I've recently bought a Lotus 7 replica, which appears to have a 1500 Nissan engine. In trying to determine exactly what this thing is, I've stumbled upon this site :)

The engine number is A15469???, stamped on the right (plug) side, with two other stamps on the left (exhaust) side, DZ4X and G34.

I gather this is indeed a 1500-ish from Sunny B310 or similar. Is there any way to trace the age/etc of this?

It's fitted with a couple of 40DCOE which are causing me no end of hastle right now. Dyno booked on Tuesday so hopefully I can get a little more urge out of it. Failing that I'm going to start looking for a decent cam etc setup. Any suggestions?

Yes that's an A15.
A15 xxx xxx is a valid number

Hard to figure out the age, but could be 28 years old..could be 10 years old. Probably somewhere in between with that reasonably high engine number.

I'd be looking to setup a turbo for it. But the webers in a light car should give you some fun.

Someone else might know engine number release dates based on engine number.

Someone else can help you with a cam recommendation.

It really depends on what you plan on doing with the car & how you want it to act.Do you want it to have more bottom end . do you you want it to puul more mid , top or all around......numerouse things you can do .

I seem to spend a fair bit of time around the 2-4k RPM range (local speed limits and traffic!), which makes me think the diff needs a slightly different ratio, or I'll end up collecting pink slips. This morning I was cruising into town in 4th at about 70kph and the tach was showing just short of 3k RPM.

I guess more torque would be nice, since acceleration is more the goal than high revs screaming.

I've since managed to identify the gearbox too, a 60 series, normal (not dogleg) 5 speed, as denoted by a "60" impression on the right hand side of the casting. Still to work out what the rear axle is from though, still working on the rumor it's a skyline jobby.

I've read somewhere recently the cranks can handle 8500 RPM, but I'm wondering what I should consider a redline. I tend to stop short of 7k to be on the safe side. Assuming all is stock, is this reasonable?