The engine in my car is currently a stock A15, and I plan to change that. I've been trying to find a cam for it...minimal success. It appears that the head bolts are the same.
I haven't had much luck finding a metal headgasket either. My A15 is on it's original 25 year old headgasket and that worries me...I'd like to just upgrade it to a thinner metal one.

Specifically regarding the head gasket, head, and camshaft.

Basically, I'm thinking of buying a .487/300 A-series cam, some upgraded Nismo A12GX headbolts, and a thinned metal headgasket. I think all of these are 'intended' to go into an A12, but I'm not 100% sure...is this all just bolt and swap simple or not? Thanks for the help! :)

The Mazda engine would be legal, but I'd have to do a bit of paperwork/give some of my money to the local Department of Motor Vehicles. Basically, I'd can register it as a 'Hobbyist's car, smog-test it once, and from that point on, it's legal to do whatever with, except I can't drive it during the winter months. Which is fine, because I don't anyway.

I've been looking around, and you're right...I'd probably be better off sticking to the A-motor instead of an L. Only problem is that my A engine needs a full rebuild, and then about $700 in mods to be reasonable to drive Quote:

Thanks, but I don't plan on putting another forklift engine into my car. ;)

Down to business: My car isn't a 1200, but rather a B310 chassis:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a13 ... /Car%20Stuff/56afc7bd.jpg


I'm currently looking into my options for an engine swap...and reading this thread:
http://datsun1200.com/modules/newbb/v ... rum=1&post_id=&refresh=Go

Where I live, a KA24E is the most common engine, and the cheapest. A Mazda 12A rotary and an L-series Nissan motor will be fairly similar, as far as obtaining one goes. Price...not so sure. An SR20DE in a RWD format will be the priciest and rarest...I'd have to get real luckly and maybe find one in a swapped 200SX that had been wrecked. Nissan never sold RWD SR20 cars here. I'm going to avoid the CA...just too many bad experiences with those.

The L-series is probably most plentiful in the I6 variants here - the L26E and L28E. The L20B I4 is the most common I4 version. Can the I4 L-series engines share engine mounts with the A-series engines?

The KA is the most appealing because so many of them are around. People pull them out of their S13/S14 240SX/200SX cars and drop in SR20DE's. The weight of the KA is kind of putting me off though. How much mount fabrication usually goes into swapping one of these in?

Any thoughts. I'm still reading/searching around here, looking for clues. Any help is appreciated!

Thanks, but I don't plan on putting another forklift engine into my car. ;)

Down to business: My car isn't a 1200, but rather a B310 chassis:
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a13 ... /Car%20Stuff/56afc7bd.jpg


I'm currently looking into my options for an engine swap...and reading this thread:
http://datsun1200.com/modules/newbb/v ... rum=1&post_id=&refresh=Go

Where I live, a KA24E is the most common engine, and the cheapest. A Mazda 12A rotary and an L-series Nissan motor will be fairly similar, as far as obtaining one goes. Price...not so sure. An SR20DE in a RWD format will be the priciest and rarest...I'd have to get real luckly and maybe find one in a swapped 200SX that had been wrecked. Nissan never sold RWD SR20 cars here. I'm going to avoid the CA...just too many bad experiences with those.

The L-series is probably most plentiful in the I6 variants here - the L26E and L28E. The L20B I4 is the most common I4 version. Can the I4 L-series engines share engine mounts with the A-series engines?

The KA is the most appealing because so many of them are around. People pull them out of their S13/S14 240SX/200SX cars and drop in SR20DE's. The weight of the KA is kind of putting me off though. How much mount fabrication usually goes into swapping one of these in?

Any thoughts. I'm still reading/searching around here, looking for clues. Any help is appreciated!




EDIT: CRAP! I meant to reply in my other thread...not make a new one... can a moderator merge the threads or maybe just delete this one?

This is what I drained out of my 1981 A15 powered Datsun today. Sparkly oil full of metal shavings. Ouch. I kinda knew it was coming. I did oil changes on all of the family vehicles one day several months ago, and when I was done, I noticed that my oil drain pan had metal in it. Process of elimination(oil changes on the other cars) narrowed the source down to my Datsun, and sure enough, today I drained a bunch of sparkly oil out of it. It does seem to run okay though, but I spent a summer driving it while it was suffering from metal in the oil. It's starting to get ticky and burn a lot more oil now.

I'm still not sure what I plan to do about this. I've been having trouble finding another A-series engine. A rebuild on this one would probably cost more than a good used engine. A more modern Nissan engine swap might be cool. I suspect a Mazda Rotary would be easiest from a fabrication standpoint.

Meh...in any case, this car is going to be sitting for a while :(

Yeah, been messing with the car over the last couple of days. Installed new carpets, new thermostat, hoses, oil change, just junk like that.
This is just a small bit of the huge pile of California I rinsed out of the car's front fenders and window trims
Head on
front side
Other side. Note faceless Volvo. Thats my other car, just got new lights and grille on it today.
Arsetastic. If you look VEEERRY close, you can just make out my dad's 1986 Pulsar EXA/NX coupe

And a couple of shots of the Volvo, just because:
New taillights
The old ones were cracked and broken, and were letting too much water in.
one from the front
and another
It got a new grille and a new driver side turn signal as well. The grille was like $10 on ebay, couldn't pass it up. Kept the old one as a garage decoration.

My daily driver/beater is a 1986 Volvo 240DL station wagon. Its an old heap with 271.000 miles, but it gets me around.

The other cars at the house are a `1986 Nissan Pulsar NX(Exa?) coupe that my dad drives, a 1990 Plymouth van, and a `1996 Toyota Camry that my mother drives.

Today I was getting my A15 powered wagon ready for summer by changing the oil and filter, as well as finally getting around to changing the cooling hoses, thermostat, and flushing the system.

Anyway, I realized that my oil drain pan had a bunch of metal on it when I was done changing the oil :( Appeared to be mostly coppery-looking metal, with some black-brown crusty chunks of metal mixed in as well
I noticed that theres a rattle when the car is running...at first I thought it was just a pipe or something clanging around under the car, but I'm pretty sure its in the engine. The engine is also puffing a bit of oil smoke, mostly when cold, but a tiny bit when warmed up as well. Other than this, the car seems to run just fine.

What does this sound like? I'm thinking that the main bearings are being chewed up. A friend thought it might have been the thrust bearing on the crank...I'm honestly not sure what it is. Help is appreciated!

They're worn out, old, smell bad, and to top it off they're too high, too close to the wheel, don't slide back far enough, and feel like the worst old couch ever. I feel like I'm driving a clown car...with terrible seats. I need to sit much lower and further back to be happy in this thing.

Does anyone know of a seat from another car that has the same distance between the bolt holes on the bottom of the seat? (the ones you bolt the rails onto). How about seats that bolt in with minimal mods?

Worse comes to worse and I figure out how to bolt something right to the floor, but at this point I'm trying to avoid that :|