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Okay, first coat of Poly on and I’m glad I didn’t stain it. The poly brought out the natural color nicely. I’ll let it dry a couple days, wet sand it smooth and put another coat of poly on. So my advice so far for people looking at this thread in the future. Don’t stain it! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Just welcomed my 4th 240Z home tonight. I love these cars. This one is a bit more polished than I'm use but I'll get over it. The thing that sets this car apart from my previous 240s is the rich history and the meticulous records. Purchased in Japan by a service man with original purchase receipts (to include DOD loan papers), hand written service documentation (outstanding penmanship) and various vintage Datsun swag(local and national Z clubs). That along with a dash void of blemish, a recent total rebuilt drivetrain(matching numbers) and the original owners widow(whom was also active in Z clubs) has me instilled in me - a sense of responsibility... to act as a steward. This, like so many cars here, was loved and cherished; it played a significant role for it's owner for whom took great pride in ownership. Passion.

@Mark Maras it's just a regular distributor with timing control inside. It does all six at once, like moving the breaker plate on a regular distributor. Here's a pretty good review of detonation. Timing, heat, lean mixture...all can lead to detonation. https://www.enginelabs.com/news/detonation-what-causes-it-and-how-to-control-it-using-efi/

Cool car with an interesting history. Would be great to see more of the original documentation that came with it. I watched the ebay listing for it when it sold last month: https://www.ebay.com/itm/1971-Datsun-Z-Series-/303131244682?_trksid=p2047675.m43663.l44720&nordt=true&rt=nc&orig_cvip=true The rust shown in the photos and mentioned in the ad seemed a little concerning but the exterior and interior looked really good in the photos. Do you have any documentation that the JDM fender mirrors were added at the time of purchase or later on when the stainless exhaust and spoilers were added? It looks like the drivers door still has the holes from the stock mirror. Did they plug those somehow? There was another LHD Blue 240Z that was originally purchased in Okinawa posted on Facebook a few months ago. I think it was a 72. It had fender flares that someone removed from the car so I am pretty sure it was not this car. I have a 72 Fairlady Z-S that was also purchased in Okinawa by a Navy service member and shipped back to the US shortly after purchase. Interesting that you could purchase either HLS30s or S30s in Okinawa at the time. It probably had to do with the roads being set up to drive on the right side at the time. During the US occupation after WWII the roads were set up to drive on the right side and didn't switch back to driving on the left like the rest of Japan until 1978. https://www.nytimes.com/1978/07/05/archives/uturn-for-okinawa-from-righthand-driving-to-left-extra-policemen.html

Here's a photo of the writing on the door of my HLS30-00210 after the paint was stripped off.

Advanced ignition timing can cause broken rings and in severe cases holed piston tops. The first symptom is engine knock when going uphill. The knock is caused by the fuel-air igniting in the combustion chamber while the piston is still rising. (BTC) I know little to nothing about the 123 system so I have a question. Does this system control ignition advance to individual cylinders or does it advance all six with one function? Another way of putting it is could the system provide too much advance to one cylinder and not the others?

Yes - It began with eBay however, the purchase was not made through eBay ;). Interestingly, I was seeking a Datsun 2000 Roadster but came across this car and was immediately drawn. It's particular global journey/story and fit mechanical condition made the decision easy for me. I live in Imperial Beach, San Diego but made the trip up to Modesto to see the car. It pulled hard and felt tight - done! As for the Roadster, maybe in few years. Yes - it did present rust in all the areas where you would expect from operating atop rock-salted roads as this car was also stationed in Germany. That said, pretty much limited to wheel-wells. Nothing too serious so I will address them at a later date. Yes - the exshaust (full system headers to muffler) and fender mirrors were added much later. *Wonderful NY-Times article. I'm going to print and include that to into the records. I genuinely appreciate your posting!

