Nismo Sealing Ring/Gasket....160J Violet Turbo and 120Y B210 LZ18(4V)

There is only one thing about owning a Nissan LZ18(4V) engine today and that is the lack of off the shelf parts. Fortunately, the resourceful owners of today can get most items custom made albeit at a higher cost. Some performance parts can still be sourced from Japan for the L-series that is suitable for the LZ.

A bit of history (Wikipedia would have more...):

There is another famous engine that was the inspiration for the Nissan LZ18 and it is the Cosworth FVA which eventually found initial production life on the Ford Kent 1600 block of the 711M later type as the belt driven BDA in the forever loved and most famous Ford RS1600 of 1970. This BD series with the A replaced alphabetically by B,C,D,E,F,G,H,J,M,N,R,T,T-E, etc by ensuing later types were developed till the late 1990s.

One could still, today in 2015, buy parts for the BDA, BDR, BDM, BDG, etc off the store shelf in the UK brand new!! This being a purpose made racing engine that started life from the late 60s!

One such important part is the cylinder head gasket of the right thickness and bore diameter.

No longer available in 2015 are the Nismo sealing ring/gasket combination used for the L series engines back in the 70s and 80s. I had a set of 4 brand new Z-shaped cross-section rings as spare with 2 set of the L inline 4 gaskets of thickness 1.2mm. Today, in 2015, I would attempt to find a good used L18 block and have it prepped without sealing rings but instead I would use Kameari's L4 metal head gasket of t=1.5mm and bore 90.5mm. The use of L inline four gasket requires cutting the chain cover portion to extend it out for the LZ due to the extra layer of gear plate.

For the 160J Violet Turbo:

Now I know that the t=1.5 designates head gasket thickness....Not boost as initially thought. This LZ18(earlier model) turbo engine did have a shallower groove for the sealing rings and an asbestos gasket thickness of 1.5mm.

For the 120Y B210 LZ18(4V):

For the Datsun 120Y's later type LZ18(4V) engine, head gasket thickness was measured at 1.2mm. Cylinder head was taken off one time for servicing in Australia.