250hp@1bar

[Shagi]

I see alot of ppl on this forum asking how to mod CA's, so I thought I would post what hp I have and what I have done.

On a bit of a back story of the motor.
I bought it for $800aus from a guy that said CA's are sh#t.
They thought so little of this motor, that they put 2bar through it on a stock s15 turbo.
It made 310hp and started running on 3 cylinders.
My housemate found that a spark plug had snapped. Of all things. With that fixed. It ran fine.
Did a leak down test and found cylinder 3 was the worst with about 15% loss. I had already worked out that the stock fuel rail doesn't feed equal pressure to all cylinders and figure that it may have polished the bore.

I found some other stupid things wrong with this motor too.
No thermostat.
The oil breather on intake side, from the block to the head was seriously cracked and just taped up with electrical tape(which leaked).
Rear main seal wasn't installed straight, so it leaked.
Original water pump. Which failed fantastically on the way to work one day.
Original oil pump. Swapped out before it did the fantastic fail too.
(For these things. I want to punch the so called "engine builder" in the face)

The setup.

Garrett 2871r on stock ex manifold
HKS 260 by 9mm cams
Adj cam gears. Look like toda items
RB25 hyd lifter
HKS head gasket
HKS pistons
Bearings look to be basic ACL items
Modded stock fuel rail. For twin entry and central exit
Sard 650cc injectors
Blitz intercooler kit
ARC airbox
Light weight flywheel. Looks like a toda item
Koyo 52mm rad
Silicone heater and rad hoses.
AP Engineering PFC
300zx AFM

My boost controller is a POS and that is why it's only tuned to 1bar(My tuner said a bleed valve would be better than what I have).
I had the rev limit set to 8,200.
And yeah, 250 @ 1 bar.

I set the car up for drift.
Most ppl lean on redline like it's a good thing, but that kills motors.
So I decided to see what raising the rev limit would do and it seems to love it.
Not only have I not hit redline yet. I don't think I've gone past 8k.
That little bit of extra head room means I don't run out of wheel speed and can pedal it the the next corner.
My SR gearbox is sounding sad, but the mighty CA seems to love it!!

I am interested to know what ppl think.
And no I will not be going easy on thing motor, so we will really see how long it lasts.

Shags

[tommey]

I think those guys where idiots, the CA18 is an awesome little powerplant.
Not many other 1.8 liter engines could handle 500+ hk stock.
Whats the name of your boost controller?, is it one of those noname china units?

[float_6969]

I thought the cylinder 3 issues were related to the intake manifold design, primarily that it causes cylinder 3 to run lean from too much air.

I have trouble believing that the fuel rail design is causing JUST the 3rd cylinder injector to run lower pressure. I could see 3 AND 4, but not just 3.

Other than that, I think your build sounds great. I have the same cams and cam gears, but I haven't gotten to run them yet, what do you think of them?

[Shagi]

I think those guys where idiots, the CA18 is an awesome little powerplant.
Not many other 1.8 liter engines could handle 500+ hk stock.
Whats the name of your boost controller?, is it one of those noname china units?

It's an old apexi item. Came with the car from japan. New one will have to wait until after xmas.

I thought the cylinder 3 issues were related to the intake manifold design, primarily that it causes cylinder 3 to run lean from too much air.

I have trouble believing that the fuel rail design is causing JUST the 3rd cylinder injector to run lower pressure. I could see 3 AND 4, but not just 3.

Other than that, I think your build sounds great. I have the same cams and cam gears, but I haven't gotten to run them yet, what do you think of them?

I'm only going off the condition of the spark plugs.
The new rail has only been in for about a month, so will have to wait and see.
I have a 26 manifold and will be making a custom independent throttle setup. But that will be a while off getting fabricated.

I love these cams. It's a shame that HKS has stopped making them.
The motor feels great, even down low.
And no lag on gear changes. Still on a stock gearbox too.
I do want to build up another head with bucket and shim. To get more lift.
I don't know how far I will go with that though. May change turbo setup by then.

[float_6969]

I think you'll find that the lean condition will remain even with the changes to the fuel rail. I've seen flow comparisons showing that the 3rd cylinder moves more air than the other 3, and almost all detonation failures that occur on the CA18 are tied back to an issue on the 3rd cylinder. Even my own experience has shown me that the 3rd cylinder runs lean. After I had an oil filter fail and ruin my 8 port head, I pulled the motor apart and found evidence of detonation in the 3rd cylinder. It was isolated mostly to the quench pads and some minor damage to the piston top near the edges, but underneath the quench pads. There were no other signs of detonation in any of the other cylinders. This was before I switched to E85, but I KNOW the engine NEVER ran lean, but my plugs always told me that 3 was an issue. When I first noticed this, I moved the injectors around thinking I had a flawed injector, but the issue remained with the 3rd cylinder.

Because of this I'm considering some sort of modification to the intake system as well during this re-build to address that issue.

The only definitive way to confirm/deny this would be to run 4 O2 sensors and compare the cylinders, but I'm not in a position to do that, LOL.

[cbh148]

Good thread. There needs to be more info like this.

Questions:
Is this 250 HP at the crank or the wheels?
How do you like the current setup for drifting?
Does it feel like it's enough power?
How does it compare to drifting an SR20 (assuming you've slid one before)?
And is the chassis on a diet of any sort, or a full interior stocky?

Cheers mate

[Shagi]

float_6969
I was thinking the problem was fueling, but manifold favoritism doesn't surprise me.
Will have to get onto the quad throt's sooner than originally planned.

cbh148
Yes it is 250 at the treads.
No the car has had no diet and with all the chassis bracing I have put in. It would be heavier than stock.
I don't think I will ever have enough power.
But for drifting, I think it is enough. Even with the extra grip the chassis bracing has made.
As for SR's. I have only driven 1. I only really noticed a bit more bottom end pull. Was about the same hp as what I have now.
I would like to recommend raising the redline, but I haven't done alot of sliding with this setup yet.
So don't know if the motor will last or not.

Side note on the drifting bit. I run new good tyres, 205 wide. Cradle has alloy lockers and rear coilovers set hard, front set soft. Almost finished putting solid suspension through the whole car.

Hope the info is useful.