motorman7

And pics from the paint shop. This is moving along nicely. Car just came back from media blasting. Looks like we will will be welding in a new hatch panel and both rear doglegs.

Hi @pontiacguy, I have these two pics plus I kept the assembly in tact (for now) so will try and take pics of that and post it. Hops this helps

Got the head attached to block with No.1 Piston and Cam positioned at TDC.

Got the pistons cleaned up. Installed new rings and connecting rod bearings.

I do the same. Les Cannady at Classic Datsun Motorsports recommended this to me during my first Z engine rebuild. I am sure he has prepped more Z engines than the average bear, so I take the advice as gospel. Never had a problem.

Got the brass freeze plugs in. Also got the crankshaft and new bearings in as well. Probably won't get to the pistons till Monday as the wife has me busy restoring her 1989 Suburban..........Home. Tile work in the living room. Ugh. I'd much rather be working on the car in the heat than working on house tile in the cool AC. Oh well, need to keep the priorities right.

Yes, high temp gloss clear coat for the serial number. Yes, I checked that when I picked it up from the shop. I can't even feel a mild depression in this area. I thought i might feel a ridge or something,but it is as smooth and linear as the rest of the cylinder.

Got the block cleaned up and painted.

I found my Silver 1973 restoration thread. This is hard to look as I really wish I had that one back. Selling my silver 1973 probably ranks in the top 5 stupid decisions that I have made in my life (Which says a lot since I have made a lot of stupid decisions). Anyway, here is the tread to give you a bit of preview as to what's ahead.

Got the block and an E88 head back from the machine shop. The block only needed to be honed which is nice. The head was cleaned, pressure and leak checked, in addition to the valve job. I ordered new conn and rod bearings along with new piston rings, gasket kit and brass freeze plugs. Now the fun begins. Will start by cleaning that block up and painting it nice and pretty.

You need to rotate the short arm that attaches to the motor 180 degrees. This should fix the running into the cowl problem (Don't ask me how I know that ?)

Pics from the paint shop

Here's a few pics from the paint shop. Picked up the suspension, will start to disassemble. Car is on rollers so it is easy to move around the shop.

Well, lot's of stuff going on here. Currently I am sorting, disassembling and cleaning parts that will be sent out for zinc plating. Most likely I will have several batches to send out. The box of parts in the picture below does not look like much, but it actually goes fairly deep. I would guess the box weighs close to 50 pounds. That is a lot of parts to plate. I got a call from the machine shop early this morning. They said the head is not in very good shape and that the water jacket and exhaust port were disintegrated enough that there were two small holes between the two and the metal was very thin. I almost felt like I could touch my fingers together when I went to check the thickness of the material. Not easy to see from the pic but if you shine the flashlight into the water port, you can see light in the exhaust port of the first cylinder. The exhaust ports of cylinder 2 and 3 were also eroded. Welding would be a bit of a challenge as the exhaust port area seems to have lost a lot of metal. Not sure how that happens. Anyway, while I was waiting to talk to the shop owner about the head, I noticed another Z head on their 'unclaimed parts' rack. As I passed by the shelf , I checked the serial number and saw that it was an E88 head just like the one I brought in, all completely serviced and ready to go. I asked the owner about the head and he said it had been sitting there unclaimed for almost a year. I asked if it was available for sale and he said he would love to get rid of it as it is just taking up shelf space, the price was $300. After inspecting it and comparing it to @jayhawk E88 head, I told him i would take it. Such a deal. That's about what the valve job would have cost anyway if the head were in good shape. So, the shop owner said he would clean the head up, since it had been sitting for a while and run pressure and leak checks and I can pick it up tomorrow. I will probably keep the original head but, not sure what to do with it. Tomorrow, I will go down to the paint shop and pick up all of the suspension parts. The shell is now lifted and on rollers so the body can be easily moved and worked on. Will take pics of that tomorrow.

Looks beautiful, very nice job! Just a few quick comments. My early '70 did not come with decals on the air filter so I am thinking that you would not need those. I am not sure when the decals started showing up, but I would guess yours did not come with those originally. Also, the timing chain cover looks unique. Mine has ridges in it. Maybe the early ones were flat like in your picture.

I do not know. I am surprised that they only give a temp rating and no pressure rating.

I figured that the insulation would be a little controversial. Here in California, asbestos is right up there with coffee and saw dust for being cancer causing agents. As of right now, the insulation is wrapped with Saran Wrap and in a box for it's protection (and mine I guess). I did not want to get any dirt or grease on it. My current thoughts on it is that I would like to keep it original and will use my 'Go to' Hi-temp matte clear paint spray over it when I am ready to install.

Finished the engine tear down this weekend. Will bring the head and the block to the machine shop on Tuesday. It's always interesting what you find when you break these down. On the exhaust manifold, there was one broken stud and another location where the nut was not even installed. Not to mention that it is the wrong exhaust manifold. There should be a port on the back part of the exhaust manifold. Fortunately, @Montezuma has a '73 manifold available, so I will use that one. Will post pictures of that one a bit later. I love the insulation on the fuel rail. I will be very careful with that and keep it as clean as possible. It may not be 'sporty', but I think it is way cool. Also, the cylinders look very clean with no scratches. Hopefully we can just get by with a hone on these guys. Pics are below.

My 918 orange Z is actually single stage 'Restoration Shop' brand paint. It is good quality and and looks great. The other 918 orange car that I just finished is PPG two stage. Hard to say which one I like better. A lot of it depends on the lighting.

We will be going with the PPG brand of paint. The paint will be two stage in the original factory color. It will look like the other Z pictured above ? . Will start posting more on that one shortly.

I noticed that you don't have the fuel lines in yet. If you are interested, I think this hose is the closest to the original style of fuel hose that I have found. I now use this on all of my restorations. https://newcoproducts.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=34_44_304&product_id=191

OK, she's off to the paint shop! Will meet with Miguel tomorrow to go over the details.

Regarding the Diluted Muriatic Acid...It is just a 5% solution, so 20 parts water to 1 part Muriatic acid.

Actually, a quick dip (5 seconds maybe) in a warm, diluted Muriatic acid bath will remove the yellow. Quick rinse with water and you are probably good to go. I do this at home when needed. I do not know whether the finish was shiny or matte. @26th-Z is probably a better source for this info than myself.

To be real specific, the wire clamps for the early cars like yours should have been silver zinc and not the yellow zinc . @Carl Beck probably knows more about this, but the yellow zinc wire clamps came along a bit later, like on the '71 cars. Personally, I think it's close enough. Not many folks are up on that.