Well, let me see.
Mod plate, what's that. The only one here to mention mod plate was yourself, so that not an issue, just a red herring.
Since i am boring the block, i needed new pistons, so i bought A15 ones. Nothing hard about that.

Difficulty & expense in fitting the A14 crank? Surely you are joking. It's simplicity itself.
I swapped something that i didn't need for the crank, so stop spreading stories about "expense" & the machining was done in 35 minutes for free. As for dificulty, it just fits up the same as a stock one. I suspect that you are thinking of something else. It's neither expensive nor difficult in this instance.

The rods? I don't know about weird, Perhaps you could elaborate on what is weird about a stock A series con rod. Yes, they are rare here in Australia, because the 1237cc A12a engine was not sold here. Tell me more, most particularly about the weird part.

Rod angle increase, yes, but at street speeds, it shouldn't be a problem for me. It hasn't been a problem for the only other example of this engine that i know of. My engine will be red-lined at 6,500 as this is the mark on my stock tach & the other engine is regularly run to more than that. In fact, it gets flogged mercilessly, but surprisingly, it would seem, it still runs good. Very bloody good.
It's the torque that i'm after, not dazzling revs, & all in a sneaky 1200 block.

Reduced volumetric efficiency? With a bore & stroke of a stock A14 with a 1mm overbore, & an improved 12GX head, you will need to provide a detailed explanation before i will swallow that.

Less sensitive to valve timing? Again, an explanation will be necessary.

The only special machining required was to chuck the A14 crank into a lathe & reduce its overall diameter by a few milimeters. Basicly we cleaned the dags off the counterweights. Big deal.

Basicly, everything in this engine carries a stock Datsun part number. It's just an innocent little 1200,... honest, so i don't know what you mean about "going to all this trouble." No part of this exercise has been any trouble, but ALL of it has been FUN,...... for me.

Talk is cheap when decrying a design, but if you know why all of the points noted above are negative ones, please let us all know, in exquisite detail, so that others don't make the same mistake.

If i was going to rally, i wouldn't use this engine either, but i'm not rallying, i'm just street cruising, so it will be OK for me.