Whitesedan its not worth to make just guesses. A wedge head has nothing in common with a hemi. You look like an idito to try and clarify yourself even on a sunny day.
The WRC winning escorts always ran with the kent based cosworth engines not all cast iron pinto. I inherited 5 escorts from my uncle who went blind (macular) and who was also blind in love with them even though they where rusty, unreliable, always breaking diffs, boxes, blocks, overheating cast iron heads you name it. Others had the same deal and preferred the lighter more compact kent series. Its a behemoth of iron. Also to make NA 160hp on a pinto is very expensive compared to an L series which will make 30hp more over a pinto and always have in all out rallye setups. The escorts advantage was its almost 1200 datsun-like weight and quick responsive rack and pinion. Apart from that the Fj20 weighed a little less and made more from stock so I put one into an escort and finally enjoyed one of the stupid things. Tyrie Eskys without the boat anchors are featherweights and still lightweight with them, even one of my stock high comp pinto escorts beat factory alfa romeo gtv6 on acceleration but not on top end, The alfas where 300kg heavier. Therefore you cant compare a heavy 720 to a lightweight escort. Also your 120y`s 4agze is well tuned? Does your 120y weigh much more than the eskys? It probably does as the 4agze is quite a heavy engine with all its ancilleries like I said on another post 130kg for a normal 4age vs 118kg for a Ca18de and add another 25-30kg for the supercharger and ancillaries. Most 120y I went up against with their worked L series left me and other Eskys for dust. Even heavier Datsun 1600 and stanzas did the same. Trust me if the L series is in a escort it will outdo an equally tuned pinto not just because of the weight saving. Boat anchors are jealous of the things. Hey there in the U.S. good luck there with the free gift, I bet it will be more pain than gain if the pinto you are getting has a cast iron head and is the same size as the pinto here. I predict an unfinished project or a project that will ruin a good car and will be scrapped due to lack of appreciation. Unless of course you pour big bucks into alloy Esslinger heads or work the internals and boost the hell out of it. Either way what seems cheap at first will drain your wallet faster than any other setup. Good luck to you and most of all good luck to the poor little datsun that receives such a lump or iron.

You would have to consider how much modification is required to make the engine and box fit, and are these mods revereseable.

in how good a condition is the pinto engine/box?? How long do you expect to get from it??

If you have to make major permanent mods to make this engine fit, and its in an 'unknown' condition (ie second hand with no documented history) is it worth the pain makeing the mods only to find in a short time, the motor/box dies, and you need to rebuild something anyway.

Sticking with the datto stuff means that changing bits around is a little eaiser, and requires less specific knowledge.

If datto parts are harder to come by than pinto stuff then perhaps the pinto is the way to go, but its really a judgement thing.

I dont have any real bias towards any particular motor, but i would try to stick with the datto stuff, just for simplicity.

Come on mates... don

I,ve run quite a few "pinto" style motors in esky,s {100 hp+ at the treads aspo}and apart from axles diffs, an flywheels never had a prob!! Wouldn,t think of doin a datto with same cause it,s just wrong!! the swap has some issues the pinto motor is way taller than A series, sump is different an it,s longer, not 2 mention 4 spd ford boxes r worse than datto!! an don,t talk about diff,s!! Hoiden bangoes r prob better!!!!! But hey if you got the nads go 4 it!! u won,t be disappointed

D, I dont think I've ever been so shocked.

I was under the impression the term Hemi means the combustion chamber is shared between the piston and the head? If so the toyota 5K is designed like this, at least mine is anyway.

His car is a 1200 so he has the a-series in there not an L-series.

I never made a comparison between the a-series motor and the pinto or any datsun motor and the pinto, now your getting creative in your comments. I just stated I liked the ford motors and they are a good motor, many rally wins will prove this. Yes people do put L-series cranks in them because they are stronger.

If there such a bad motor what the hell are you doing buying five escorts, In all your wisdom wouldnt you of learned from the first purchase.

Smile, its sunny outside.

EDIT:
Ok I justed looked through lots of dodge chysler info and read that the term Hemi comes from the fact the combustion chamber hemi-spherical in shape, I think the 5k has been referred to in this way because of the extra large combustion chamber that is shared between the piston and the head thus creating a hemi-spherical shape.

a couple of my mates have/had mk2 escorts, with mild mods (cam and webers) one of them was about equal to my 4agze 120Y, the other was standard and still went very hard. They were both heaps faster than my 720 which had an L20b with 10:1 comp, cam, twin 40s and better diff gears. Both went through gearboxes and diffs quite regularly though, maybe the sierra 5speed is better?

The pinto is heavier than the L series the bottom end is no where near as good in the crankshaft department and the head is the most gutless restricted of all the 2 liter bar some other pommie crap ones.

Also "WhiteSedan" where do you get your creative info from like in another thread saying the toyota 5k is a hemi engine? pls refrain for even commeting on the pinto by saying its better than the A series. Ive had 5 ford escorts and they have the worst of engines, I put the rods out of the block on 8 engines in trying to match what my previous L series 180b did. Even the earlier pushrod kent 1.6 is a better engine and proven.
The only way the pinto matches anything nissan is with an aftermarket twin cam head, BDA head or later alloy heads, still heavy and no where near as cheap for bang for bucks unless you are prince charles. It is one of the most expensive engines of all time to get hp from.

It will go slower than a stock a15 with a weber.
Or even a stock twin cam fiat engine.
Trust me dont waste your time with that boat anchor and stick to the L series, ca or even the equally in weight and much more powerful Ka24e or ka24de. You could even get a Jensen 2ltr all alloy twin cam up there with no pollution gear and all alloy cosworth top to bottom design.

free things can be a nightmare, Good luck and be wise.

i forgot to mention the SR20 is just as heavy and will crap all over it. Dont forget that all the nissan kits are available and a wealth of info on those who have done the KA, SR, L, FJ and others.

I'm rather fond of the old 'Pinto' 2.0 liter. I had a couple MkIII Cortina Gt's back in the late '70's. They'd rev like hell when the stock exhaust manifold was replaced with a header/extracter. They also have almost the same Main & Rod bearing surface area as a Small Block Chevy V8. I seem to remember that a stock bottom end could handle 8,000 rpm's+ with upgraded connecting rod bolts. The only concerns that I'd have installing one in a 1200 is the size and weight of the old Pinto lump. They're longer than a Datsun L-series,(way longer than an A-series) and the ones I saw had cast iron cylinder heads, which = 'Heavy'. Without modifying the firewall, you may be installing a heavy lump quite far forward over the front wheels & very close to the rad.

No doubt, I should have included use an aftermarket ecu that your trusted tuner is used to. You'll get better results if they dont have to learn some off the backself system for this one off tune.

But the internet is a vast place and I have no doubt that there is a mapping out there for you to download and use. Holley have number of them, aimed at higher spec engines but just a quick google showed a varierty are our there to download. Even ebay was getting into the mood http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170148213317&ih=007&category=122139&ssPageName=WDVW&rd=1, this bloke in his description reckons they can get this working on a pinto.

this is geting intessting, realy... but would like to know in a dat sunny diff is strong inof for the pinto engine?!