CA18DET AWD fun...

[AWDB12wagon]

Hey guys,I'm on a quest for a summer project. My 89 wagon is VERY low on power, 92 hp I think? Well, it needs more juice...specificly a U12 CA18DET swap. I think I've found a motor but I have some questions. When I get the motor, I want to go through it and put new bearings, seals, belts and whatever elce it needs. I see that Nissan has 3 diffrent grades, grade 0 1 & 3. I come from the SR20 camp where there is some complicated proceedure to find out what grade bearings you have, and what you need. It involves colors, numbers that you use to corrispond on a chart, and crossing your fingers that they'll plasti gauge out when you get them. Do the CA18's have the grade markings on the crank, or bearings, or what? I can't seem to find anything about it on either alldata or Nissan Fast.

I would also like to put the word out that I need some trannys for this beast, as I'm sure the stock one will not put up with much power increase, or just due to the fact that it hasn't been tested here in the US. I'm sure you guys have some trannys laying around, or know someone who needs to get them out of their backyards. Eventually, my goal is to take one down and cryo-treat the entire assembly and put new syncros and such in it. I realize this will take several months to order parts from Japan and considerable expence on my part, but it will be well worth it. As far as I know this swap will be a 'one of' here in the US, so I will be pioneering some tings and engineering some things in the process.

Anouther point of contengency on this swap is the clutch and flywheel. I would like to find an aftermarket flywheel and clutch for this before I put it in. All I can seem to find is the clutch for the RWD CA18DET. Will this work on the AWD/FWD flywheel? As this project comes to a snails pace of a start, I'd like to get all the info I can before I rip the old engine out of the wagon and prepare it for a new beginning. I dont expect you guys to just drop info and parts in my lap, but any and all help would be greatly appricated on this understated, and mostly ignored engine from an era when Nissan didn't have the bottom dollar in mind, they wanted POWER, PERFORMANCe, and RELIABILITY before cost; which was the ultimate downfall of Nissan in the early 90's, but makes sence to us.

[float_6969]

I'm in Topeka, so I'm always available to help.

As for the bearing grades, they're stamped on the block and it's as simple as that. I'll be honest though, I think that most of us have simply gotten some nice aftermarket bearings (I'm running Clevite 77's) and have had no problems whatsoever. I also have a guy that I use for machine work here in Topeka that does EXCELLENT work, perhaps the best in the area, and they're not unfamiliar with turbo 4's either, which is a plus.

Boost_Boy (Dee) should be able to source you an AWD trans pretty easily as they're not usable for most people and they often come with swaps.

Hope that helps.

[DjLiquid]

<< I have an AWD transmission but am unsure how I would be able to transport it down to you

[AWDB12wagon]

I'm in Topeka, so I'm always available to help.

As for the bearing grades, they're stamped on the block and it's as simple as that. I'll be honest though, I think that most of us have simply gotten some nice aftermarket bearings (I'm running Clevite 77's) and have had no problems whatsoever. I also have a guy that I use for machine work here in Topeka that does EXCELLENT work, perhaps the best in the area, and they're not unfamiliar with turbo 4's either, which is a plus.

Boost_Boy (Dee) should be able to source you an AWD trans pretty easily as they're not usable for most people and they often come with swaps.

Hope that helps.

Yeh, I was thinking about using those ACL bearings or whatever they were selling on ebay, or king, or toga bearings. I just didnt know if they would be too sloppy or too tight. Maybe you can e-mail me and we can talk about the CA, I'd love to learn, and there isn't near as many resources as there are for SR20's around. E-mail me at NX2000 @ sunflower.com , later man!!P.S. I'll try to talk to boost boy too, I think I've talked to him before and asked for some advice.

<< I have an AWD transmission but am unsure how I would be able to transport it down to you

Cool, e-mail me your phone number, nx2000 @ sunflower.com , remove the spaces obviously. I think you can ship it UPS for about $75 or so. Shoot me an e-mail on what you want for it plus shipping. I've shipped a couple trannys and bolted them to a piece of plywood. I'm sure UPS doesn't like it, but oh well. Shoot me an e-mail!!!

[float_6969]

Use fed ex freight for that heavy stuff, wwaaaayyyy cheaper.

[AWDB12wagon]

Use fed ex freight for that heavy stuff, wwaaaayyyy cheaper.

Yeh, fedex tends to be cheaper...hey, I e-mailed you, get my e-mail?

[biosehnsucht]

My vote is for Federal Mogul bearings, mine were made in Japan

[r34 gtr]

federal mogul bearings = win. seriously, ive dealt with clevite, acl, and federal, and the latter were waay better.

[AWDB12wagon]

Bump it up, I really need some help findning a motor/manual transmission here guys!

[AWDB12wagon]

bump