Well I acquired a couple of L20B engines for my Kids Offroad Race car. 3hrs later I have it in and mounted with Borg Warner auto attached just got to make mounts for tranny now. Looks like a race car now with Roll Cage and motor in it. Any advise on what I can do to the engine would be greatly appreciated (never played with 4 cyl Nissan's before) I would like to know if I put flat tops in it could I still use a closed chamber head or not, will be running 98 fuel. I have also found a 4.875 diff which should help liven it up a bit although I am running 14" tyres on rear that are 690mm high so that and the auto will suck the life out a bit so, but I'm sure my 12 & 10 year old will still find it a handful. I will post some photo's of the build if I can work out how. Still need a cam as well can't be lumpy though.

Welcome to 1200.com. An L series in a 1200 is reasonably common here, so we should be able to help you. There's also a website called Ozdat.com, which has a good amount of information. Where about's in the world are you? Depending on where you are, I can suggest 4 or 5 different places to get stuff like pistons, cams, etc. Hope the kids have a good time racing the car.
As for what to do to the engine, sometimes it's better to just get the car running with a stock motor before building a hot motor. Just a 32/36 dgv weber or a single DCOE weber or D'ellorto , some extractors, , an electronic distributor from a Series 2 Bluebird or a kit in a stock distributor & a good coil should be all you need to get it running. A rebuild to 86mm pistons with some flat top pistons, a bigger cam with better valve springs, twin side draughts & all the other things you can do can probably wait til the kids have learnt to drive the car. I can remember how fast my first 1200 with a 1400cc A14 seemed to go when I first started racing it, but by the end of the year I was driving to the limit of the engine, so a 1600cc A15 was built over the off-season. That first year was great, but if I'd decided I couldn't afford racing, I wouldn't have spent a whole lot of money finding out. I did the same thing a few yers ago when I put an L18 into a Sunny coupe. The engine was stock inside, but we had 2 dcoe's, extractors, electronic dizzy, lightened flywheel. The car handled beautifully, stopped well, but was limited in top speed, if you can call 190 kmh slow, so a swap to a worked L20B was on the cards when the real world got in the way. Still have the car & an L20B with a close ratio R30 5 speed, so I hope to get it running this year.

hey thanks, yep the real world can be a #OOPS# sometimes but you just learn to roll with it don't you. I was going to buy 1 of those new electronic dizzy's on ebay for a couple of hundred and I was planning on trying a weber off a trusty old xf falcon. I was given new std bore flat top pistons with the 2 engines I just bought so I was going to give 1 a quick hone and wack them in together with some rod bolts and new bearings. Haven't got anything for a cam yet and I was chasing a peanut head but someone here has offered me a V912 head which apparently is 1 of the best race heads to go for so I might buy that as well. The kids are very keen to start racing and have begun driving lessons. Mum even reckons she is going to race it in the Standard class so I need to give it some giddy up, she is a seasoned racer, problem is that both classes have to run an apparently standard engine ( which no one does) so I can raise compression, small cam must have standard inlet manifold but can change carby (single only).

I have finished some of the roll cage, L20B motor and auto dummy fitted , spring over diff conversion done a little high but I will get it down. Now I need to do the front struts need to go up about 70-80 mm, any ideas, any other models have longer struts?

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Can anyone suggest a cam, I was wondering about a SSS cam what are they like does anyone have one they want to sell?

for the longer struts, try Sunny struts. They are the longest inserts I've seen, you could just re-oil them with some motorcycle fork oil & the wiki here has some suggestions for larger discs & calipers, usually S13 Sylvia. This conversion needs the Sunny lower control arms, steering arms,& ball joints, which should bolt into the 1200 front.
As for a cam I got a high lift 74 degree cam from Stewart Wilkins at his suggestion as a good compromise cam for rallying . This involved new springs, lash caps & lifters as well.

Stock l20b Cam is pretty much a sss Cam. Wade cams do good regrinds the 72 or 74 would be good but I went the 733a as IM Lpg and need low down vacuum signal

thanks for the info guys, just what i am looking for. What about 200B struts, I've been told there longer too?

200b struts have spring platforms that don't fit in the towers, you have to cut them.off and weld on the 1200 or stanza ones.

200b are 40mm shorter than stanza struts. From memory.
get stanza with longer springs or reels the platforms higher up your existing struts if shock has enough travel .

Here is an update on the little Tilly, she's coming along nicely ready for sign writing now.

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