Our 1971 FairladyZ-L has the original L20 engine, not an "L20A" ....

Yes, but if it's a S30 it should have an L20a, not a L24, so if the engine in storage is an L20a, that is probably the original engine.

It must have varied by state, or maybe it was just California cars that had to add them. Most of the early Fairladys I have seen in the US didn't have the rear reflectors.

-Mike

Are trying to sell a car, indirectly? The post you replied to is over two years old. If so, say so.

Our 1971 doesn't have the red markers; it was imported without them in the early 1970s and has always been licensed in Oregon without a problem ... or an engine bay id plate which was "lost" during a repaint three decades ago ...

Beautiful car indeed. Unfortunately Fairlady Z's, at least the ones in Japan, did not receive an engine code on the engine bay plate. To verify, you can general guess the range of the engine code based on build date. Like my Fairlady, it didn't suffer from the addition of the rear red reflectors! Mostly all Fairlady's I have seen in the States had this item added to be road legal in the 70's. The door panels, steering wheel, front grill, among others will need to changed back, but awesome condition!

Not selling, just sharing information about a 1971 FairladyZ-L that is mostly correct.

Are trying to sell a car, indirectly? The post you replied to is over two years old. If so, say so.

No offense intended. A new thread with a link to this one might work also.

Our 1971 FairladyZ-L has the original L20 engine, not an "L20A" ....

The engine your 1971 Fairlady Z-L left the factory with was called an 'L20A' by Nissan. The 'A' suffix was added to the L20 sixes when the L20 four debuted ( 'L20A' = 6 cyl, 'L20B' = 4 cyl ) in an attempt to avoid confusion.

You won't necessarily see the suffix codes written anywhere on the car itself.

I have two Nissan Fairlady brochure booklets, both are in Japanese. I got one on leave in Japan, in Nov. 1971, A 12 page brochure. It showed 6 options for the Fairladys. the 240ZG, 240Z-L, 240Z, FairladyZ-L, & FairladyZ. A rally clock, radio, chrome rimmed headlight bucket lenses, rear defogger, rear spoiler, & hubcaps. For the 70 Fairlady 432Z, FairladyZ-L, and FairladyZ they had 12 pictured. 8 track, foot rest, spoiler, rear window defogger, bumper overriders, side lower racing stripe, what looks like black vinyl top, custom exhaust tips, rectangular fog lights, radio, rally clock and two others showing lower doorway opening aluminum strip, and the flasher button on the turn signal. Also showed 7 colors.

As is often the case, this is something we have discussed on this forum - in detail - in the past:

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/misc-s30/14422-home-market-s30-factory-options.html

http://www.classiczcars.com/forums/misc-s30/14501-home-market-hs30-options.html

The 'A' suffix was added to the L20 sixes when the L20 four debuted ( 'L20A' = 6 cyl, 'L20B' = 4 cyl ) in an attempt to avoid confusion.

Hi Alan, wasn't the A suffix added to distinguish the L20A from the earlier L20 (1966 to 196?), which had a different valve cover design?

Wikipedia (for want of a better source) tells me the L20B didn't debut 1974, yet from what I can tell the L20A was called that earlier than 1974.

Edited February 23, 201411 yr by Mr Camouflage

Hi Alan, wasn't the A suffix added to distinguish the L20A from the earlier L20 (1966 to 196?), which had a different valve cover design?

Yes, you're right. I don't think I put that very well did I? The L20 six got the 'A' suffix well before the L20 four arrived with the 'B' suffix.

The story that was related to me when I looked into this was that it was a case of killing more than one bird with one stone. Yes, they needed to differentiate between the early style L20 six and the updated L20 six, so they started to use an 'A' suffix on the updated design. A good illustration of this was in the factory parts manual for the GC10 Skyline: This had sections for both the 'early' / 'old' type L20 six and the 'new' L20'A', as the earliest GC10s were equipped with the 'old' type L20 sixes, and then they switched to the 'new' L20'A'. It must have been quite confusing at the time to have the same model of car fitted with two versions of what was essentially the 'same' engine.

Those first 'new' L20'A's had the 'A' stamped into the pad on the block that carried the engine number. No doubt this was an effort to make sure there was no confusion, but it's possible to see Nissan's period advertising and other technical descriptions not differentiating between the two types. I don't know whether that was deliberate or not? And just a year or so down the line ( late 1969 ) Nissan were churning out what were clearly 'new' type L20As without the 'A' being stamped on the block as part of the engine number. Quite confusing.

Wikipedia (for want of a better source) tells me the L20B didn't debut 1974, yet from what I can tell the L20A was called that earlier than 1974.

Again, the story I was told was that the 4-cylinder L20 was 'on the drawing board' - or at least being mooted - during the 1968/9 period when the L20 six was updated, hence the 'A' and 'B'. Even if they were not ready to make it yet, we can imagine that they could see a 4-cylinder L-gata engine of two litre capacity being necessary somewhere in the near future. If that wasn't part of a long-term plan then it would have to be a big coincidence, no? One thing is for sure: Those 'A' and 'B' suffixes did the job of differentiating between the six and the four, and the 'old' and 'new' sixes.

But anyway, Kerrigan's Fairlady Z-L was fitted with the 'new' type L20 six, which the factory called an 'L20A' at the time.

Great info as always. Thanks Alan.

874 lower than my 5553 ... guess on ours is a May-July build date window. The fuel pump date code is 1501 (May 71?) and a date code on the headlight wiring harness is, strangely enough, G-71 .... definitely a "G" ... not a "6" ....

Don't think the louvered access hatches are stock ... ours doesn't have them and it's an original car.

Nice Fairlady however; there aren't many left in the US ... just heard of another one wrecked and scrapped. Scored some parts off it.

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VIN: S3004679 if anyone wants to do a check on it