Nissan L20 Fairlady Z motor

[Guest ON3GO]

thanks for the pics!

ill check it out tomorrow maybe and get the down low and just stop guessing.

 

if it doesnt have the L20 ill do the 1JZ-GTE swap ive been wanting to do.

i just want a motor that i can rev the piss out of.

 

 

mike

[NZeder]

Tony D,

 

Nice pic - so mike there you go close to 200hp and 9k RPM. Tony - what have to done to the timing to allow 9K RPM, looks like you have a crank trigger setup - I believe anything above 8K required are replacement from the common/shared gear drive. Using an E88 - was this a 240z/260z E88 - I have heard the best e88 to use is the Nissan Cedric or 260C E88 as these have a smaller cumbustion chamber than the Z E88 head (ie no welding required just install bigger L28 valves and in your case with the L20a block work to ensure these larger valves don't cause issues with the top of the block). Would I be correct in guessing the you are using 40mm carbs?

 

Mike if the car has had the engine replaced - and you really want a L20a (or L20e EFI) then I could see if I can locate on here however shipping will be the killer)

[Guest ON3GO]

ya i no shipping would be alot.

i can always figure out a engine combo to make a L24 rev just as high...

i also can get my hands on a Honda F20C S2000 motor + tranny if need be.

im not sure what to do with this Z, but i have time as i dont even own it.... yet

 

mike

[Tony D]

Tony D' date='

 

Nice pic - so mike there you go close to 200hp and 9k RPM. Tony - what have to done to the timing to allow 9K RPM, looks like you have a crank trigger setup - I believe anything above 8K required are replacement from the common/shared gear drive. Using an E88 - was this a 240z/260z E88 - I have heard the best e88 to use is the Nissan Cedric or 260C E88 as these have a smaller cumbustion chamber than the Z E88 head (ie no welding required just install bigger L28 valves and in your case with the L20a block work to ensure these larger valves don't cause issues with the top of the block). Would I be correct in guessing the you are using 40mm carbs?

 

Mike if the car has had the engine replaced - and you really want a L20a (or L20e EFI) then I could see if I can locate on here however shipping will be the killer)[/quote']

 

It is Electromotive Tec2 system with TWM 45mm Throttle Bodies. I ran 44PHH Mikuinis on my L20A in Japan, soggy on the bottom end, but woke up in throttle response about 180KPH...

The old L28 we had in the car made 315+ to the rear wheels, at 8250rpm, and our shiftpoint was 8500rpm.

 

We have not dynoed the engine as of yet. Work, and other bothers keep us from the 10 hours we figure it will take to redail the calibration down for the smaller engine, it still is running the L28 program.

 

We really should have used the crank trigger and not the smaller disc in the diztributor, but eeeeh. If it works... I would recomend a crank triggered unit without using the distributor drive shaft at all. Use the oil pump drive from an LD28, and plug the top of the dizzy hole in the front cover.

 

The E88 is actually the head off the L28 we ran, with custom pistons. Indeed it is the "small chamber" head, but any port and valve configuration relation to stock components went out the window $2000 ago! LOL The reason for running is is we really didn't want to crank out another $2K for a raceprepped E31 head (which I have a nice core for) that will likely do the same thing. The block was bored .020 due to rust pits in the bore from storage, then the crank was cut undersized in a DESTROKED configuration (offset grind) to bring the displacement in line with class rules. So this is a destroked, short stroke motor. How's that for rev potential. There are fully counterweighted L20A cranks out there, and they reve really really nicely!

 

We figured we made 113+HP/Liter on the L engine, so we figured almost 1 liter less, make 100 hp less. We are hoping for 200+. The more we make, the better. I hope the crank holds together. When this thing gets to the dyno, I will need hosting space cause I plan on taking a movie, and rest assured I will post the dyno sheet.

[Mblades]

On 5/22/2005 at 3:40 PM, NZeder said:

The gearbox will be what we call a 240z/260z B box downunder. The 280z B box has a wider 2 to 3 than the 240z/260z B box. Most Z in this part of the world have the 240z/260z B box only the 280zx had the wider 5 speeds. They are a good gear box to have as they are quite close ratio with only a wide 1st to 2nd. My 260z has one of these.

 

re the cam cover yep most L series have those. The rare ones are the same down here also. ie 2400 o.h.c (on the series I 240z), I believe there were also 2000 o.h.c for the very early L20a (twin 40mm SU carbs not like the 240z 48mm SU). Only the very late L28 83-87 (yep the JDM keep using the L series until the R31 skylines when the RB relaced the L series) had the very chunk NISSAN cam covers.

 

Most of the RHD dash crack. Here in NZ I had my covered/restored. Other than that I am sure I could see if I can find one for you?

 

Regards

Mike

 

[Tony D]

 I guess to be complete, the engine dynoed at 205RWHP at 8775 and would shift at 9300  from first to second, an at 9500 the rest of the way up. The speed we did at El Mirage was within 2 mph of when we started out with the L28 making only 217 at the rear wheels, so it appears a comparable and accurate pull. We used the same head from the L28 and had to heavily relieve the block to clear  the valves. The combustion chamber  was huge, and as a result we barely had 11:1 compression, if that. We had no issues running this engine in valvetrain stability testing to more than 12,500 rpms.

We got protested by a dick with a Cosworth engine, which took us out of competition for 3 years. Sadly, you can't set a record on a rookie run, and we actually did that, but they spent their money to get 345HP in their 2L so pursuing it after that point was moot.

The car was repurposed back to GT3 Spec (er...we raised the coil over height) and went on using it as a Track-Day Car at Willow Springs where it excelled running the L28 again.

The engine may come back to me, Andy moved north and Dave has it for his kids... but I still have an S30 LSR Car courtesy of LVSALT (Gary Cole) here so I would like to run that prepped bottom end with some mods as a turbo engine in that car one day. I recently talked to Dave about it and we may work something out on the L20A Engine.

Hung Vu is reproducing dashboards now, and RHD units are in the Pipeline. Fine him on Facistbook in Datsun Parts and Needs, Church of the L Series, Datsun Parts Group, etc... He's based out of SanFrancisco Bay Area, USA. 

Cheers!

<EDIT> Oh yeah, the L20's had 38mm SU's not 40's and the early ones did come with the "Nissan 2000 OHC" valve covers. Very Late L-Gata had plastic valve covers for noise suppression and less heat transfer to the engine bay.

Edited April 4, 2020 by Tony D
For got to mention SU size and confirm Valve Cover types