Re: [AMC-list] all's quiet on the western front

[Frank Swygert <farna@xxxxxxx>]

Datsun/Nissan motor won't fit -- too long. Bore is 83 mm (2.27"), and that alone makes it an inch longer. If that was the sole thing, I don't think you can get another inch under the 58-63 American hood. If you took out the grille and ran electric fans in front of the radiator, maybe it would work. I don't think a pancake fan will fit between the grille and radiator though, not the easy to get ones. I measured one of those -- I'm pretty sure it's closer to 2-3" longer than the 196 overall. As far as I know the 240/260/280 Z engines are all the same length. Bore is the same for all three, just different strokes. 

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Date: Mon, 25 Jan 2010 18:37:39 -0800
From: tom jennings <tomj@xxxxxxx>

For a few minutes I toyed with the idea of a "new" driveline, once
again, but once again, again, I came to my senses, don't want to spoil a
Twin-Stick hardtop! And I like this foolish motor... but FYI I think a
superb candidate for a driveline swap for this car is a Nissan 240Z motor
and trans. TheKA24E  motor is 300+ lbs less than the 195.6 and has 140 -
150hp, stock. The trans is a 5-speed, aluminum, all synchromesh, physically
small, and I bet it saves another 50 lbs. You can get carb versions of the
motor if you want. In circumstances like this car, I'm totally "over" the
foreign-make under the hood issue. It ain't the normal, boring case of
'stuff a 350 innit'.


It's clear to me that these motors have a head sealing problem, I'm assuming
that the water in the crankcase came from the head until I know otherwise.
This means that except for the one with the hole in the block (!) every
single one of these motors that I have personally seen deceased (4? 5?) ALL
had head sealing issues (and the holed-block had a head crank repaired!).
Clearly this is a design issue/tendency, not simply bad maintenance. But the
two I've checked myself, the head and deck surfaces were not very good, and
one of these was a REBUILT NEVER RUN short block. Looks like 'slap it
together' work. I will ensure that a very fine finish is done to my new
motor, and do some research on modern sealants for the head.

There's a lot of new sealant tech out there, but almost all specifically
state NOT FOR CYLINDER HEADS. I think the new felpro-blue type gaskets work
really well, but those are not available for this motor.

--
Frank Swygert
Publisher, "American Motors Cars" 
Magazine (AMC)
For all AMC enthusiasts
http://farna.home.att.net/AMC.html
(free download available!)

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