do you reckon if you do the transplant that youll need to get an enginers certificate for it to be road legal

yes you will

well in QLD ya do

you need to update your info where are you in the world?

im in NZ

OK OK.
Im back in the game.
The L series engines are a good thing & if this engine is allowed in the class of racing that you are shooting for, then here's a few things to think about.
My earlier comment was based on the assumption that you were going to build a real car for the street.

Just about every front engined, rear drive car since 1935 has had it's engine located at least partly over the front axle. [Thanks to Chrysler & his "Three Musketeers"]
This means that anytime you add weight in the original engine location, you change the vehicle balance to some degree,...for the worse. [Thats why the fastest cars on the track are usually MID engined] The ideal situation is to move the engine back enough to at least retain the original front to rear weight RATIO, however, we seldom live in an ideal world.
The additional weight MAY well require some front suspension changes & the extra performance will likely need some braking improvements. It all depends on how much more weight & performance that you add.

The L20B first appeared in the Datsun 200B [810] here in Australia in 1977. They were also sold here in the following Bluebird models [910] up untill February of 1985. This is a really good engine design & there are plenty of go fast goodies for them, but i do not know if you can get one under the bonnet of a 1200 as the overhead cam makes them pretty tall & i suspect they made them a slant motor to get them into the engine bays of their original cars.

Check your race regulations, measure your engine bay & measure the engine & get weights, with gearbox. Have a look at any cars that have been done & ask about any bad features of the swap.
Next, reconcider your choice. A nicely tweaked A15 just might have more to offer than you thought.
It's all just a matter of simple physics really.

Here's my suggestion.
Learn all you can
Think about your proposed actions & any possible consequences,... a lot
Re-think it all.
Act

Good luck
Chris

so what amout of power can you potentially develop out of a fully worked A15

not as much as a similarly worked L16. And nowhere near as much as a similarly worked L18 or L20.
Quote:
if you have a quick look at the engine weights thread and you'll see an L18 is roughly 25% heavier than an A12. That's over the front axle. But you are also adding weight in other places with the L series swap, unless you think the A series driveline will hold up to an L series?

The gearbox, depending on which one you end up using will be around 100% heavier, and is obviously further rearward in the wheelbase. The diff will also need to be upgraed, and would also be roughly 100% heavier than the standard item, but I have not had the opportunity to weigh the diffs, and that weight is obviously over the rear axle. So the whole picture is that the weight distribution is not going to be as adversly affected as most people seem to think.

The Polar moment of inertia will be increased however, and that is the driving force behind mid mount engines. The closer you can get the Centre of Mass to the centre of the wheelbase the more readily the vehicle will change direction. But that is pretty irrelevant - if your class allows mid-mounts it will be hard to be competitive with a traditional front mount engine, and if it doesn't, then you are all in the same boat with engine over the front wheels. But at least you will have the advantage of having a lighter body that most of the other cars in your class.

And yes you will need to make suspension changes, but then you probably weren't thinking of running standard suspension in your race car anyway, so don't let that deter you...

so does the L18 swap require as much time/money as the CA18DET swp

so does the L18 swap require as much time/money as the CA18DET swp

so does the L18 swap require as much time/money as the CA18DET swp