Nissan’s heritage parts program is doing more than recreating old parts.
Nismo’s heritage program is going the whole nine yards with support for classic Nissans, offering everything from reproduction Skyline parts to factory restorations. Now it’s gone a step further by designing an upgraded cylinder head for the L-series engine used from the Datsun 240Z to the Nissan 280ZX—more than four decades after the last L-series Z was built. Now that’s what I call customer support.
The head debuted in a show car at Nismo Nostalgic 2Days 2024 after several years of development for Nismo’s 40th anniversary, according to a post on NissanZClub.com. It upgrades the L-series inline-six used from the 1969 240Z to the 1983 280ZX, swapping its single overhead camshaft for dual cams. Nissan appropriately rechristened the engine to TLX, which I imagine stands for something like Twin-cam L-series eXperimental.
The engine itself seems to be based on the L26 or L28 from the 260Z or 280Z, but bored out to 89 mm for a displacement of 2.9 liters. Compression is elevated from the L26’s 8.8:1 in the 260Z to 12.5:1, and the redline is lifted to 7,500 rpm. Power output is said to exceed 300 horsepower, and torque 217 pound-feet—both big gains from the 132 hp and 144 lb-ft of the naturally aspirated 1980 280ZX.
Obviously, an all-new cylinder head for a classic car would be a pricey part, so you’d imagine the only people that can afford one are deep-pocketed vintage racers. Those clearly aren’t big enough a market for Nissan, which told us it has no plans to sell this twin-cam L-series head. I’m sure it’d be willing to bend that rule if you wrote a big enough check, but if not, there’s always the Honda K-series-based aftermarket option.
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