1970 Datsun 521

Okay, i thought they were taller, so i think my plan for the time being is to modify the motor mounts for the Z24 and make it work and reliable for now and save up money for when a wrecked 240Z with a KA comes into the wrecking yard and buy the whole car for 500 bucks rob anything useful off of it and make me a monster! Thank you guys for your help, i know it probably gets annoying hearing from me all the time on stuff. But, thanks anyway guys! Another thing, Has anyone ever dropped a 510's coilovers into the front of a 521? Its some Fab work i know that but how hard do you guys think it would be? I think it would compliment my 521 really well! Let me know what y'all think!

Well, alright guys thanks for the input, and Wayno How did you run your motor mounts in that Z24 swap? we had too many problems getting it all lined up properly, and addded ghetto spacers to one side of the engine mount so it sits way to high and the transmission is hitting the tunnel, so we cut some of it out for now but we eventually want to lower the transmission down enough to be able to not hit the tunnel at all, and bend some sheet metal to lay over the tunnel again and make it look clean.

Thats what they said about the Z24 and those mounts DO NOT line up right away. Haha, got a build thread for the LZ22?

As some of you may know i have a 1970 Datsun 521 that i really wanted to do a Z24 swap in, we picked the truck up for free with the motor in it. It was a rushed project for school so it wasn't built the way i wanted it to be built. Now, we are thinking about picking it up again, there are many options that are accessible to me for an engine choice. My first option is the Z24 currently in the truck all Sketchy like with shitty spacers for motor mounts( those are being taken out and new ACTUAL motor mounts will be built if i use the Z24). My second is the L16 which needs a rebuild but its a little low on the power band for me. i like to go real fast real quick. My third option is to buy a new motor and use the two i have plus another i buy to make a "Frankenstein motor". I havent looked into the Frankenstein Motors too awful much, but have heard good reviews on them. I know there is a lot of other options that arent exactly diificult to make work in a datsun 521, so my question is what would be my best choice to go with? i would really like to stick with an Inline four and make it the cleanest looking with the most power potential. 1. Z24 2. L16 3. Frankenstein Motor 4. SR20DE 5. KA24DE So the one thing i liked about the KA's is the amount of power and torque output as well as the diversity in parts to them but i also know that the SR20DE's are quite easy to come across parts for and they still make quite a bit of power stock. I plan on putting money into this build and not screwing off with stupid useless motors for this truck. I want to be able to find parts for it with ease and have the power output of at last 200 hp, but nothing too extreme such as 500+hp. i wanna be able to leave my brothers 22r in his toyota behind me with no problem. Thaks for any guidance and any suggestions help!

I posted about a year ago about a 1970 521 that I was putting a Z24 in. It is about 75% done, and I need to get a header to run to a new exhaust. What company other than Pacesetter sells a header for a Z24? I have been looking but can't find too many companies. Any ideas? Thanks In advance!

Thanks man! I'll pick one up tomorrow hopefully!

What year of 5 speed do I need to get? There is an 83 D21 at pick n pull gonna go see if that looks like te right one that will fit the Z24 Buti wouldn't think it would considering they didn't offer te Z24 in 83.. Let me know please? Thank you!

Some of the pictures of the truck done for now. We will be working a lot more on it once moving settles in and now that there is no deadline. I am sorry for the delay and confusion and not that any of you guys care but i did get an A on the project. Anyhow, Thank you all for the much continued support and help. I really appreciate it. I hopefully will get some more pictures up of it when we get into some more bodywork and some more Fab work on it. Thanks!

What if I use the dipstick from the L16 as well? Or is the placement of the dipsticks in different directions? We will have to see and figure it out.

I am using the transmission from the Z24. Yes. It is a four speed. Which I saw is an option for an 88 hardbody. We got everything to fit correctly with the oil pan and oil pickup, so that isn't a problem. We were actually thinking about shortening the mount like it was posted above because that is what it looked like, so we will do that, thank you Charlie for that! We also are going to run two MSD ignitions on it instead of the factory coils.. We are going to try to plug off some of the vacuum lines because try are definitely not attractive and unnecessary. In the end we still have a lot to do in only 10 days. I've been working on it every day after school, and work. I'll get pictures up to make sense of everything.

So like I said before guys, this Z24 has a lot of work into it. It had a brand new camshaft and crankshaft. We swapped out the oil pickup from the L16 an the oil pan from the L16 to clear the tie rod. We are going to make a new crossmember for the Tortion bars as I said before. The transmission is not bolting right up now but we did get the motor to bolt up by using the Z24 mount on the passenger side of the 70 datsun and the L16's driver side mount on the driver side of the datsun it self. I am for sure uploading pictures today around 5:30 or 6. You guys will see what is going on hopefully, it's confusing us too ( as in me and my father).. My father has been a mechanic all of his life and has done plenty of motor swaps but cosidering it isn't a Chevy it is screwing with him a lot also. Thank you for your continued support and it has helped a lot. I'm not used to doin any work on Nissans that's why I am not as knowledgable about this swap, and I'm not giving up on the Z24 in this truck. It'll be a project for sure but try to keep patience wth me as I am only 18 and haven't had much experience with doing motor swaps. Thanks guys.

Alright guys, so I have made the motor almost fit perfectly but we are running into a few problems won the steering. We had to eliminate the crossmember from the torreon bars and took the tie rod out it get the motor in the engine compartment, but now we put the tie rod back in and the oil pan hit the tie rod still. We swapped the oil pickup from the L16 and te oil pan from the L16 onto the Z24. And it fits a little better, although we are going to raise the motor a couple of more inches to get the clearance on the tie rod. It has been a real pain in the a** but it is almost there. Still can't figure out how to upload photos from y iPhone to here though. Oh well, I'll get pictures up soon from a computer.

And that idea did not work. I'm not sure exactly what we could do. So we are asking around to people we know to try to figure something out. Thanks for all the help!

We ended up okieriggin' some spacers because the way that datzen mike said we should try did not work! So we are going to try these spacers we made and if that works I will make sure to keep up to date with everything. I am planning on putting a five speed in, but we only have a four speed right now, the year of truck the motor and tranny came with didn't add up to the repair manuals parts. Typically it comes with a 2.4L Z24I. The fuel injected although this motor came as carbureted, and a four speed although it should have been stock with a 5 speed. So there was obviously a lot of things change to the donor trucks motor and tranny but I am trying to save as much money as possible to get it going the right way. I'll keep everyone updated.

Alright thanks. I'll try that and see how it comes out. We have a little under a month to finish. So we are working or asses off as much as we can but not having a real shop is kind of hard.