I am new to Z's, just recently got a 240Z. I love the car, but I was wondering why Datusn put Inline 6 engines in them.

I think it was based on a Mercedes inline 6 - unlike the body, which was apparently based on an overlay of a Ferrari profile and an E-type Jag profile! Apart from the fact that the Z's inline 6 makes an awesome sound!!!

There could be many reasons why they used an I6 so consider these...

Inline 6's are inherently well balanced, unlike V-6's.

Inline 6's create a lot of torque for their size. Remember torque is what get's you off the line and allows for better acceleration at lower rpm's.

Inline engines have been around longer than the V motors.

Pick one... regardless it's a great engine!

Nate

Actually,

The L-Series engine started out as a four, in the domestic Japan market Bluebird, the U.S. modeled 510. The Datsun engineers just extended the 1600 four by 2 cylinders and revised the intake and exhaust. A very effective way to get an engine to market quickly and with known strength and power.

Now is your question dumb or is your engine dumb

They used the six so that when you smoked the locall novas and chevelles, the drivers could say whats that thing got it it?

You tell them a I 6 and whatch them come unglued! :classic:

Actually,

The L-Series engine started out as a four, in the domestic Japan market Bluebird, the U.S. modeled 510. The Datsun engineers just extended the 1600 four by 2 cylinders and revised the intake and exhaust. A very effective way to get an engine to market quickly and with known strength and power.

Well actually the four cylinder was a copy of a Mercedes inline six with two cylinders removed so Nissan essentially added the two back on their own as you say ...

This "adding two cylinders to the Bluebird engine" story seems to have originated from a non-Japanese perspective.

The Nissan 6 and 4 cylinder L-series engines were apparently designed and developed around roughly the same time - with the L20 six being used in a production vehicle first.

The L20 six ( in single carb form, as fitted to the 'Cedric Special 6" ) debuted in October 1965. The first of the L-series 4-cylinder engines ( the L13 and L16 of the Sunny and Bluebird ) debuted in August 1967.

Alan T.

( Edit: Whoops - getting my Cedlics and Grorias mixed up...... now corrected :stupid: ).

Alan, here's my question on the L engine development.

I've heard many say that the "L" motor development is directly attributable to the Prince engineers coming on-board. But, how could Nissan debut the "L" motors so soon after the merger if this was so?

Hi Victor,

Yes - its a good question.

In fact, if you look at the dates then the L20 six ( at least in its initial guise ) was installed and on sale in the Cedric Special 6 well before the actual Nissan / Prince merger.

As far as I have read and been told, the Nissan L-series engines took a lot of inspiration from the later Prince G-series engines, and the G7 in particular. It was the G7 that used some of the Mercedes-patented systems designs that were carried through into the Nissan L-series engines, I believe. I think this would imply that a fair amount of 'sharing' was going on even prior to the official handshakes of the Nissan / Prince merger.

The Japanese automotive press have down the years repeated the Nissan-led PR stories about the big injection of talent, know-how and prestige brand image that they received when they merged ( absorbed ) PMC. Of course, all of this is true but I think we have to take the slightest pinch of salt with it. I think its reasonable to believe that Nissan used the PMC merger as something of a PR opportunity as well as a springboard into the domestic prestige market and PMC's competition heritage. Hence Nissan 'talked-up' the story a little to make the most of it.

So, I think there was a lot going on behind the scenes between Prince and Nissan that we do not really know about, and does not get talked about all that much.

Alan T.

Alan,

I seem to remember that in the early 60's; the Nissan Patrol had an inline six. I t may not have been an L series engine, but if I recall my years up in Hokkaido during that time, it sure looked like an OHC or maybe just an OHV (overhead valve) engine.

Hi Chuck,

I think that would probably have been a 'P-series' OHV six - maybe a P40? I know they were fairly high capacity ( nearly 4 litre? ). Can't be too many of them about these days?

Nissan had a few other big OHV sixes in the early Sixties too, like the H30. They had some interesting stuff in their commercials, but I don't know too much about them.

Nissan had the Y40 OHV V8 from mid to late 1965 too.

Cheers,

Alan T.

Alan,

Now that you have reminded me, I remember thinking how much the Patrol engine reminded me of the Chevrolet or GMC big sixes of the day. And of course you are right about the displacement of that engine. It was very large for a domestic engine, but of course a four wheel drive vehicle wanted gobs of torque and nothing gives that as much as big CC's.