Weakness? The Nissan A-series has no weaknesses.

Other engines have weaknesses, like tendency to crack exhaust manifold, tendency to premature camshaft wear, etc. A-series has no such thing. Sure, no engine is unbreakable, but there is no inherent design flaws in the a-series.

the gearing can keep you in the mid to high rpms all the time, sometimes you just end up running at 4000+ rpm for 90 minutes straight then refuel and another 90 minutes. ( someday I should post an in car video from an average highway trip 0-70 mph as fast as possible typically going up hill or behind a car that should be going lots faster then merge in and open up... { this is why nascar is popular here! } )

* yeah, realistically unless you like going 80+ mph all the time or live in CA you probably don't need one.

but moving the oil filter to a place you can get at easily is worth something too.

For those who are now a little nervous about rod bolts etc, here is my engine....

I brought an old A12 motor to do a "see what happens" Turbo project on...

This motor was stock as and stuffed, the person I brought it off tried putting a turbo on it and had NO idea. He tried a Nissan RB20 turbo with a down draught webber and still had full advance on the dizzy...

When I pulled it down it had been running lean, detonating, melted pistons and scored bores. My Brother had an old sunny motor that had 380,000ks on it, I took the pistons rods AND old bearings out of it and put in my motor.

The motor received a hone (which didnt get all the marks out) old pistons, rods, BOLTS, and bearing shells, a gasket kit, rings, NO BEARINGS, thats it.... NOTHING SPECIAL!!

A friend gave me a small TD04 turbo, I made some manifolds, fitted an oil cooler, a stromberg carbie and tuned it.....

It makes 70kw at the wheels (130-140hp), 16lbs boost from 3500rpm to 7000rpm, gets treated like I stole it and is still going, I have taken it to the track about 5 times and still hasnt blown up or even blown a head gasket!!!

The pistons, rods, bolts and bearing shells are nearly 30 years old, the block etc is older, it had a $150 dollars spent on the engine itself.... do we need to say any more???



This is a STOCK A12 Datsun motor, 7000rpm (power falls off at 6200 bcos std cam), 16lbs boost, 130-140hp.... and were asking are they reliable.....??

yep oil cooler is a must with a racing a series...would worry about one for a street one, unless doing burnouts all the time....

I've heard that having an oil cooler is a good idea.

I've always run one, nothing like lots of cool clean oil.

Yeah Dodgeman is right dont get a good gearchange at high revs and the flywheel will fall off. Also Ive seen a oil pump go on a sprint car engine and the guy still finished and won the race with no oil pressure. He even drove the car back on the trailer at the end of the event. Upon inspection the crank bearings got so hot they melted like solder into the sump. Jeff basically just changed the bearings, pump of course and did an inspection of the the rest of the engine and she lived to fight another day. good ol' A series.
(By the way this is a 10,000rpm machine)

If you read through the workshop manual, you will not find any recomendation to replace either the rod bolts, or head bolts during a standard overhaul, unless they are faulty, damaged, or outside service limits in some way.

Millions of engines have been rebuilt with used rod & head bolts during the last hundred years or so without a single problem, including all of my Datsun rebuilds.

If you are building a 'balls to the wall' race engine, then high quality, high strength fasteners are a good investment, but there are plenty of winning engines still running perfectly good recycled fasteners without tragedy striking them down. If they aint cracked, stripped, or stretched beyond limits, then they still work fine in normal service.

In a stocker, even a GX stocker, you will be fine too.

Noooooo.
I don't want to read posts like this.

My engine was overhauled by my dad and I a couple of years ago and it now has +- 50 000km on this.
Now the big worry after reading this.
We replaced ONLY the head bolts and used the same conrod bolts when we assembled everything.(This is in the bolts department).
I have heard that bolts stretch and must not be reused.(Only heard this a couple of years after the engine was back in the car and running)
That is why head bolts must not be reused.
But, my engine sees once a month AT normal operating temperature 6000rpm.
It is stock bottom end and was not balanced.
Must I expect a conrod flying out of the bonnet because we reused the conrod bolts or is it not a problem.

Sorry if I hijacked your thread dattoman.

The only bolt I've been really been given trouble by is the one that holds on the cam gear I sheared one in half, when the bottom end let go.

Nothing is unbreakable. My mate had a A12 in his mums morris, it kicked a leg out of bed pulling out of a servo. Big bloody oily mess.