Good point JFA. Change of plans. Going to just put to poly on and see what happens, I can always sand it off if it looks bad. She looks pretty good now with the wheel prepped. Check it out. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well here we go again, lots more to report and I really need to control myself with spending on this car! The car was selected and displayed with Petrolicious for their first ever UK meet at Bicester Heritage, it certainly kept in very good company within the main site. I’ll also admit that I was very excited by this as their channel is the reason why I ended up buying my 240Z so it was a big deal for me. I’ve seen some photos of the car from the day but I’m sure there’s more to be found. Great to catch up with several club members and we had awesome weather for it. Finally our new brake package has come together and now been fitted up, I need to start with a huge shout out to Iamatomman (Gary) for sorting me out in this regard. I’ve been searching for a long time to get the right solution to this element of the build, I’ve not been a fan of the shouty willwood solutions and equally not convinced that the Hilux setup was up to the task with its more limited ‘performance pad’ options for a 4x4 and weight. Bring in the perfect solution in my eyes, R32 GTR Sumitomo Brake Calipers with 296mm vented disks. Gary’s made custom titanium brackets and re-drilled the standard GTR disks so that these bolt straight up to stock 240Z hubs. As you’d expect with a GTR, the brake pad choice is phenomenal so we’ve put on some Porterfield R4S pads designed for fast road and track use. These so far seem to be superb with great bite from cold and just get better the more heat you put into them, the only downside as you’d expect with any performance pad is a little more dust with enthusiastic use. With the car only weighing in at 1000KG this setup is hugely over spec’d and gives massive amounts of confidence, particularly with modern traffic. Having got the kit from Gary, sourced a set of callipers off of ebay and refurbished then with thanks to Big Red, picked up the pads from Porterfield and refurbished the brake fitting kit I got with the brakes to save a bit of money, we were good to go. Doing my usual with any European trip looming I decided to fit these last Monday evening after work on the driveway with our scheduled departure of Thursday morning. What could possibly go wrong! As expected a few headaches, 6 hours, a packet of crisps, numerous cups of tea later everything was fitted up with the assistance of LED floodlights at midnight. Test drive was revealing a very spongey pedal however that was a problem for a new day. Certainly had some fun removing the original brake dust shields (now too small for our big disks anyway), removing the old disks and hubs and wrestling everything into place. At the same time with rain scheduled for Spa and knowing how lethal our tyres are in the wet (even if very fun and childish in the dry) I decided it was time to bite the bullet and replace these with something deserving of the rest of the car. Finally we had a set of Yokohama AD08R tyres on their way to be fitted before the trip, in a last minute dash I managed to get the brakes re-bled and working, tyres fitted, filled with nitrogen, booked a trip to Edinburgh and flew out all on Tuesday leaving last minute packing and preparation for 9.30pm on Wednesday night before we left. I’m very relieved that I decided to leave the stock MC installed for now with the time I had available, while the car needs it and the pedal has a little too much travel, this remains a headache for another day as I still have no idea as to how to properly adjust the rod to it. We had an amazing time out in Spa, with the car covering just over 1000 miles in less than a week. Great company and tour guide from Tony, being shown some nice backroads closer to Spa which could be enjoyed away from the Motorway (even drove the old track). What a circuit Spa is, the elevation changes were fairly breath taking. I can see why it’s a bit of a Mecha for motorsport fans and definitely the most exciting circuit I’ve visited and driven to date. As hoped and with the car running so well we got a track session for Saturday evening however much to our disappointment it was plagued by safety cars while a wall was being rebuilt. Unfinished business and a return visit one day I’m sure… The car felt really keen and we’re super impressed with the new tyres, for a road tyre they really hang on through the corners and still slide nicely at the limits of traction. Less childish behaviour can be had with the trade-off of superb grip on the road. We could really push people through corners and drive around them however in a straight line we were still left lacking and wanting more with almost everyone pulling away. Certainly some drag racing going on against Peugeot 205’s. Thoughts are turning to building an engine with approx. 200 bhp flywheel that revs happily to 7000prm without spending the earth…. The trip didn’t leave the car unscathed though and we picked up a big stone chip on day one of the trip which we watched expand all trip until we got home. I’m relieved to say that despite it having spidered outwards, Kenneth from Autoglass has saved the windscreen with a resin filler yesterday. Quite scary seeing how big it had really got when he applied some pressure to it. I’ve also got rubber trims turning up to try and reduce some wind noise and make the car a little more comfortable for longer journeys. These cars are never really finished but I feel as though the whole package has really moved on, particularly when I compare it to the sloppy driving experience the car started with… IMG_0135 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr 6D62364D-FE32-4CE8-8041-18E19804611E by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr IMG_0123 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr IMG_0127 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr IMG_0141 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr IMG_0163 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr IMG_0144 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr IMG_0167 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr New tread pattern looking alot meaner: IMG_0186 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr IMG_0191 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr IMG_0303 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr Getting a little dusty IMG_0285 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr Think we'll need to take a trip to the French Riviera next Version 2 by Mark Woodrow, on Flickr

