Nissan Z-series (Z16 / Z20 / Z24)
inline-4 · naturally aspirated · petrol · 1979–present
Also known as: z16, z18, z20, z22, z24, z24i, z-series nissan
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.
Cars fitted with this engine
4 generations, across 2 makes. From the authored catalogue — an absent car means the catalogue has not reached it, not that the engine was never fitted.
Information, not instruction
CarGeek is a reference, not a service manual. Its pages are written from public sources and from what other people have found, never from a manufacturer's own service information, so they can be wrong or incomplete for your particular vehicle. Some of what they describe carries real risk: high voltage, fuel under pressure, stored energy, hot and moving parts.
Have anything you intend to act on checked by a trained person against the manufacturer's own procedure for your vehicle. Nothing here replaces that procedure.
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What makes one worth reading:
- The car — make, model, year and engine. The same fault behaves differently on each.
- What you measured, not only what you replaced.
- What actually fixed it — or that nothing did, which is worth knowing too.
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