Z32 “Fairlady Z” with a 4-cylinder engine
A Nissan Z32 “Fairlady Z” with the front bumper and front right tire removed and the hood and doors open. A peek under the open hood reveals a straight-4 engine different from the V-6 engine, or so-called VG-type engine, that was originally supposed to be sitting there. What on earth is this engine ……?
Swapped to Honda’s K20 engine
The owner of the Nissan Z32 “Fairlady Z” presented here is François, a Canadian who has lived in Japan for the past 4 years and was the first to participate in the D1 Grand Prix. He is a Japanese car enthusiast. How did he become a fan of Japanese cars?
“American cars are also very popular,” he says.
“I like American cars, but I prefer Japanese cars because they are of higher quality. In Canada, there are a lot of American cars and fewer Japanese cars. The first engine in the Fairlady Z was turbocharged to over 400 hp and was used for drifting. That engine blew, so we decided to swap engines.”</p
The Z32 engine bay was equipped with a straight-4 engine. Its head cover was marked with the Honda logo. The engine selected to replace the VG-type engine originally housed in the bay was a Honda K20 engine. This engine is a 2L straight-4 DOHC and was also used in the “Civic Type R” and other models.
Although the displacement is down considering the VG-type engine, this engine was replaced with the idea of maintaining a more reasonable price concerning automobile tax to reduce weight and make the car road-ready.
“At first, we were thinking of the SR20 engine used in the Nissan Silvia and other models, but it was too expensive. So we chose the relatively low-priced K20 engine. In the end, we are planning to add a turbo to this engine.
Work is still in progress
Since the Z32 transmission will be used, work continues on the swap by ordering a change kit consisting of an adapter plate and flywheel, engine mounts, etc. from the US. As mentioned above, they plan to add a turbo and use a stand-alone type computer for engine management, but they are still in the process of trial and error. You can check out the YouTube channel “FrankoZetto” to see how this is being done.
translated by DeepL
