Zed Head

Looks like the silver foil from the top of a gallon jug of oil. ? If it is a bearing failing you will hear it eventually. Measuring cylinder pressures, examining cam lobes, checking timing chain wear...those are the typical things you'd do to determine engine wear. 136,000 miles is not a huge number for these engines.

What engine? How many miles? What do you know about it? Can you post a picture of the copper flakes? Might just be from the washer on the drain plug.

Is this yours Cliff/site @siteunseen ? I see orange. Condolences if it is. It's been Californicated. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1971-datsun-240z-210/ "This 1971 Datsun 240Z was acquired by the seller four years ago while in Alabama, and was subsequently repainted in metallic green."

Might this be part of it? Sorry.... https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/jan/11/georgia-alabama-national-championship-game

All of the 5 speeds through 1983 are called FS5W71B. The label doesn't tell everything about what's inside.

You can buy this length in coated professionally prefitted tube at your local auto parts store. Run a piece of string or wire over the orginal to get the length. Bend the new one to match the shape. I might have mentioned this already.

Your antifreeze should contain corrosion-inhibiting chemicals. The block itself will rust if you don't use proper antifreeze, it's cast iron.

You might be thinking of stamped steel versus cast iron. I've never seen an aluminum impeller. Compare the AISIN and Airtex pictures to the others. I think that most people like the cast impellers. They were hard to find for a few years but it looks like they're back. https://www.rockauto.com/en/catalog/nissan,1978,280z,2.8l+l6,1209260,cooling+system,water+pump,2208

Can you describe the material and the process used to make it? It looks interesting. I made a time stamp of the video that shows the broken bearing holder. for the impatient people. Good luck, think about doing the 280Z distributors. They have the same problem. Even the points distributors. 240Z repro parts might be a good market.

Definitely some odd stuff to think about.

Seems obvious that it got crunched in the front, just by the pictures. The seller is not the owner, it's a sales shop. The guy has to know but he can claim he does not. His "techs" did the work, not him. Plausible deniability. It got to $20,550 but RNM. Does Nissan paint do this, even on a 71? The roof should look the same. It's been crunched and repaired.

Tandy Radio Shack?

Branch from a separate thread...

Anybody know SuperDan? Looks like he did not renew his website certificate. Whatever that means.

Eudora.

So you're saying that without the fans it overheats, with the fans it reaches thermostat temperature. Doesn't that mean you should put a 180 thermostat back in and leave the fans on? Do you still have the radiator shroud installed? No offense, but the factory setup should work just fine with your engine. The situation seems overly complicated. Things aren't making sense.

Are you using a thermostat? Sounds like you either don't have a thermostat or it's stuck open.

Pressures can vary depending on the gauge and adapters that are used but those numbers are kind of low. They're about right for a turbo engine. I can't find much about the 260Z E88. I've read about "smog" E88's that have lower CR's. The 240Z E88's had pretty small combustion chambers. Anyway, here's an article with some math and comments about what you could expect. https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/compression-ratio-means-more-power/ Also, the 260Z had a CR of 8.8:1, which is actually on the high end for Z engines. But you have a larger displacement so even with flat-tops you'll end up lower than that. (edited) Big picture - it runs well and makes good power, why mess with it for small gains?

Have you measured cylinder pressures? That will tell you something about the CR. Ideally, combustion chamber volume would have been measured when the port-matching and valve unshrouding was done. Either way, if you did not install bigger valves, an N42 or N47 will be an immediate benefit, due to the higher flow. 2mm bigger intake valve and smaller combustion chambers. Here's the 1974 260Z specs compared to 1976 280Z. Even the text is cleaner and crisper.

Calculate the compression ratio. E88's came in several varieties as I understand things. What size valves are in it? You could probably come out ahead just by swapping to an N42 or N47 head, designed for dished pistons. Higher CR and bigger valves.

I think that it would work just fine. The bores are the same for front and back and the stroke is the same. So performance would be the same. They completely redesigned the internals of the MC besides moving the reservoirs. Might be that they just moved the mass of the larger reservoir and its contents back to where it exerts less leverage on the assembly, for protection against inertial forces and vibration. That would be a typical engineering "perfection" that might happen in a redesign. It started in the front because front brakes = front reservoir, but got moved. There might be better reasons but I can't see them.

It can help to remove the spindle pin lock bolt, put a lug nut on the end of the spindle pin, squirt some penetrating fluid in to the lock bolt hole, and spin the pin suing the lug nut. It will spread the lubricant inside and break up the rust that's holding it in.

The roof of the blue one looks like it's salvageable. Might be some 5 speeds in there, three look like 77-78. Struts, strut insulators, manifolds, consoles. He'd probably take $100, I bet.

I had good luck at the local parts store. They typically have a wall loaded with precut, prefitted lines of various makes. Take the old one in, maybe with a wire or string you used to get the unbent length and you can walk out with a piece that just needs a few bends to bolt right in, professionally flared.

I'd like to see one running and driving just to watch it crumble apart. That would be great youtube material, many views probable.