My Datsun Fairlady Z (Rebuilding a Japanese Classic)

TheCrazySwede
You are very right! Straight Six with triple 45DCOE's = Heaven! :)
The new motor will make people think twice before swapping a V8 into these Z's.
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I really don't see the point in swapping V8s into cars like these, you just lose all of the car's character. Great to see that you're keeping the original engine. 👍
 
Nice to see another Z owner building the L series....
I havn't gone quite as far as you have but I'm looking at similar V8 smacking numbers.

cant wait to see how your car comes out all finished, (even though I'm no fan of the Gnose :P)

and with 45s I honestly think your under-estimating your power figures QUITE a bit ;)
 
Zychotic1
Nice to see another Z owner building the L series....
I havn't gone quite as far as you have but I'm looking at similar V8 smacking numbers.

cant wait to see how your car comes out all finished, (even though I'm no fan of the Gnose :P)

and with 45s I honestly think your under-estimating your power figures QUITE a bit ;)
Click to expand...

If you're going with a V8, a stock Ford 289 HiPo produces about 270 at the crank. I've built many 60's V8's, so I know those engines very well. We have one in our '65 Mustang that pushes about 300rwp.

I'm not a big fan of V8 swaps in these first-gen Z's. Feels....unethical, haha.
If it's power that you seek, a V8 will do, but it also steals a lot from the car's character.
A turbo L28 has the same power potential (more even) than most V8 builds in these cars. I'm not going the turbo route because I love NA motors with triple carbs.

My Z is being Japanese built. All the parts, techniques, head models and porting is being done from Japanese know-how. Having worked with these L-Series a lot in the past, I've found out that we have A LOT to learn from the Japanese about these motors. The L-Series is Japan's equal to a 302 here in the US, so these lads know a lot that we don't.
The G-Nose was a homologation for racing. I wanted to pay tribute towards the Japanese-Only model of the Z (ZG) by equipping the nose.
 
I'm with ya 100% on not going with the V8 swap. why mess with such a good weight balence and easy to work on bulletproof engine?
and in my case the ZXR is too rare of a car to do such a blasphamous act...

the potential for power with a turbo L series is insane, one of our locals stuffed roughly 20lbs of boost through a stock 200,xxxmi junkyard engine in his '71 (GRM challenge car) ragged it hard for 2 years and dyno'd at 411whp with the car not running right. upon teardown there was next to no compression on 2 of the cyl. but with that said I'm not a fan of the throttle response of turbo cars, even when tuned to the point where you can't call it lag they don't feel right to me.

previously I was running nothing more than a pace setter header and schneider "stage 3" cam and found that 211hp at the wheels was all the stock injection was able to feed (kinda fell on its face and leaned out at 4100rpm)
with a makeshift hodgepodge (hotwired cold start injector to fire all the time) I was able to find another 20hp but was still at the limit.... the set of triple 40s on my workbench ought to solve that problem.

I'd like to have headwork done but being a budget build not sure if thats do-able... if its not been done already..?..
I managed to snag an original CRATE motor off ebay a couple years ago (still on a nissan wrapped pallet), the head has a casting mark no one I've talked too has ever seen before, a few people are under the beleif it may have been an actual race engine. if you know anyone who might have some knowledge about it I'd love to find out more before it ever goes in a car...
 
Treats from across the globe! :)​

Z8lEbpW.jpg
 
Zychotic1
I'm with ya 100% on not going with the V8 swap. why mess with such a good weight balence and easy to work on bulletproof engine?
and in my case the ZXR is too rare of a car to do such a blasphamous act...

the potential for power with a turbo L series is insane, one of our locals stuffed roughly 20lbs of boost through a stock 200,xxxmi junkyard engine in his '71 (GRM challenge car) ragged it hard for 2 years and dyno'd at 411whp with the car not running right. upon teardown there was next to no compression on 2 of the cyl. but with that said I'm not a fan of the throttle response of turbo cars, even when tuned to the point where you can't call it lag they don't feel right to me.

previously I was running nothing more than a pace setter header and schneider "stage 3" cam and found that 211hp at the wheels was all the stock injection was able to feed (kinda fell on its face and leaned out at 4100rpm)
with a makeshift hodgepodge (hotwired cold start injector to fire all the time) I was able to find another 20hp but was still at the limit.... the set of triple 40s on my workbench ought to solve that problem.

I'd like to have headwork done but being a budget build not sure if thats do-able... if its not been done already..?..
I managed to snag an original CRATE motor off ebay a couple years ago (still on a nissan wrapped pallet), the head has a casting mark no one I've talked too has ever seen before, a few people are under the beleif it may have been an actual race engine. if you know anyone who might have some knowledge about it I'd love to find out more before it ever goes in a car...
Click to expand...

Triple Carbed NA > Turbo EFI

The L engine that you cammed, does it use the Bosch EFI system? Having worked on these motors a lot, I can tell you this. The EFI system doesn't like anything that isn't the stock cam. It will **** things up and the car won't run right.

Shoot me some pics of that motor and I'll see if I recognize it. What type of head does it use? (N42/N47/P79/P90)
If it's an NA crate engine, it would be an N-series. The Turbo P-Heads have more efficient combustion chambers, but run at a much lower static compression. You can run a P79/P90 on an N42 block, but to get the compression up, you have to shave the head .080", install '75-78 valves which have .080" longer stems, shim up the cam towers .080" and shim the spring bases by .080". It's lots of work for what is, essentially, not much gained. If it's an NA build, you're better off with an NA head.
 
its an N-47 head with a 01 stamp in the circle... I've seen single digit stamps from 1-9 but never have seen a 01, nor has anyone i've talked too...
the other kind of odd thing is the valve cover was painted the same blue as the block...I wouldnt have thought anything significant about that aside from the fact that it was wrapped in NISSAN logo'd plastic on its pallet...



and yes it was a bosch efi... and it took several hours of re-tweaking the AFM (yea I know your not "supposed" to do that) but it actually worked rather well, daily drove for nearly a year and embarrassed most every mustang or camaro that wanted to play...
 
Looks like it's coming together! How much power are you after?
 
Slash
Looks like it's coming together! How much power are you after?
Click to expand...

The things is, though, I'm not looking for power. I'm looking for character....responsiveness...emotion. I know those words mean nothing, really, but it honestly pays a huge part in these builds.

The final product should put out close to 300HP/290twq @ the flywheel. I could've gotten those numbers out of a 302, easily. Unlike a V8 or an L28 with a turbo, this thing will rev and scream as if the end of the world depended on it. I want it to raise the depths of hell....eat lighting and crap thunder. This motor is build dreams are made of. When it's ready, I assure you, I'll make all those who equip these Z's with other motors really, really jealous.
 
TheCrazySwede
The things is, though, I'm not looking for power. I'm looking for character....responsiveness...emotion. I know those words mean nothing, really, but it honestly pays a huge part in these builds.

The final product should put out close to 300HP/290twq @ the flywheel. I could've gotten those numbers out of a 302, easily. Unlike a V8 or an L28 with a turbo, this thing will rev and scream as if the end of the world depended on it. I want it to raise the depths of hell....eat lighting and crap thunder. This motor is build dreams are made of. When it's ready, I assure you, I'll make all those who equip these Z's with other motors really, really jealous.
Click to expand...
300hp out of a 302 would be a walk in the park and it's easy to send them soaring to 9,000rpm but that requires a lot of work to to the design of the motor. Not worth it IMO. I don't know if it'll make me jealous but it's looking pretty cool.
 

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