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I am absolutely blown away by the responses! Haven't posted on too many forums but I usually get blasted on the first post no matter where it is. I looked a lot more into things last night and wow do parts get expensive! Not to mention machining and other things. I think I am going to cool it on my thinking about hp, I know these cars are light and do well with "lower" hp numbers. I am NEVER lucky.... I usually approach car stuff with a take it apart now and then price as I go, but I see with the engine I REALLY need to make a spreadsheet and plan for everything I am going to do and then execute later. As well as adding 50% to that and then probably spending double lol. I agree! Alright, next step will be getting it ready for a compression test and hopefully leakdown as well. That is an awesome stand, loved the videos, I may be interested to do it! So much more to think about...... In terms of my plans for the car, this list also goes in order of operations. I hope to finish the car with about 15-20k. This leaves about 3 or 4k for the engine, power is not my main concern atm and can be revisited later as I know these cars are fun stock and its simple enough to pull the engine and really get it done if I choose to in the future. I prefer suspension and tires over power as there are a lot of fun curvy roads out here and I don't like speeding tickets... Everything in this list is fully DIY except for the engine. Got the car for $1,000 Currently fixing body (its not too bad, almost all the usually non-structural rust spots) for hopefully ~$500-1,000 Painting at home for ~$2,000 (already priced out liquids and know where I am buying it) lets hope I can do it well ? Fix engine... ???$ New wiring harness - ~$400 (I'm actually excited for building this, thinking about templating and trying to sell some to earn little bit of cash for the build as well as helping other with a high quality harness) Rebuild transmission - ~$500 (hopefully) Rebuild differential, maybe OBX LSD - $500-1,000 Hoping for a full Techno Toy build as almost everything under the car looks shot and I hate money. $8,000-10,000 Interior - ~$1000 This is quite an ambitious project, but I have about 3 months till my next job starts and look forward to putting 40-60 hour weeks into this. Please let me know if my plan is dumb lol. I look forward to asking for lots of help and learning a lot...?

Wow! You certainly do hate money!!! The TTT stuff is very nice indeed and a friend of mine in the UK (whom like you, equally hates money and doesn’t have to pay school fees) has them on his car. The beauty is that you can dial the suspension in perfectly as you get full adjustment of toe / camber / caster etc. His car on Yokohamas is an absolutely limpit in the twisties, often leaving many modern cars in his wake! The one thing that isn’t obvious from your list and is most important is a brake upgrade. While these cars had great brakes in the 70s, great is only relative to the cars around you. I nearly went into the backs of two cars on different occasions when they pulled in front of me just before a roundabout (halving my braking distance) and slamming on their modern brakes. You can spend a lot or a moderate amount. I personally don’t think you need a rear disc conversion unless you live in a mountainous area or plan to long track days. I have vented discs and Toyota S12w callipers at the front, drums at the back. The car stops as good as my Audis (minus ABS and ESC of course) and copes well with a couple of track days a year. I once did a consultancy assignment for Lotus and one of the engineers challenged us to say what is the easiest way to make a car faster? The typical answers were quickly dispatched with his reply - “improve the brakes”! Second to that was set the suspension up right. Increasing power was at the bottom of his list. I like the spreadsheet idea. I started with that when I was going to rebuild myself at first and it really shows you what you need and how the costs ramp up.

