jonahsturdy14 Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 Does anyone know what the bonus's are to putting a L16 head on a L20 block? Quote Link to comment
wayno Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 Depends on the head casting. Welcome to Ratsun :thumbup: Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 Better low speed throttle response, less overall power, less top end. Probably will ping with 9.3 compression. Back in the 70s I had a car L20B in my 521. The head was warped when I got it so to keep driving while it was out getting plained I put the L16 one from my 510 on it. The Nissan dealer said it wouldn't fit (not wouldn't work) so I put it on and drove down and showed them. I don't remember any pinging at all but this was real gas from the 70s not the shit today. Depends on the head casting. Welcome to Ratsun :thumbup: Most all L16s were the 210 head. The SSSL16s had a closed chamber 219 head. I don't think there were any letter heads used at all on the L16. Quote Link to comment
hobbes_the_cat Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 Yeah tell us what the casting number is on the side. Sometimes it's not a good thing to do at all. Quote Link to comment
datsunaholic Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 Not a lot of positives. Higher compression, but the ports and valves are significantly smaller. Low end torque, maybe, but it'd run out of air much past 4K. Quote Link to comment
wayno Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 Better low speed throttle response, less overall power, less top end. Probably will ping with 9.3 compression. Back in the 70s I had a car L20B in my 521. The head was warped when I got it so to keep driving while it was out getting plained I put the L16 one from my 510 on it. The Nissan dealer said it wouldn't fit (not wouldn't work) so I put it on and drove down and showed them. I don't remember any pinging at all but this was real gas from the 70s not the shit today. Most all L16s were the 210 head. The SSSL16s had a closed chamber 219 head. I don't think there were any letter heads used at all on the L16. I actually thought the W53 might have came out on the late L16, that is why I referred to the casting. Quote Link to comment
banzai510(hainz) Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 I think Late L16 Import crate motors might have W53s But most of use will assume a l16 210 casting Quote Link to comment
datzenmike Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 I was told there were never any letter heads used on N Am L16s. Also the W53 was for a fuel injection engine. One of the earliest ones was the JDM 610 so slightly after the 510. Quote Link to comment
datsunaholic Posted October 31, 2012 Report Share Posted October 31, 2012 May have been told that, but it's not true. 1973 L16s used A87 open-chamber heads in the US, with the same specs as the 1973-74 L18 A87 North American market heads. Being one year, and only on '73 620s and '73 510s, the A87 Open/L16 combos aren't very common. Hard to know when they changed over, though, and it wouldn't surprise me if it happened rather erratic. Plus after nearly 40 years very few engines are unmolested. You'll find anything on these. Not all W53s were for fuel injection. I have 2 W53 heads that never had the injector notches or the extra bolt holes machined in. I've also seen A87 heads machined for injectors, but I'm not entirely certain that was done at the factory though it looked no different than the factory injection machinework. "Crate" L16 engines (the ones with 2 dipsticks) had W53 heads without injector notches. That's where I got one of mine, I don't remember where I got the other. I also have a notched W53 as well. Quote Link to comment
jonahsturdy14 Posted November 1, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2012 Ok. Some one told me that it could easily raise hp and putting in a bigger cam would make it even better but i guess not and cuz of the L16 with smaller ports which would make sence to decrease the power, so i will leave the stock head and just a performance cam. Thanks Everyone Quote Link to comment
wayno Posted November 1, 2012 Report Share Posted November 1, 2012 Ok. Some one told me that it could easily raise hp and putting in a bigger cam would make it even better but i guess not and cuz of the L16 with smaller ports which would make sence to decrease the power, so i will leave the stock head and just a performance cam. Thanks Everyone What you are planning in the statement above doesn't work like you think, the stock 210 casting head has little intake ports/valves, so it has whatever torque it has with the stock cam, so what a lumpy/performance cam does is rob torque(low RPM power/start out power) and shift it to a higher RPM power. Since it is a 210 casting head with a somewhat restricted flow, putting a cam in it is a wast of time, because lumpy cams are used at higher RPMs. And this is what the biggest issue is, you would be taking power away from yourself when starting out(torque), and putting it where you can't use it(higher RPMs) as the head isn't made to move that much air. Save your money on the cam, and buy/use a decent head(A87/U67), and then you will have torque and highway power. Quote Link to comment
wayno Posted November 1, 2012 Report Share Posted November 1, 2012 May have been told that, but it's not true. 1973 L16s used A87 open-chamber heads in the US, with the same specs as the 1973-74 L18 A87 North American market heads. Being one year, and only on '73 620s and '73 510s, the A87 Open/L16 combos aren't very common. Hard to know when they changed over, though, and it wouldn't surprise me if it happened rather erratic. Plus after nearly 40 years very few engines are unmolested. You'll find anything on these. Not all W53s were for fuel injection. I have 2 W53 heads that never had the injector notches or the extra bolt holes machined in. I've also seen A87 heads machined for injectors, but I'm not entirely certain that was done at the factory though it looked no different than the factory injection machinework. "Crate" L16 engines (the ones with 2 dipsticks) had W53 heads without injector notches. That's where I got one of mine, I don't remember where I got the other. I also have a notched W53 as well. Are both your W53 heads closed/peanut, or is one of them open(crate engine one)? Quote Link to comment
datsunaholic Posted November 1, 2012 Report Share Posted November 1, 2012 All 3 of mine are closed. Quote Link to comment
wayno Posted November 1, 2012 Report Share Posted November 1, 2012 All 3 of mine are closed. I found an open one, I wonder what application that came from, weird. Quote Link to comment
jonahsturdy14 Posted November 2, 2012 Author Report Share Posted November 2, 2012 What you are planning in the statement above doesn't work like you think, the stock 210 casting head has little intake ports/valves, so it has whatever torque it has with the stock cam, so what a lumpy/performance cam does is rob torque(low RPM power/start out power) and shift it to a higher RPM power. Since it is a 210 casting head with a somewhat restricted flow, putting a cam in it is a wast of time, because lumpy cams are used at higher RPMs. And this is what the biggest issue is, you would be taking power away from yourself when starting out(torque), and putting it where you can't use it(higher RPMs) as the head isn't made to move that much air. Save your money on the cam, and buy/use a decent head(A87/U67), and then you will have torque and highway power. But thats the thing i was going to the the L16 head on an L20 but because of the smaller ports i wont. Im going to put the perfomance cam in the L20 not the 16, plus i go the engine and cams for free so its a bonus ether way i go, very little money Quote Link to comment
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