In March 2010, I designed an L4 shortblock using some off the shelf 86mm pistons, 96mm throw crank, 152.5mm (6")rods.
Finding 6" rods is "impossible" so I shelved the idea.
Bought myself the lightest weight Datsun I could find, a 1981 Datsun 210 with a 40RWHP A14 engine and a 4 linked 3.90:1 H145 rear end. Car has a basically damage and rust free chassis(other than some slight hail damage on the roof and slight rust on the bottom of the doors but it is 8000X better than my 260Z was.
Owner said it was running but when I got there it would turn over and cough but not start. Gave $640 for the car since it was rust and damage free as far as I was concerned. Got it running with a shot of carb cleaner in the vent tube of the nikki carb and I am enjoying the 32-35mpg that the car offers.
paint polished up pretty well(I'm a race car technician, hence the vehicle in the background)
First upgrades/modifications
new complete clutch kit: $53
Sylvania silverstar headlights: $40
240Z taillights nearly fit into the stock taillight holes so they are put in(still need to be properly mounted...
I just spliced the 240Z taillight harness with the stock 210 harness to adapt it to the stock 210 body harness.
1g talon seats mounted basically to the floor
280zx Iron cross wheels with 185/65R14 Douglas all season tires.
Found myself with a Z20E with the good rods and bought all the other stuff I needed to assemble the shortblock.
deburred and smoothed the interior of the block(~30 hours of work with as many different carbide bits as I needed)
before:
deburred the main caps too
block back from the machine shop
painted
main studs
bottom end components ready for assembly(200+ hours later)
wrist pins installed with lock rings
bottom end together
nothing really special about this engine build....just a typical off the shelf bottom end that should be good for setting up the top end stuff.
something stupid I bought.
Something stupid I built out of OEM Nissan parts but I doubt I'm going to use it... you can see 60% of the back of the valve just looking through the wide open 45mm throttle plate.