in the program. There is a master sheet listing all the cars and the companies responsible for each one.

Two of them confirmed to me the engines and gearbox were sent out to be rebuilt, that's from people involved in the program and not armchair experts who had nothing to do with it. Now that doesn't mean every single engine was sent out, the early ones may have been built up to check the process and parts required. If you watch the videos @deanhuff linked to you can see the different companies involved. @zspert was one of those who worked closely with Pierre and also supplied parts to the program. I tend to listen when he speaks!

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by SpeedRoo

@SpeedRoo Thanks for the addition, I scoured the internet and found the checklist document via the wayback machine

Cylinder head checklist #4 states "new seats"...so it looks like hardend valve seats were in the protocol.

Edited 5 minutes ago5 min by deanhuff
referenced SpeedRoo username incorrectly.