Nissan Z-series (Z16 / Z20 / Z24)

Nissan's Z-series petrol fours — Z16 through Z24 — in the Datsun and Nissan pickups, the vans and the 720 and D21 trucks.

⚑ It is the bridge between the L-four and the KA, and that is the useful route in: KA24 material describes the engine that replaced it and shares a great deal of its architecture, and there is far more of it. The Z24 in particular is the KA24's direct ancestor.

They are single-overhead-cam, two valves per cylinder and mostly carburetted, built for working vehicles in markets where a scan tool was not assumed. Nothing about them is electronic on the versions that matter, so diagnosis is compression, ignition timing and fuelling.

The Z24i adds throttle-body injection and is the one exception worth establishing before assuming a carburettor.

Their reputation is for tolerating neglect at modest output, and survivors are generally tired rather than faulty — the same story as the NA20 beside them, which has its own page here.