Welcome to the club. This forum is different than most out there. Don’t expect to run into guys on here giving you a hard time or being flat out jerks. It’s why this forum continues to thrive. So I have a 77 too and my engine looked much like yours. I opted to rebuild a later L28 block. (F54) you have a N42 block. Doesn’t matter both are fine, I’d work with what you got. Like mentioned above these engine are robust. Dave WM has good advice, it’s a toss up in my eyes if you go the minimalist approach. I’m for rebuilding an unknown quantity because ultimately you don’t want to repeat work, and you want a reliable engine too. Installing only to pull it later is repeating work. It would be good to at least get the top end redone. Rebuild the head, maybe a little resurface and clean up the pistons. I’d be willing to bet your bearings are fine so its probably going to need new one. I didn’t take my own advice and did a full rebuild. It was a lot of work and got a little more technical that I expected. A full top and bottom rebuild is going to cost you about $1,000 minimum. That is if you do most of the work. The good news is there is a team of people on this forum that will help you get through it. It wasn’t easy but it wasn’t super hard either. It was a pain in the butt tackling a few items. I saw you mentioned possibly going turbo. That a whole different can of worms. If you want a turbo, I’d find a L28ET motor as your starting point. Turbo engines have a lower compression ration than stock NA engine when unboosted. There are several unique parts like a cam sensor and many parts can be hard to find unless you start with a turbo motor. You can do well with an NA motor like AK260 mentioned. Good luck! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Exciting new development today! I have sourced a Subaru R180 LSD diff for my car! I have a classic z specialist here in Perth. bought from one of his other clients who was selling it. Apparently all I need is a front flange and backing plate from my stock 240z diff for the drive shaft join and some adapter plates to mate the 240z halfshafts to the diff. These adapter plates are made out of Japan and will be on order soon. I may also need a different moustache bar but we will see. Will come out cheaper than the Quaife option hopefully. Still pricey though.... but can you put a price on not lighting up your inside rear wheel mid corner?

I think you have the right idea rebuilding. Now then, beware that the whole modification thing; it is a rabbit hole and can very quickly get very expensive. The question you have to ask yourself is, do I feel lucky? Well do ya? But seriously the question is: what it the car going to be and how you will want to use it. No good having all that power with a turbo if you can’t put it down. So plan the car as a system. Some people get excited by what looks great on the internet and end up with something that just doesn’t work well together. Some easy mods that don’t cost a lot and give the best BHP/$ are a sensible overbore, properly gapped rings, flat top pistons, a shave of the head, porting the head, a fast road higher than stock lift cam, better valve springs and seats and an appropriately sized exhaust manifold (header) and free flowing system (bigger is definitely not better here, it has to match the gas flow and the ports). Oh and decent ignition and fuelling. The power in these cars is made in the head, so focus your efforts there. However one of the things that makes my engine great is the attention to detail of the engine builder. Each cyl was bored to the exact dimensions of each piston and rings. The rings were gapped to perfection and so and so on. It’s easy to get carried away with big duration lumpy cams etc. For example you don’t necessarily need forged pistons and rods to make good power in an NA road car, but if you like the bragging rights and have the money to throw at it then go for it. My NA L28 on 240 SUs, cast flat top pistons with +1mm, is doing a shade over 240 BHP at the flywheel so roughly around 190-200 at the wheels. But that is a little irrelevant as peak torque of c. 210lbft arrives at 5k rpm - so while I can light up the 195 section rear tyres in 1st if I wanted to, the power is progressive and builds nicely the harder you go, so I don’t really need an LSD diff or big wheels / tyres with coilovers etc. But a stroker or turbo engine would be shredding those tyres all day long and will need significant spend on suspension, diff, wheels / tyres etc. My engine pulls very hard from 3.5k to 7k RPM if I let it go that far and can pull nicely all day from 1.5k around town and in traffic. But some prefer less revs and more torque lower down so they build a stroker or go for a different cam etc. What is your driving style? What do you want out of the car? Will you drive fast twisty roads where you sit between 3k - 5k rpm for most of the time and like to cruise in towns or are you a racer who needs power at the top end? My engine cost £2.5k sterling to build - I got a superb deal, then I spent another £1.5k on stuff around the engine like light weight flywheel, electronic ignition, crank damper etc. If i want to get to 300bhp NA I have to quadruple that budget. If you go turbo, depending on how hard you hit it, you’re in for forged pistons and rods which immediately adds another £1k-£2k, better bearings, etc etc. So in short, what I’m trying to get at is, take your time, do some serious thinking about what you want the whole car to be, do homework on your options within your budget and build a well executed engine that suits: the car, your driving style and your budget. Then add 50% to your budget [emoji13] unless you can exercise soldierly self restraint. Don’t get carried away by the internet mechanics, big talk / big numbers and fancy kit which you can throw a lot of money at for small gains. But most important of all is to do it right and only once!!!! Many people talk horsepower at the bar but in the real world, behind the wheel we all enjoy driving a decent torque curve.