I think you're reading too much into the numbers shown on the back of the dash. My HLS30-00210 had "No 3" written on the top of the inner fender. That didn't mean my car was HLS30-00003 either. I think these numbers were some kind of code, possibly inspection marks. I'm attaching a photo that Kats posted from an early JDM parts catalog that shows similar markings on either end of the inner rock panel: "No 2" on the left and some other writing and an arrow probably pointing to an area needing some more work on the right. My car also had some kanji writing on the door and quarter panel which I think were also notes about some more finishing work that was needed before being painted.

Time for some ZStory sound to be installed.

Metal bars came out pretty good. Gonna let the paint cure for 24hrs and then start on the wood. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks! Yes - Still own the FRS... so now I have "Blue" and "old Blue"

Still needs one more coat of poly and a wet sand but here’s the before and after pics. I’m pretty happy with the outcome. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Hard to see but it's a little different than the other side. One side is a little shorter than the other. Good luck!

Yes, the round tops have a heat shield between the exhaust manifold and the carbs. You can see the heat shield in this shot

Great looking Z! Love the documentation too. You still own the Scion FSR? Glad you're back. Cliff

I'm guessing that with too much advance on the spark you get the firing happen during the compression stroke which pushes the piston in the opposite direction of travel which may damage pistons, rings or other bottom end components

Take a peek into #4 with a borescope before you tear it down.

I was thinking the same thing but got distracted when he said it wasn't like brake fade. Boiling and brake fade are different things. Boiling would kill the pressure immediately. I was going to suggest that a brake line might be close to an exhaust pipe or engine part, which might explain why it comes on so soon. Check all of the lines, shield the MC from heat, make sure that the brake fluid is pure and fresh.

I have been following Jeff's videos. I will go review that video again. I do know that I have the washers installed and all was torqued to specs. Today I did take a vacuum reading from intake manifold and surprise surprise 3-5 lbs and 10 when reved. Not good

Just reading some of the owner's notes. Very cool that he documented everything including the purchases of the hand throttle for $7.50 with $2.50 installation and the keyed gas door lock for $3.

I suspect you are boiling your brake fluid or the water in the system. You might want to consider converting to a better high heat fluid if you are going to spend any sort of time on the track

Yeah, I did the same thing. Was really frustrating to have to dig in further for a silly mistake

Hi Rich, Yes, you are correct, the center linkage length is specific to the flat tops. I have spares and will send it along if you need. p.s. Small point of a different sort---Turn the vacuum servo diaphragm 180* so that the inlet from the throttle opener control valve assembly is to the rear as you face it.

I think the light colour went at least into 1972 models. Here are two examples:

shamefully joined the club of not securing the timing chain jam tool, despite being warned by my buddy Jeff. So hours later after removing the timing chain cover its nearly all back together. I was careful to mark orientation of dizzy drive. just have to reinstall oil pump, water pump, damper, torque head, reinstall the cam gear (more carefully with tool now, which by the way a home made wood one is better IMH, the plastic thing does not fit well and is prone to slipping).

Going for Red Sedona [emoji2369] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

The rim is wood impregnated resin - it readily accepts stain.

That sure seems like that would be a fault of theirs. Your engine is too advanced because of their procedure. But that is not my case. Their instructions do not state to double check with a timing light, though I did. And I believe they don't say that for a reason which will be explained below. I had to use one to get it running. That seems to be the case for multiple people and also for me. This is where the timing light comes in to play. Why would you have a timing light available and set static timing at say 15? I wouldn't. I know static timing varies from vehicle to vehicle when using this ignition but static timing of 0 - 10 should not cause any issues here. I say that because "Static timing is set at TDC. When you crank the engine, the 123 fires at 0 degrees advance until the engine starts and achieves 500rpm. Then the programming comes into play, activating the chosen curve and setting the idle advance at 10 degrees. It provides 10 degrees between 500 and 1000 rpm. Beyond that the selected curve takes over." Example Following instructions gives you 10 degrees at 0 to 1000 rpm. Above 1000 rpm timing is according to the curve selected. Using a timing light setting 10 degrees up to 1000 rpm is exactly the same timing as above. Setting the timing to other than 10 degrees "shifts" the curve higher or lower by the difference from 10 degrees. So, if timing is set to 15 degrees at idle (under 1000 rpm) then the maximum advance will be 5 degrees higher than specified by your chosen curve.

