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Hi Woody. Great topic and congratulations are in order for creating a beauty. Just for information - I’m new to this forum and I also live in Surrey UK restoring a 5/70 240Z. Mine is an ex-California car but still suffered from the rust worm – but no more, as she has been in the bodyshop for a year getting a full body makeover. All the rubber, pins and things underneath have been replaced and now I’m putting all the interior back together. I spent forever refurbishing the cracked dash and now looks like new. Didn’t like the dash cap that came with the car. My car started red, then orange and I’ve had her re-sprayed in 110 red – changes colour red to orange depending on the light. Maybe the type of paint who knows. She is stock apart from the 280ZX engine [F54 + P79] with round top carbs. Even have the early rocker cover with 240 on the top. Don’t know about the cam. My car is in Portugal where I spend the winters. England is too cold for my old bones. Had the seats recovered here for 200 Euros and bits and pieces re-chromed in a Victorian –style back street workshop by a little old lady in a housecoat. Like you – I’ve had to buy most of my parts from The USA and the prices have been pretty reasonable apart from postage and import duties. A small price to pay for a labour of love. One day soon I’ll get my car up and running – fingers crossed. Did a lot of rewiring due to burnt wires and trying to figure out wiring mods over the last 50 years by POs. I would like to thank all those contributors that have provided and continue to provide a wealth of information on the net so that us newbie’s can help keep these amazing cars on the road.

? Mike, Mike, Mike, guess what day it is! It's Sort Day! Sorting all of my newly plated nuts, bolts, brackets, parts, etc.....

Starting some reassembly

A few years ago I modified a socket to make this job easier. This keeps the jaws of the pipe wrench or pliers from chewing up the gland nut. I have used it several times and it has never failed me. For an extremely stuck gland nut, get as much 50/50 ATF Acetone mix in to the threads as possible, let it sit, heat it up, then try unscrewing it. https://www.classiczcars.com/forums/topic/57215-diy-gland-nut-socket-with-pics/

Not much today. Managed to get the upper inner bracing made and everything fitted and Cleco’d in. Hopefully punching holes tomorrow ....

I think he ended up in the right place so that's what matters. My rambling probably caused confusion. He's probably tooling around the countryside right now...

My test drive last night, 10 minute test drive turned into a 1 hour cruse! I forget how much fun this car is to drive over the winter months.

It might be that the timing marks on the damper are off. Could be the wrong damper, or the wrong tab on the timing cover. The early 240Z's used a different setup than the later 240Z's and 280Z's. I browsed through the video but didn't see a timing light anywhere. How do you know timing is at 30 degrees? The actual timing won't be affected by where the distributor is on its drive gear. Ability to set timing will be affected, but not the timing itself.

Hard to come by at any price, but if you need them you gots to have them.

Thanks. That was at the low end of what I was expecting, so learning that they're available for only $0.56 is good news. Out of curiosity, I checked out the Eastwood Tools site. They offer a kit consisting of 10 clecos, 2 side clamps, and one set of pliers for $44. PAT's price (not even bundled as a kit) comes out to just $16.00 so this is definitely a supplier that I'll be adding to my 'preferred' list.

Did you install a new timing chain?

This is better link: https://www.panamericantool.com/cleco-fasteners.html 56 cents each https://www.panamericantool.com/cleco-fasteners/cleco-fasteners-p-series.html

So the pliers will run around $20 and the 1/8 Clecos will cost $0.50 to $0.75 cents each. I have around 50 or 60 and the only time I got close to using them all was when I was doing floors. kmstools and Amazon.ca have them on sale fairly regularly. Clecos were originally developed for aircraft (which are made of aluminum and riveted together). A pilot friend of mine put me on to them. There are many advantages over screws. 1) no deformation of the metal (other than drilling the initial hole) 2) spring loaded - infinitely re-usable 3) perfect for the fitting process where parts are going to be attached / detached several times before final welding. (for example the frame rails were probably on / off a dozen times before I welded them in).

I figured I would make photographs but I wasn't sure if there was a better method

Or if the engine hasn't been run in a while the numbers could be low from that too, but I suspect the throttle plate is a pretty good guess.

The gauge used can have a big impact. I have a gauge with a long tube to use as an extension. That extension drops it down to the 130's from 180's. Adds to "effective combustion chamber" volume. I wonder if he had the throttle wide open.

Something else struck me as odd along with these timing issues. In post #13 after adjusting the valves, cylinders 1-5 were at 130 and #6 was 120. To my knowledge, those #s should be up around 170 or so.

Very nice looking car! HLS30-15653 must be early 12/70, my HLS30-17486 is also a 12/70 build.

You haven't shown the notch and groove either. Match up all of the marks and you can't go wrong. Most people run in to problems when they guess about where things are. It's why Nissan had somebody draw all of these pictures, even if they are bad.

I have been the owner of this 240z for the past 3 years. I've made some improvements to the car and its a joy to own. I ended up buying it's older vin twin (1 vin lower) a few years later and had them together in the garage. That was a cool thing to see. Full Brand New Fujitsubo Headers and exhaust system. Brand New Old Stock 40PHH Mikuni Triple Carbs Brand New set of Watanabe Wheels Some New Old Stock OEM parts throughout the car. Here are some pictures of it now.

Congratulations Woody, the engine/exhaust sound great! There is a real crisp response to the throttle, those first few drives after finishing are just the best.

243 is the 0.50 duration. I have sadly got some other things to put my money on at the moment so the build of this head will probably have to wait a while. Head is now at the shop for cleaning/checking so it’s good to go (hopefully) when i have collected all parts i need, valves, seats, guides, adjustable cam gear etc.

I just got my booster back. These guys do a great job.

I am happy to report that the brake problem is resolved. That is the good news. The bad news is that I have no idea what fixed it. I got so frustrated that I took each and every brake component apart and rebuilt it, flushed and blew out all of the lines and last night took it out for a spin and the brakes are working great. ?

Residual pressure valve.. here's one from Jeep... ?

Bumper skiing was our favorite danger, after a fresh layer of snow before the plough trucks came out we would hitch rides all over the suburbs of Vancouver on the back or sides of the city buses. We stopped skiing cars cause they could get out and chase you too easily, but bus drivers had to run the length of the bus first giving us lots of time to get away, then when he started moving again we would latch on and continue our ride.

Alright, that makes it easy, going with the original colour 305, don't want anyone thinking I'm trying pull a fast one. I'll save the 307 for another project. Thanks all