Paul Henley
Club Member
Hi All
Thought I'd post this to get confidance in some advice I've been given, I'm sure it must have been covered but can't see a thread...
I have what I believe to be a standard 240z engine that I'm planning on putting in my car. I aquired the engine about 15 years ago and was assured by the previous owner that the engine had had a "full rebuild" some years before and never installed. The engine certainly looks fresh and been cleaned and painted, but there is no detail to identify the work that had previously been carried out.
Anyway, I thought before installing that I would have a local engine repairer take a look at it and if required install a set of hardened valve seats so that I could directly fill the tank up without the hassle of having to use a lead free addidive. After explaining my requirements to the chap on the phone (incidently he has been reboring and rebuilding engines for the last 35 years and has an excellent reputation locally) he offered the following advice :-
Any engine built and supplied to the American Market after 1973 (which of course this engine was) had to have valve seats fitted to cope with unleaded petrol (gas).
Most engines with an aluminium cylinder head (again this covers my L24) had hardened valve seats fitted, and modifications were generally only required on steel heads.
In all his experiance he has never had to install hardened seats into any japanese engine and that any new seats would not be any harder than any already fitted.
As I'm not a petrol head, I'd like views from anyone else, no reason to doubt what I've been told but would like to be 100% certain before installing the engine.
Any views either way would be appreciated.
Thanks
Paul
Thought I'd post this to get confidance in some advice I've been given, I'm sure it must have been covered but can't see a thread...
I have what I believe to be a standard 240z engine that I'm planning on putting in my car. I aquired the engine about 15 years ago and was assured by the previous owner that the engine had had a "full rebuild" some years before and never installed. The engine certainly looks fresh and been cleaned and painted, but there is no detail to identify the work that had previously been carried out.
Anyway, I thought before installing that I would have a local engine repairer take a look at it and if required install a set of hardened valve seats so that I could directly fill the tank up without the hassle of having to use a lead free addidive. After explaining my requirements to the chap on the phone (incidently he has been reboring and rebuilding engines for the last 35 years and has an excellent reputation locally) he offered the following advice :-
Any engine built and supplied to the American Market after 1973 (which of course this engine was) had to have valve seats fitted to cope with unleaded petrol (gas).
Most engines with an aluminium cylinder head (again this covers my L24) had hardened valve seats fitted, and modifications were generally only required on steel heads.
In all his experiance he has never had to install hardened seats into any japanese engine and that any new seats would not be any harder than any already fitted.
As I'm not a petrol head, I'd like views from anyone else, no reason to doubt what I've been told but would like to be 100% certain before installing the engine.
Any views either way would be appreciated.
Thanks
Paul
you may have bronzey brass seats