HS30-H

The 432's exhaust manifold is stainless steel. It is not ceramic coated. You may have missed the point that the inlet side of the S20 engine - being a twin cam 'crossflow' design - is on the opposite side of the cylinder head to the exhaust side, so the exhaust manifold dos not heat up the carburettors or the rest of the fuel system in the way that it does on the L-gata engined versions.

Tried for some better shots:

Full ignition system illustration from 1969 Nissan 'Service Shuho' publication No.184:

The original plug HT leads were individual part numbers 22451-A0203 (plug no.1) through 22456-A0203 (plug no.6) and they came ready to fit with both ends complete and including the boots for the distributor end, the long plug connectors and the rubber seals that go into the cam cover. They were individually numbered for each plug, also dated, and with makers name SUMITOMO, all printed in yellow on black wires. The long HT lead from the coil to the distributor cap was part number 22450-E4200. Here are some (not very good...) photos which might give you an inkling of what they looked like: If you're chasing factory period-correct original you've got your work cut out. The ignition system is a recent (Ultra?) system, you need a cloth-covered top hose and the Tsuchiya service sticker for the air filter should be on the top of the air filter box itself (in front of the radiator) not on the duct. Couple or three non-factory drilled holes there too (annoying, isn't it!?). All an easy fix, apart from the holes - and I'd just stick grommets in them and not worry. You might be able to get the correct leads from REVIVE JALOPY or RUBBER SOUL in Japan. If they can't supply the correct, Sumitomo printed, version they should be able to supply a decent replica in black, which will certainly be far more pleasing to the eye than blue or red.

There were four in the header rail adjacent to the interior light recess too. And then there's the captive nuts pre-installed in the radiator support for the factory oil cooler brackets and the holes in the radiator support crossmember for its 'feet'. There are also holes in the radiator support crossmember for the 432's air filter box and radiator overflow bottle. Lots of - shall we call them 'hermaphroditic'? - details to accommodate both LHD and RHD configurations too...

From the yellow 1970 Nissan Sports 'Race & Rally Manual':

It was a nice article for the time, and a valiant effort to get into the details of the car, but lots of little 'secrets' went over their heads. These cars were far from standard, and what they were actually looking at was effectively a super lightweight 432-R type bodyshell with an L24 installed. That L24 was far, far from standard (not surprising that the Works team played their cards close to their chest) as it had a different crank, rods, pistons, oil pan, flywheel, clutch, cam, modified E31 head and all sort of other little tricks. Very deep subject.

You might want to check the bag on that Hoover. It sucked up a picture of a different car on a different event. As you can see on the door, this is from the 1972 RAC Rally and it is a different car.

The man with the clout was Mr Ewold van Bergen of Nissan-Datsun South Africa. Very influential and much respected in Japan.

In a nutshell, yes. I believe that's the most simple and logical explanation, and all the evidence - including that for other Nissan products - points that way.

....except that it isn't. If file photos of Kojyo Shisaku and Seisan Shisaku cars (by definition 'Pre Series Production') are being cited as what is *correct* on full Series Production parts, we will soon descend into a whole new world of reappraisal. Where do we start? No paint code sticker? No voltage regulator shield? There be dragons... Ockham's Razor applies: The air filter housing in the first post is a Nissan replacement part in manufacturer Tsuchiya's house blue. Nissan didn't supply them in the production line orange/red shade when sold as spare parts.

Wrong shape.

Great Magnesium scare stories guys. Meanwhile, Nissan's Kobe Seiko 'Rally Mag' and '432 mag' wheels were made from Elektron. If you find yourself in a situation where your wheels are on fire, you're probably half past cooked in any case. If the 60-odd litres of fuel in the tank, whatever oil is left in your engine and the fumes from the plastics of the interior haven't already killed you, you can at least luxuriate in the white hot expense of burning magnesium alloys turning your bones to dust...

Case in point: My 432 type airbox was supplied as a replacement part via Nissan, in the Tsuchiya house blue. If it had been fitted on a 432 ex-factory, it would have been a particular shade of red.

That blue was manufacturer Tsuchiya's 'house' colour for Nissan product. When parts were supplied as OEM replacement - as opposed to when attached to a new car - they were supplied in Tsuchiya house blue. Happened on other models than S30-series Z cars too. Some Nissans had the Tsuchiya blue as stock equipment, so less impact in those cases.

Stock water pump delete! Love the 'Orange Box', and the Magnesium valve cover must be a Works item. Fantastic!

Nissan Sports/Race Option exhaust manifold! Just like mine. Hand made! Lovely...

Works rally car identities, race entries, crews, start numbers and all the rest of it are a real minefield. Lots of the photos you can find on the 'net are mis-captioned or don't tell the whole story, and even some of the protagonists themselves don't remember as well as would be ideal... Case in point is with Shekhar Mehta on the 1971 and 1972 RAC rallies. Both times he was in a car with start number 26, but they were different cars that often get mixed up. The car he drove on the '71 RAC had also been a 1970 RAC Rally car, so plenty of scope for confusion. Big topic.

Gav, The caption doesn't fit with the event there. The photo is '4541' (originally part of a batch of Works cars built for the 1972 East African Safari Rally, which started in March) on the 1972 Acropolis Rally in Greece (it took place in May). It was an entry in a "borrowed" Works car co-ordinated by Cal Withers, and Shekhar Mehta had negotiated a tyre sponsorship deal with Sears Roebuck. Apparently the tyres were not the best tools for the job (to say the least...) but the money was right. The white roof was an attempt to reflect some of the strong Greek sunlight and keep things a little cooler inside. I doubt it had all that much effect. The data from the Tour Of Dean website for this car relates to when those Tour Of Dean rally stages were used as part of the 1972 RAC Rally (December), where the car had start number 26. It still had the white roof and some of the white banded Sears tyres...

Sorry I could not see you, Kats. Maybe in London next time?

The stock centre mount (numbered 7 in my post above) attaches to captive nuts in the diff crossmember. One on OEM single pipe systems, two on OEM twin pipe systems. I don't know where you read that the new system was "developed for the 280Z"? That might be something a bit lost in translation? Fujitsubo themselves have not mentioned anything about the 280Z in particular as far as I'm aware. I think the new system is designed to work on a wide range of production years, and - as I understand it - they have not welded mount tabs to the system itself because they wanted to allow more scope for custom mounting methods through the use of band clamps which can be positioned on a case-by-case, car-by-car basis.