My dad and I saw an '83 Max 5-spd. at a dealer today...90K, nearly much rust free body, seemed to run pretty good, no out of the ordinary noises, everything we checked worked. Are there any known serious issues with the L24 drivetrain and anything in particular that we should look into before taking the plunge? Any input is welcome cuz it's been more difficult to find out info for the 1st gens.

 

While I don't know the entire history of my '81 Max I do know the last five years. At 205000 miles the front seal on the engine went out. Other than that as far as I know nothing else has gone wrong, ok well the clock hasn't worked since my brother-in-law bought the car. I just bought it from him a few weeks ago. (You know the whole wife nagging about cars you don't drive much thing)

Doran

 

83? get a newer max with some real power

 

Well, I was gonna get it as a second car cuz I've been wanting a car with rear wheel drive car and a hood ornament lately. I ended up not getting the one I was looking at but read a lot about the L24 in my research. With it's 7 bearing bottom end, lower area problems are very infrequent. The L24 is basically the engine from the 240Z with fuel injection, plus one or 2 other odd bits. Nissan back in the day didn't have a seperate 6 cylinder racing engine so they used the L-series block and built upon it...so it is pretty robust and if taken care of, is easily a 200-300K+ engine. Valve adjustments are recommended for the solid lifters about every 30K or if they get noisy, and the fuel pressure regulator has a tendency to die almost unnoticed until it starts causing other problems with fuel injectors. Stuff attached to the engine will most likely go before the engine itself and the camshaft is chain driven--no timing belt! "How to Rebuild Your Nissan/Datsun OHC Engine" and "How to Modify Your Nissan/Datsun OHC Engine" were good sources. So were Z-car pages with discussion boards. The only options available in '83 were a metal power sunroof, leather seats with digital dash, and autobox. I just got a brochure off ebay so I hope to have some scans of it with the specs page soon for anyone who's interested.

 

I have an 84max with 248,000 on it, I've changed all the injectors, put a very good tune-up on it and I haven't seen another newer max that can come close to keeping up with me, especially on the drag strip. so how is that for real power