Fresh Datsun

I’ve picked up a Datsun 280Z as a project car. Overall it’s pretty tidy but it’s been to the moon and back with

320,000km on it.

That seems like a lot and it feels like it needs a freshen-up. How far would you go with it?

Nick Leeman

SHORT ANSWER – you might as well do it from the crank shells and up. With that sort of mileage, there is nothing in there that won’t have an effect on the other parts, so it makes sense to do it all. It will have valve recession, the cam lobes will be well worn, all these things come into play.

They’re a great motor and will take a huge amount of abuse. They’re a good thing to work on and it’s well worth the effort.

You’d get the crankshaft reground, taking off the bare minimum, get the thing line bored and measure the bores for ovality. They’ve got a reasonably thick wall, so it you went 30 or 40 thou up you’d get a nice straight cylinder which would never wear out.

You may find the rods are still okay, but you’d have them resized and shotpeened. Then again, it’s not overly expensive to get new ones.

Then you’re up for new slugs, cam and cylinder head rebuild. Do it properly and the engine will probably outlast all of us!