Help for the new guy. I have an AH Sprite with a Nissan A12 engine in it that I am trying to identify. I am just trying to figure out which car this engine / tranny came out of so I can order parts. Distributor is set back on the right side of the engine so I assume later A12. Valve cover is marked Nissan. Head has round intake ports. Tranny has reverse to the left and forward. As you can see I have a header and a webber setup. Had to build the header from scratch to get it to fit. 3/8" flange from scratch on my home shop CNC machine. Just made the first trip around the block today - 3" ground clearance and 6" of snow and slush - it wasn't pretty. Any idea what car it came from? Thanks KW

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Is it an A12 or an A12A? What does the engine stamp say?

Location of engine stamp?

KW

To the left of the distributor on the flat spot.

Just looked and the block is marked A12 on the left side of the distributor.

Thanks

KW

The A12 with distributor in the middle comes from a non-USA, non-Canada vehicle.

Great - Thanks for the help. Not sure how this engined ended up in a car I purchased in Montana? If you had to go to the local parts store and order parts any guesses what whould be a close match for a "sold in the USA model"

Thanks for all your help.

KW

Just go to your Nissan dealer with the old gasket. They will match it up. That engine was never sold in USA, because we only got the larger engines like the overbored A12A.

Undoubtedly it came a cargo container full of used japanese engines. Now those containers are going to africae instead of USA.

Thanks for the help. I'll run the car this spring and see how the engine performs. If it has issues i may go a different route with a little more standard engine.

Thanks
KW

The manifold gasket will be the standard 1200 type while the rest of the engine will use the gasket set for the 1974 A13 engine. [it had the same 73mm bore as the A12]
If you ever decided that you needed pistons or rings for it then the same 1200 or A13 would be the source for these as well.

Everything that you would need to service or overhaul this engine would have been available in the US, you just need to know which models shared that component or part.