1973 Datsun 620 Pickup review from North America

Brakes are under-powered, head gasket blew at 200,000 miles. The original transmission whined in 4th gear. The shifter was very very loose, and the original engine above 200,000 miles loses much of its efficiency.

Originally, this truck came with a way underpowered L16 engine, which shares the same design as the 240,260,280,280ZX engines (internally). Despite being the same design as a fast 240Z, it was very slow. The rear end gear is a 4.88 and it came with no overdrive, which means freeway driving is in the 4,000 rpm range. This truck has given me few problems for being so old, and is pretty good on gas.

I got tired of the slow engine, and built up a L20b engine from a newer 620 pickup, and swapped in a 5-Speed from a '81 280ZX, which drops freeway RPM down about 1000 rpm on the freeway.

Overall, I like the styling of the truck. Mine is pretty straight and most people that see it like it. If you're considering buying one, I'd suggest getting involved in any online forums or chatrooms that you can, to find out how to get the most performance out of it, because it is so slow (i.e. nwde.org).

Overall, I like my truck. With the bigger engine swapped in, it goes pretty well, and spins 7,000 rpm and makes power up there. I'd suggest getting a newer 620, 76-78 model years came with the larger engine that I swapped in, and some came with a 5-speed. The newer models came with a more streetable 4.375 rear gear. My truck has drum brakes all around which can leave high speed braking scary--- the newer trucks have front disc brakes.