After 173,000 hard miles the engine in my ZX started to knock. At the time I thought I would just buy another running turbo engine and maybe put a new head gasket on for good measure. After I got the engine in the garage and pulled the head off I noticed that what I had bought was not quite what I thought it was. There was a ton of rust and a blown head gasket left by the previuos owner of the block. I guess I could have pulled the freeze plugs and all and cleaned out the rust but, I decied that I had come this far so why not go ahead and put some new bearings in and all that. The block checked out well when I got the crank out and it seemed as if it would and be an easy rebuild. Just about all of it was. There is an import rebuilder up the street from where I live and that's where I bought the bearing timing kit and had the valve job done. I took my time and made sure that everything was clean by taking the block to the car wash with the help of my big brother Brian (Thanks Again). It took about an hour of pressure washing to get it all clean. I had always heard that the cylinders will rust very fast after being honed and washed and it's true. The rust will almost form right before your eyes. WD-40 was used to dispers any remaining water and to prevent any rust from forming.

After cleaning I got work on assembling the block. It’s not very hard but, you do have to take your time and make sure everything is within spec. The pistons were going to be reused so I still had to clean them by letting them soak in Chem-Dip which is a nasty smelling stuff that will eat your skin. It works fantastic for cleaning metal but, make sure you use gloves and don’t let it get on your skin. After that you use a piston ring grove cleaner or a broken ring to clean all the grooves. You have to make sure that they are perfectly clean so the new rings are not damaged when you get everything back together. ARP rod bolts were used to make sure I had no problem with them after the last engine had a problem with the rods. Anyway, just follow the direction in one of the Datsun engine assembly books.