Here is some advise, do as little as possible to get the car running before tearing into it. You may find the stock setup perfect for you with just some refreshing. I like to keep the car as OE as possible. The reason being I can use the FSM for all maint and repairs as long as it left original. These cars were very well made in a era before computers. the wire harness maybe in good condition. The main thing is to clean up terminations of wires. some contact cleaner and deoxit will go a long way. Once you start modifying things getting help will not be as easy. After you get the car running you can asses what changes are actual improvements. Do so research on the use of poly urethane in place of OE rubber as an example. If you have an FI car the FI section of the FSM covers it well. the OE FI is really very simple and works well once its sorted out. Lots of folks like to change up the suspension, again try it stock you may find it perfect as is. I like to respect the car for what it is and how I remember it (lots of older guys have fond memories of these when new as I do). Its your car so of course you have the right to do what every you want, imho trying it stock is a good starting place to know what changes are right for you. Good luck with what every way you go and remember we LOVE pictures, or better still video.

Looks like I’m in the same boat with the fronts too tall for the gland nuts - 9/71 Almost didn’t get one out too! Well I didn’t have much hope for Zcon - but all hope is gone . Not enough time in the day

here it is on the test stand

ditto on the leak down test will tell you a lot about the engine. I built an engine test stand, just to run the engine. I like to base line things before tearing into them, that way I know at least what I have got.

I saw this on the Sacramento, CA Craigslist - Looks very solid! Asking $4,900.00 Here's the link: https://sacramento.craigslist.org/cto/d/sacramento-wow-hard-to-find-lil-hustler/7193471013.html

Easily found in Japan; https://www.rhdjapan.com/search/?q=lug nuts Made from duraluminium is what I gather, have a set I got from here a few years ago (but not listed anymore), on my S30, and the added thing is they are all hepagonal, so a normal spanner socket won't fit, so effectively 4 lock nuts per wheel. Even Nismo sells aluminium nuts.

You don't need a fuel rail or spark plugs to do a comp. test, just a starter. In your case a comp. test and and or leakdown test would just tell you where a problem lies before you open it up but if you're going to tear her down any way then just make sure your measurements are accurate. Some specialized tools are needed to properly measure the bores and journals so check into the cost and use of them before you commit to doing that yourself. Those two books will answer most of your questions and give you a very good idea of what you're getting into.

I’m in the business too, I can confirm that the prices have jumped More than 100% since spring. I was very fortunate to buy my lumber for my personal barn conversion to garage/workshop in the spring otherwise it would have cost me double in August when I really did it ?... A 11$ osb 4x8 sheet in spring is now 23$ the last time I checked. here is the almost finished project that I will finish during the cold winter months!...

Wow! Datsun parts on AES! That is some impressive starter.

That is a nice unit, have a look at their high torque starter for Datsuns, pricey but pretty. https://www.autoelectricsupplies.co.uk/product/1114/category/218

Let's do this a little bit at a time. First, lets talk about intake manifolds... In one year, and in one year only (1972), they passed water between the intake manifolds and the carb bodies. So the 72 manifolds have water holes in the face where the carb mounts. None of the other years have those holes. Earlier round top manifolds don't have those holes, and later flat top manifolds don't have those holes. So as long as you don't have holes in the surface where the carbs mount, you can mix and match any carb with any manifold. Does that make sense? It sounds like none of the intake manifolds you have holes where the carbs mount, right?

I find it is too thin to leave a gap, I weld it tight.

Can’t sleep. From my camera...

Randalla, the headlight switch has a red and a white/red wire. Parking light wires are green/blue and green/white. Zed Head.... BOO!!

Here's one: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a33942473/nissan-z-teaser-details/?source=nl&utm_source=nl_cdb&utm_medium=email&date=090820&utm_campaign=nl21384592