Your thoughts please; My knowledge of different engine types is limited, I am an as my teenagers put it "An Old Fart", this said. The engines in those Nissan Pintaras, I don't know the modle, the one with the duel ignition 2ltr (I think). Suitable for fitment into a 1200 even though they are fwd I was wondering about fitting a conventional trans to convert to rwd. Am I asking a fool question?

i have an r31 erea duel ignition ca20 pintara and its rwd... or are you talking about later model ones??

U12 pintara (fwd) has CA20 with dissy sticking out the back of the head, no room in rwd car
R31 pintara (rwd) has CA20 with dissy sticking sideways out the front of the head
carby version in Series 3 bluebird
dazza

my ute has a ca20 out of a pintara. it's got heaps of torque and is really nice to drive. not slow but not exactly quick either and apparantly once you start going over 5500 rpm things start breaking.

DONT DO IT! the CA20E isnt even good as a boat anchor! Drop a CA18DE/T in it insted! Soooo much better!

haha beattie don't hold back, tell us what you really think. but i do agree in going ca18de instead, that's the path i think i'll eventually go.

i got a ca18det free
harness free
hilux diff free
just got to get all the bits together
so cost of CA18DET shouldnt be an issue
just remember its a baby RB

Thanks for the info. IT seems the pintara idea is a no go. I was just wondering because a friend has a pintara 4sale for $200. I was just toying with the concept. I will wait until I get a look at this sunny I found with the A14 and a yet to be confirmed 5 speed. As I read about the cars on this site and their various options it makes it hard to know just what to do with my coupe. Keep it stock, warm it up or go Pocket Rocket. I have the body about right now and I suppose I am up to the stage of spending cubic dollars which ever way I go. I have been out of the motor rebuild game for some time now. I don't mind spending the bucks if I am going to get quality. Are the likes of ACL, Hastings, Tighe, Alexander, Redline, Crane and Iske still good value or are there new players on the field I should know about? Back in the 90's I spent over 3k on a 265 hemi. I got a plant that wasn't much more that stock power and torque wise but it was bullet proof. I sold that car to a friend who drove it for 15years before he had to do anything with it. Spent 2k on an A15 Vanette, did the same with the mini's I once owned. I suppose it still really comes down to the money.

the ca20 is not a bad idea in itself but with the fwd one you will change the gearbox and the cyl head so your not really getting much out of it.
how fast you wanna go. if you just want a quiet smooth cruiser then a ca20 from a bbird(carb) or r31(efi) would work.get a motor gearbox driveshaft diff brakes...
BUT if you want it to go hard turbo is the go and 1.8 is your limit in a car this weight(legally).with late model engines the manifolds heads etc are hard to improve on. ive heard of guys refitting std cams to their ca18det and picking up a heap of mid range power for very little loss up top.
sr20's make good power but spit rockers out (when beaten up on),are heavier and bigger
get the a14 and 5 speed whack it in (cheap n easy) and think about which way you want to go
dazza

as beattie said, CA20E=boat anchor in my point of veiw,
my mate had a pintara with one in it and every 2nd day something broke in it and it only had about 153 xxx ks on it! with a full service history,