I bought this engine on eBay a few months ago. It was pulled from a wrecked 280z in 1980 before the first oil change and never used again. The guy that sold it to me said that it was out of a 1979 but now I'm not sure. The engine has the BCDD on the bottom of the intake and not on the throttle body. I looked on Carfiche.com it doesn't show the BCDD on the intake until 1980? I really don't care what year it is I just want to buy a service manual and I'm not sure what year I need. If anyone can pinpoint the year I would appreciate it. :laugh:

http://www.classiczcars.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=14002&cat=500&page=1

See my gallery for other pics

Thanks EZ

The engines from '79zx thru '83 are all the same , with this exception the motors with P-90 or P-90a heads are setup for turbo and have dished pistons. The engines with P-79 heads are all on flat top piston equiped motors. As for the different years and the injection equipment I have no clue. The blocks above are all marked F-54. Specks on these engines are all the same with exceptions stated above. I hope this answers your questions, Gary

what head and block does it have?

It might be hard to pinpoint the year. Both my 78 (280Z) and my 79 (810) have the BCDD. And they also both have N47 heads.

The blocks on the ZX engines are pretty much the same. I would need the correct year service manual to identify the vacume and crank case ventilation hose setup for this engine. I can't quite figure out if the two big hoses coming off the top of the throttle body hook up to the boot? Or does only one of them? also there are three small hose connections on the front of the throttle body that I don't know where they go. Stipid stuff like this. While the ZX engines core stay the same the emission stuff changed around alot from year to year. The BCDD has been on the engine from the begining of FI but was on the throttle body until June of 80 if I'm reading the Fiche correctly. By the way this is not a turbo engine......I wish it was.

I think you'd be safe getting manuals for either a 79 or 80. My 6/79 engine had the BCCD on the intake. It did not have some of the pipework your micrfishe picture shows. BUT, my car also had some anomalies that were on the 80 models, like a 3.9 rear end. Oddly enough, the speedometer gear is not the one for a 3.9, so it has read high from day one! Datsun seemed to modify cars on the assembly line regardless of medel year, much like Porsche.

sorry, no help on the year but holy cow, that's one beautiful stock motor.

how much did you pay for this engine if you don't mind me asking? i'd love to find gem like that ready to just drop in.

BUT, my car also had some anomalies that were on the 80 models, like a 3.9 rear end. Oddly enough, the speedometer gear is not the one for a 3.9, so it has read high from day one! Datsun seemed to modify cars on the assembly line regardless of medel year, much like Porsche.

Are you sure that a previous owner didn't swap Diffs? I would think that Nissan would have done the job correctly if chages needed to be made on the assembly line.

sorry, no help on the year but holy cow, that's one beautiful stock motor.

how much did you pay for this engine if you don't mind me asking? i'd love to find gem like that ready to just drop in.

Yeh when I saw it I almost creamed my drawers. Got it on eBay for $600 and it was in Miami where I live :tapemouth .....ALOT less than a rebuild would have cost me and the comfort in knowing that everything is exactly to factory spec. I am going to take some more pictures and post them just for future reference of what the engine looked like from the factory.

Carl,

regarding the 3.9 diff. I am the second owner, having bought the car 15 years ago. I suppose its possible the previous owner, a woman, could have done a switch, but my research indiactes the change to the 3.9 began around july of 79. My car was made in June and Ive always suspected the change in the assembly line in my car didn't include the correct speedo gear. It reads way high, especially when i swiched over to 60 series rubber years ago.

Carl,

regarding the 3.9 diff. I am the second owner, having bought the car 15 years ago. I suppose its possible the previous owner, a woman, could have done a switch, but my research indiactes the change to the 3.9 began around july of 79. My car was made in June and Ive always suspected the change in the assembly line in my car didn't include the correct speedo gear. It reads way high, especially when i swiched over to 60 series rubber years ago.

I thought you had a 240Z?

^^got both, a 71 and a 79....