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What do I have here?


Cautrell05

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I got this motor from a friend probably 20 years ago. He said they pulled it out of a late 70s pickup. Doubt it was original to the truck, but it was neat so I held on to it. It has a four speed and a chrome oil pan. Don't know much else other than it still turned over last time I looked at it. I know it's an L18 but that's it. What do I have here? Are they worth anything? Thanks

Nick

20150614_193009_zpsvzopl6jy.jpg

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In Japan, when a car gained some mileage it has to be 'certified' for further licensing for use on their roads. I'm no expert and this is probably half true but it does get difficult and definitely expensive and often the owner just gets rid of the car and buys a new one. All these low millage cars end up in scrap yards over there. In the late 70s and 80s it was cheaper to import these engines than to rebuild one here and many garages did so. Besides the usual L16/18 and L20B heads and blocks you would get mixed in with them, some of the exotic L16SSS and L18SSS engines from the 510 Bluebird coupes. These would have flattop pistons, full counter-weighted cranks?, closed chamber 219 heads and dual Hitachi SU carburetors. As these intakes and carbs did not match any of the cars here they were often thrown away or pulled off and ended up on the market as it was usually just the head that was wanted. So...

 

 

That particular SU and intake was (IIRC) used on the last of the L16SSS and mostly on the L18SSS engines. Earlier L16SSS had the dome top SUs, those are the flattop kind. You can see that the choke cables have been snipped off.... another indication that they were cut quickly at a wrecking yard in Japan for quick removal of the engine.

 

Is the engine an L18SSS? I can't tell from this picture but the carbs and intake are. Look on the bottom edge of the head just behind the #1 spark plug, it will say MADE IN JAPAN  A87? Or perhaps 219? See what you have. Also, possibly, the intake and carbs may have just been out on a garden variety L18 from here.

 

A true L18SSS would be worth something for it's internal parts. The intake and carbs as much as $250, specially if never run here or messed with... and those appear to be original.

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That engine is not an "all original" imported engine, a few giveaways:

 

Not original air filters

 

Filter on the valve cover breather (due to the non original air filter, which wouldn't have fit in a truck due to the brake booster)

 

Chrome pan.

 

That's all stuff the person that had it in a truck here in the US did to it, but it still could be a Japanese import. 

 

The valve cover makes me think it's just a 1974 US spec engine with some SUs added on- import L18s usually had the "NISSAN OHC" valve cover, but that's not a key indicator.  Plus the large distributor cap, if it is, which wasn't used on the Japanese engines.

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