They did a US version too. Entry fee was steep! I’d have to empty my savings account and not return back home!

That's what is on top of initial. If initial was set to 10 then it's 39 at 8000 RPM. Plus there's the MAP curve underneath. Ideally the timing would have been verified by a timing light.

Patcon... here's what I found in the 1971 240z FSM ..... Static pressure tested at Carburetor Input running engine at various speed : 3.4psi - 4.3psi Capacity Test at 1000rpm : 1600cc/min ==> 0.423gal/min ==> 25.4gal/hr .. or 3.71pts/min ==> 0.464gal/min ==> 27.8gal/hr ... I guess .... 30gph is sufficient for our SU's.... based on the FSM. 1971 FSM 240z Fuel Pump Test.pdf

Well, I got the old fuel pumps off and realized that the PO didn't even have the spacer installed. I ordered a new one and hopefully will have her running next week. I hate waiting.

However, you will never burn a full tank of fuel in an hour and the car doesn't hold 20 gallons full IIRC

It will be very interesting to see the leak down results and to tear down the head, 15,000 miles is just broken in, a mystery waiting to be solved.

My mechanic says that although PSI is important to maintain the proper fuel system pressure/response, the FlowRate is the key parameter in filling the bowls. 30gph is the flow rate rate for both the Airtex 8016S (2.5-4.5psi) and Airtex 8012S (5-9psi) pumps which works nicely for SU's and Weber DGVs . Airtexs are very quite based on feedback here and external reviews. For your triple Mikuni's .. try to find out what FlowRate is needed and use a lower psi pump that fulfills that. From above... the Nismo 17010-A7601 puts out 1.3L/min ==> 0.3434gal/min or 20.6gph. This seems way to low of a flowrate.... you need at least 30gph or higher... The Airtex 8012 will be better, but not sure it satisfies the triple Mikuni's needs..

Love those guys... they really know how to follow their passion.. My dad was like that too..

Here is the knob sanded down. The shift knob map was totally destroyed. Trying to tint both the wheel and knob to match. Won’t be easy because they’re different materials and won’t accept color the same. Speaking of the shift knob map. A 5 speed Nissan one seems impossible to find but the old Toyota one looks almost identical. I just wonder if the diameter is the same. Here’s the shift knob map on a old FJ. It’s only $12 Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I suspect there are lots of people like me that haven't gotten involved but still have a high opinion of 123 because I know people who have run them and like them. It is unfortunate you have had a problem and others for that matter. The main take away I have so far is their supplied caps are suspect. As for your engine damage, I would want alot more info before I blamed the distributor! Lots of other possibilities there before I would suspect timing. Now on a turbo application timing is more crucial but NA and strret compressions not so much.

Mine had the front "air dam" when I bought it. I found a 240z grille and put it on, had to kind of rig it up to fit though. I also got rid of the stock signal lights, and found some aftermarket fog lights that fit into those 2 "brake duct" openings. I removed the fog light bulb and routed the turn signal lights to these housings. It was a lot of "rigging", but it works and I think it looks great! Those are also H4 Headlight upgrades.

Your choice as to which surfaces get the dressing. A thin coating is all you need. Any more than will result in dressing squeeze out. I've installed pumps with no dressing, just a bit of grease on the gaskets and had no leaks. No need to lube the pump.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLIFF... Hope you have a great day and a cool Z driving year ahead!!! Sending love, Jai & Lissa

If you're referring to the car that John Coffey built, I don't believe that's the car that won the event, and 260DET is likely referring to a different car, as IIRC, the winners were from Australia.

I own a BRZ and I have to say I do agree with you. While the driving characteristics of the cars in my opinion are not that similar, the driving philosophy and 'fun' behind the creation of the two cars are.

Yeah they do pretty well at AutoX, I usually race with the BMW CCA guys at Qualcomm and there's 2 or 3 that always come out, would love to see you out there!

And you can drift while reading a book!

Congratulations! It's nice to hear it from you too.

Not the first time I've heard the comparison... Respect Your Elders: 1971 Datsun 240Z Vs 2013 Scion FR-S - Automobile Magazine