Photo: Craigslist San Tan Valley
We've covered so many LS and Coyote swaps over the years that sometimes you can find yourself retching at the thought of looking at even one more. With that in mind, we adore odd-couple engine swaps between a rolling chassis and an engine with the square root of jack-diddley to do with one another to cleanse the palate. Knowing that, this 1969 Datsun Fairlady 1600 has something under the hood to excite.
On first looks alone, this old Datsun wears every single one of its 55 years and then some on its exterior. The exterior paintwork appears to have taken on the same discoloration that 80s Apple products and other old computer hardware tend to take on after a while. Apparently, you can fix that by covering those items in salon care crème and leaving it to bake in the sun for a while, but not so with this Datsun.
In its day, the SPL311-series, left-hand drive Fairlady 1600 hit North American dealerships sporting a 96-horsepower Nissan R16 four-cylinder engine, a motor that was in production in one form or another under the H-series moniker from the mid-1950s until the early-to-mid 2000s. No, seriously, that motor had Chevy small block levels of longevity; it's absolutely nuts. Nowadays, this rusty survivor rocks an engine with roughly the same level of history behind it but on the opposite end of the automotive spectrum.
Under the hood of this Japanese import darling is a 215-cubic inch (3.5 L) aluminum-block Buick V8 that saw its introduction to service during the 1961 model year. As a lightweight V8 engine with relatively impressive build materials, this small block Buick V8 is everything most hulking American V8s could never be. Attributes like being light on its feet and not a total nightmare to service because it's so huge most engine bays can just barely accommodate it. With that in mind, it's no wonder that Rover Group bought the IP license to the engine from GM when sales figures failed to impress the bigwigs in Detroit.
In its bone-stock form, power figures were measured at around 185 horsepower. Keep in mind that this was measured by gross horsepower without any accessories installed, not net horsepower, as the engine would've sat in the car. Not exactly a Ferrari SF90 Stradale engine by modern standards, but you are effectively doubling the power output of what this Datsun Fairlady had to work with from stock. That should translate to an absolutely fabulous driving experience if someone's crafty enough to devote time to restoring this Datsun. Easier said than done, of course. It's not like most people have the time to take on a project like that these days. Still, there's got to be someone out there like that.
In its day, the SPL311-series, left-hand drive Fairlady 1600 hit North American dealerships sporting a 96-horsepower Nissan R16 four-cylinder engine, a motor that was in production in one form or another under the H-series moniker from the mid-1950s until the early-to-mid 2000s. No, seriously, that motor had Chevy small block levels of longevity; it's absolutely nuts. Nowadays, this rusty survivor rocks an engine with roughly the same level of history behind it but on the opposite end of the automotive spectrum.
Under the hood of this Japanese import darling is a 215-cubic inch (3.5 L) aluminum-block Buick V8 that saw its introduction to service during the 1961 model year. As a lightweight V8 engine with relatively impressive build materials, this small block Buick V8 is everything most hulking American V8s could never be. Attributes like being light on its feet and not a total nightmare to service because it's so huge most engine bays can just barely accommodate it. With that in mind, it's no wonder that Rover Group bought the IP license to the engine from GM when sales figures failed to impress the bigwigs in Detroit.
In its bone-stock form, power figures were measured at around 185 horsepower. Keep in mind that this was measured by gross horsepower without any accessories installed, not net horsepower, as the engine would've sat in the car. Not exactly a Ferrari SF90 Stradale engine by modern standards, but you are effectively doubling the power output of what this Datsun Fairlady had to work with from stock. That should translate to an absolutely fabulous driving experience if someone's crafty enough to devote time to restoring this Datsun. Easier said than done, of course. It's not like most people have the time to take on a project like that these days. Still, there's got to be someone out there like that.
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