Photography by Gerry Frechette
Rick Wong, owner of Infinity Machining in North Vancouver, BC, thinks Nissan’s modern interpretation of the Z is too costly and the original 240 is an icon he much prefers. So, he decided to breathe new life into his ultra-clean 1970 example. Wong didn’t do it with a host of bolt-ons, crazy carbs or other upgrades to the stock in-line six. Instead, he went all out and fitted an RB26DETT from the legendary Nissan Skyline GT-R under the long hood of his Z. The swap wasn’t as simple as fabricating new motor mounts and bolting the twin-turbo beast in. It took Wong almost three years to build the engine to his liking and make it fit properly.
But it’s been worth it, as the engine bay looks like it came from the factory. Having owned the car for 13 years now, Wong had triple carburetors on it pumping out 225 hp before he decided to perform this one-of-a-kind project. Expert help came from Hide Hayakawa, a Japanese performance mechanic who put a great deal of time and effort into everything from sourcing the Skyline R-32 engine and transmission, to the complex rebuild, installation and tuning.
Once Hayakawa got his hands on the 2.6-liter inline-six, he tore it apart and had Andy Pearson of Specialty Engineering bore each cylinder 0.030 of an inch to increase the displacement. The block was then stuffed with Nismo N1 pistons, and topped off with a ported and polished head. A Nismo head gasket is the meat in the metal sandwich. For clearance, a custom aluminum oil pan was fabricated. The exhaust manifold was also ported and polished, and larger Garrett GT-25 turbos fitted to it. A Blitz blow-off valve vents excess pressure and at the same time, lets others know this 240 is packing serious heat. For a finishing touch, Wong also had the valve cover and all the piping polished. If you’re going to do all this work, you might as well do it right the first time and add more power than you’ll want in the future as to avoid tearing into that meticulous engine bay again.
Wong used his machining skills to fabricate one-off engine mounts made of aircraft aluminum and fuel rail. Of course, the exhaust is a custom affair welded together by Wong from sections of three-inch, mandrel-bent stainless steel tubing and topped off with a bespoke muffler. Off-the-shelf upgrades include an external Peterson oil pump, Bosch fuel pump and XS Engineering adjustable fuel pressure regulator, a huge, four-row Spearco intercooler, Modine racing radiator and Flex-a-Lite electric cooling fan. The whole setup is kept leak-free thanks to stainless steel braided lines and Aeroquip fittings. A custom heat exchanger uses coolant to better control the engine oil’s temperature than a regular, air-cooled setup would. This sits in place of the battery, now an Optima sitting in the rear of the car for better weight distribution and more under hood space.
No dyno numbers are available as the engine is too fresh, but it’s safe to say well over 350 hp flows through a Nismo heavy-duty ceramic racing clutch to the rear wheels considering the stock output and the amount of work that went into it. This is at a moderate – and factory – setting of 12 psi, but Wong points out that the RB26 internals are able to withstand 550 hp, so once it’s broken in, the boost can be cranked up to 20 psi and horsepower should soar to over 450 at the wheels. An A’PEXi Power FC piggyback manages the fuel flow for the hungry six-pot.
With that in mind, braking needs to be equally as strong, so Porsche 996 Turbo ‘Big Red’ calipers bite down on Wong-made 13-inch front floating rotors and smaller Porsche calipers do the same on 12.5-inch rotors out back.
Tightly surrounding those binders are 17-inch Racing Sparco Viper II wheels, with the fronts eight inches wide, and the rears 9.5, in typical old school, rear-drive muscle car fashion. The sticky stuff wrapped around the rear rims comes from Yokohama, sized at 255/40-17, while the fronts are 225/45-17 Pirelli P-Zeros.
The stiff stuff controlling the ride is composed of a set of custom-made adjustable stainless steel coil-over sleeves mounted on Tokico five-way adjustable shocks. Eibach racing springs provide a drop. Wong fabricated front and rear strut bars out of titanium to stiffen up his ageing car’s structure and also fitted stiffer sway bars fore and aft.
With the exterior looking sexier than ever, and with the performance to back up those looks, this classic’s interior leaves something to be desired. Just like in the engine compartment, function follows form but still manages to look attractive thanks to a consistent and clean theme. All gauges are replaced with Auto Meter Ultra Lite dials with shift light. A smooth custom billet aluminum shift knob, a MOMO Monte Carlo wheel and Sparco REV racing seat mounted with a custom-fit bracket and looped with a four-point racing harness provide a strong point of interaction with the car.
A Pioneer deck provides a modicum of in-car entertainment, but that’s not what this car is about. Enough time and effort were spent on the other areas for us to overlook this. I cannot imagine the amount of stress, patience and hard work involved in such an undertaking. What’s more amazing is that this is a true owner-built car: note there are no sponsor stickers, not even the seemingly prerequisite windshield banner. The styling is what first drew Wong to the Z, so he left the exterior pretty well untouched. The paint is IROC blue from an ’80s Camaro and the front chin spoiler and modern halogen headlights covered with clear covers are the only aftermarket additions.
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