Wow, a twin cam A series engine, now that's different! I wonder how much it would cost to make a mold off that cylinder head and make a few more??? Just a thought. Sounds like a pretty rare piece though, how is the cam chain(s) driven? Good luck getting it all to work. Nissan Motorsports still sells 7 quart aluminum oil pans, but for almost $600! Still someday it would be nice to have one, along with the Competition oil pump that is NLA. See ya later!

-Andy

Sorry, the rotary tangent is probably my fault. It would have gotten dropped a long time ago had I not put the idea down. As for Chevy's flirtation with the rotary, they were also going to use it in the Vega but decided on the all aluminum Cosworth Twin-Cam 2-liter instead. The had a concept car called a Corvega that showcased the rotary. But I digress, once again.
On a side bar, welcome back Mareospeedwagon!
On a side side bar, I think this is the first topic to hit 20 replies too.

I once read that Zora-Arcus Duntov, of Chevrolet fame, was the one to perfect the rotary seals that Mazda used. He had a very reliable rotary motor worked out that was supposed to be the 1973 modeled mid engined Corvette but GM decided against it because it was too different from the money making norm. Duntov quit GM for that reason. Anyway, what does all this rotary thing have to do with Diffs? LOL.

You got me thinking....I had a dig though my huge pile of extremely important "automotive reference material " (My wife calls them those bloody car books) and found a Datsun factory tour brochure from 1972. In it are some small photos of the future in Nissan. One is a Nissan rotary engine, which looks almost the same as a 12A Mazda and a picture of an odd fronted 1200 coupe in a dyno cell, probabaly the rotary powered drone. I understood that Mazda manufactured the rotors and housings for Nissan and Toyota and the rest of the engines were in house. Mazda also did this for the rotary Norton Commandos. NSU struggled with their Wankel and it was Mazda that got the Cosmo onto the market first after buying the license from them. NSU stuck with peripheral ports which made the engines thirsty and hard to drive smoothly....There thats enough about rotangs for a while...I promise.

I'll reveal all soon. regarding the twin cam head I've found. It was almost a 10 year search for what a lot of Datsun "experts" said did'nt exist.I found it in a collection of stuff a young guy had but did'nt know what he had, he also had a rare as winged alloy sump which I grabbed too. I am still unable to determine if this was a factory prototype or an aftermarket item made by a company Gikan who made similar heads for the L series 4 and 6s. The cams are chain driven and they aren't symmtetrically mounted with one offset to the left hand side. I have a photo of one from Japan with mechanical fuel injection and I have got some friends in Japan trying to track down some details. Once I have found out for sure what is is I've got I'll let everyone knoew for sure. Ultimately I would love to fit it to my racecar which was originally campaigned in the States in the Tran Am series. It has been a racer all it's life. The Datsun factory raced several 1200 coupes with LZ14 twin cams but these engines were based on the L series block. This motor was also used in the 120Y bodyshell and 160J/Stanzas.

wow....sorry dude, i didnt realise how what i was saying actually came out (am i making sense?). That night i was drunk as shit, and tired, but still wanted to see what was going down on the datto site

Thats why my last post seemed so aggravated...sorry bout that....it's all good.

rota powered dat is getting ditched. As andrew said to me, "it comes down to bang for buck"

more money is spent on a rota to get it to go harder, than a CA, so hmmm......i have seen the light again. It was kinda dim for a while there though. Being a dim-light yourself, i woulda thought you would be a rotary person, haha, sorry, bad joke (and no i'm not drunk).

later dudes

-Jesse

Twin cam A series? Tell me more!!

Scott
Davo

FWIW, I am remember reading NSU did most of the Japanese development of the Wankel, not Mazda. Then when NSU was absorbed by Nissan, Nissan flirted with using them. Then when they didn't I think is when Mazda starting using them. It's unknown to me why Nissan chose not to use them. But as anyone with an R100 or RX-2 has learned the early rotaries weren't the greatest engines. Then when they came up with better apex seals, etc, they got better. Just an opinion...

I have thought about building a rotary 1200 myself, but as much HP as they can produce they seem to need a turbo to produce any sizeable torque. Just an opinion...

Quote:

<small>[ Edited by tens_and_twenties on 2002/5/31 16:11:48 ]</small>

Jesse, all I can say is; D'oh! You caught me. I have no excuse. I was hypocritical by supporting the Ford swap over the Mazda. I apologize to the group.
Incidentally, don't read that as sarcasm. I really have no leg to stand on this time. Well, except for the "it has been done to death" argument. And once again, build whatever you want, it is your car after all.

I dont recall seeing any rotaries in 1000's? So maybe i am being original?

Seriously, with the amount of different conversions, what is left so that i may not be 'like everyone else'? put a V8 in it? done...CA18...done....SR20....done....RB20...now theres an idea....

ok ok, how about this, I HAVE NEVER DONE THE CONVERSION SO IT'S NEW TO ME.

and first of all everyones like "i dont agree with non-nissan engines" but a ford one is ok now?

make up your mind peoples......

my motto, if it goes hard, i gets my respect.