common parts between engines

[seattle smitty]

I hate to ask this because I'm sure it has been covered until you're all tired of it, but I'm getting nowhere with the Search, and don't see an FAQ section.

I used to have older 510s, and have a few parts left over, Including an NOS timing chain set-up with tensioner and guides.  I think I also have a 520 distributor or two, not sure what else.

 

I now have a Datsun 720 King Cab 5-speed pickup with the Z-22 engine.  As I say, I hate to bore you with a old question, but how much commonality of parts, if any, is there between the Z-22/24 engine and the older L-16/18/20??  Same timing chain?  

What are the pros and cons of my Z-22 versus the older L-20B (which I recall someone saying is the "better" engine??  The L-20B would be a little simpler, I guess, with its single-plug head.  But these are both smog-era engines.  My 720 is old enough to have long-since become exempt from emissions regs and inspections, and I can modify my engine for better fuel efficiency (compression and squish-height, exhaust system, and a Weber 32/36, for instance).  Assuming I will eventually do an full engine overhaul and upgrade, what is the best (fuel efficiency) engine to start with??

Assuming there already have been discussions on this, if you can link or otherwise point me to them that would be great.

[datzenmike]

L16/18 same timing chain and guides

L20B timing chain is 4cm longer than L16/18 and guides longer to match

Z20 and Z22 have same timing chains3 and guides but different from L20B

Z24 chain is 4 cm longer and guides longer to match.

 

Crank sprockets are all the same

Cam sprockets up to '79 L16/18/20B seem the same. From '80 on L20B/Z20/Z22 and Z24 are the same part number. (I think the same)

 

 

The Z series will be the most fuel efficient as they are. If you want both power and mileage I recommend a KA engine swap. Lots of torque and EFI efficiency and it will bolt right up to your transmission..

 

 

[seattle smitty]

Thanks, Mike.  Looks like I'll have to get the old L-16 stuff together and offer it up  (sure wish I could run into a barn-find 510 wagon, never should have sold mine).

I've been looking at the exhaust thread, and think I might have an L-16 manifold.  Is the bore spacing the same or close enough so I could adapt it to my Z-22 on the way to making a good low-to-mid-range exhaust.  I weld and do machine work, so adapting stuff that doesn't bolt up is not a big deal.  

I am so tired of, by my lights, the needless complexity of modern cars (anything newer than about 1968, hah!!) that I am simplifying any car I intend to keep.  Just to show you what I mean, the best day I ever had working on cars (since 1962) was when I yarded out the entire computer system in my '86 Dodge Colt Vista about ten years ago.  The brain under the driver's seat, associated wire-bundles, vacuum hoses, and gorp, all of which i piled on the loading dock at the shop and photographed.  The whole time, that computer was saying things like, "Dave, what are you doing Dave?," to which I replied, "Why nothing, HAL, heh heh heh," and HAL would say, "Will I dream, Dave," to which I'd say, "Could be, HAL, heh heh heh."  That Vista computer mainly operated  emissions stuff on a Hitachi smart carburetor that was unrebuildable and which I was replacing with a better and simpler Weber.  But my gripe about modern cars is not so much about emissions gizmos that with the multiplicity of wire bundles under the modern dash necessary to run such garbage and seat-belt warning lights and buzzers, open-door lights and warning buzzers, clutch pedal safety interlocks, up-shift indicator lights, yadda yadda yadda.  I'm feeling the urge to yank some more wires!!

One of the many items I intend to delete from this Z-22 is the EGR system.  When they engineer that system, the timing curve in the distributor is recalibrated (mostly advanced, to compensate for the slower burning of a fuel/air charge that is adulterated with an inert gas (the exhaust).  I know you know all this, Mike.  Is anybody working on or selling weights and springs and vacuum advancers of different specs for that dual-plug dizzy, or is that going to be another cut-and-try process as with the Vista??

Again, if anyone has seen a discussion of the dual-plug ignition, please tell me where to find it, as I haven't had much luck with the Search function.

I appreciate your help, MIke.

[Stoffregen Motorsports]

" Is the bore spacing the same or close enough so I could adapt it to my Z-22 ?"

 

You can't use an L exhaust manifold on a Z motor.

 

If you mean can you use an L head on a Z motor? Yes, you can, but you need to do some engine math first to make sure your compression ratio is within range.

[datzenmike]

If a 720 you will also need an L series transmission if you put an L series head on it..