John Foster's

1972 Datsun 240Z

We were on vacation in the hills of Tennessee and I was looking in the "Car Trader" magazine and noticed a 240Z for sale.  The ad said "must sell", so I called the phone number. I had been looking for a different "daily driver" since I was tired of driving my truck to work and the "Z" was on the list of cars I was considering.

My 1972 Datsun 240Z was purchased in July 2003 from a fellow near Bristol, Tennessee who owned it 18 years. The odometer showed 73,000 miles when he backed it out of his garage for me to see. I could tell right away he had taken good care of it.  He asked me if I wanted to drive it, but I told him no and just wrote a check. I borrowed his tag and drove it all the way home from Tennessee to Wilmington, NC. It ran great all the way home, not missing a beat.

After about 2 months of ownership, the clutch slave cylinder started leaking and an order was placed for a new cylinder and rubber hose. That was an easy fix.

After leaving work one late afternoon in June 2004, I noticed a small "puff" of gray smoke from the tailpipe. During the drive back to home, the level of smoke increased steadily. I stopped and checked a few things on the drive home, keeping a constant eye on the cooling temperature gauge as all aluminum heads are prone to warping if overheated. After getting the "Z" home, a compression check was done the following day and some surprising readings were recorded. Number 2 cylinder only had a reading of 25 PSIG; all the others registered a respectable 140 to 150 PSIG. The cylinder head was removed and a hole had been burned thru the top of the piston by gasoline pre-detonation.

I found a full set of piston rings and a brand new piston on Ebay for sale (gotta' love those guys!).  The head was completely rebuilt (valves, seats, guides, etc.) by R&R Machine Shop in Wilmington.  New rod bearings along with the other parts were re-installed in the engine and the engine was re-timed to the correct number of degrees advance before top dead center.

The car started right up and sounded great !  Now that the engine has about 450 miles on it, the rings are seated and it has more "pep" that before.