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July 31, 2011 8:48 p.m. Mazdax605 Dork

Hey guys,

My brother in law is looking at an 84 Nissan SunRader RV camper. It is based on a pickup chassis of course with a dual axle. I told him before looking at it that it may have an early Naps Z engine which used the cross flow head,and 8 spark plugs. It does indeed have the 8 plug head,but he couldn't tell me if it was carb'd or injected. I am betting carb'd.

I am not well versed in all things Nissan,but when I had my 77 Datsun 510 I remember reading up on the cross flow heads on the Nap-z engine. The camper is a 5-speed with only 50k miles which may be high for an RV,but not the truck version of this. It has had the head gasket replaced recently as well as the clutch.

Is there anything you guys can tell me about the driveline of these that would sway him one way or another? I loved the L20B in my 510,but that was a different engine all together I bet.
July 31, 2011 9:08 p.m. belteshazzar SuperDork

should be carb'd. I pulled what felt like ten miles of emissions crap off the one my grandfather owned. He said it ran better that way at 200k miles than it had it's whole life.

That's all I know.
Aug. 1, 2011 1:44 p.m. Mazdax605 Dork

Anyone else?
Aug. 1, 2011 3:29 p.m. noddaz New Reader

Check the frame for rust... I don't care that is low mileage, check anyway...
Aug. 1, 2011 6:27 p.m. integraguy SuperDork

Definitely carb. If I remember correctly, Nissan was using a 2 liter engine in the truck at this point. And I am probably wrong on this, too, but I don't think this 2 liter is the L20.

Interesting, Nissan had a Sun-Raider (never heard of this, so of course, I've never seen one) while Toyota had a Sun Chaser. Nissan's version is a truck, while Toyota's is a car.
Aug. 1, 2011 7:38 p.m. Mazdax605 Dork

Sun Rader (Not Raider) is the name of the RV body on the back. They made RV's on Toyota(common)and Nissan(not common) chassis' as well as several other manufacturers like Winnebago,and such.
Aug. 1, 2011 7:40 p.m. turbojunker HalfDork

An 84 should have a Z24 2.4 liter. My 720 has a Z22 in it and I've never had any trouble with it. I think the biggest headache is the carburetor which is easily solved with a $250 Weber.
Aug. 1, 2011 8:45 p.m. HappyAndy HalfDork

turbojunker wrote:

An 84 should have a Z24 2.4 liter. My 720 has a Z22 in it and I've never had any trouble with it. I think the biggest headache is the carburetor which is easily solved with a $250 Weber.

+1 on the weber carb for any nissan 4 cyl engine. And as someone else mentioned, check every where for rust. Interestingly, my datsun 620 pick ups body rusted away to nothing but its frame was still solid (and engine still ran like new of course).