Assembling My CA18 (+questions)

[cbh148]

So I'm finally getting to put my CA together, however I've got some hurdles in front of me.

My engine is completely apart (bought it that way), and I had to relocate the whole project from one house to another. I'm sure I'll be missing some bolts. Some bolts that I can think of that are already missing:

flywheel bolts,
transmission bellhousing bolts,
oil pump bolts,
rear main seal bolts,
oil pan bolts,
timing cover bolts,
and more.

What do you guys do for getting the right replacement bolts? A friend of mine who claims to have built many engines says that Ace Hardware will have everything, and others are saying Fastenal will too. The thing is, I don't have a clue what the dimensions are of the missing bolts because I don't have a single one of some of them. Also worth mentioning, there is a complete KA24E parts engine at the new location which I can rob of bolts if I need. Surely some of those would carry over right?

I'll have pics up soon. My setup is pretty simple -- bored 1mm over, Supertech forged pistons, Cometic head gasket, s15 T28, ebay FMIC, stock injectors/MAF/ECU, new main and rod bearings, ARP head studs and rod bolts hoping to run around 14 PSI after awhile. If I can get around 220ish crank HP, then I'll be satisfied. I have a Walbro 255 but I'm gonna wait to install it after I get the engine together and running, and also for when I get a Nismo FPR.

Also worth mentioning, I think I'm missing a single ARP rod nut. I need to contact ARP to see if I can just buy some of the nuts, but seeing as how I bought them from Eric's Performance on eBay, who I believe "re-sells" ARP hardware that just so happens to work on CA18's when they're actually made for another engine, I don't know how I'd go about getting one.

Any help is greatly appreciated!

[themadscientist]

DO NOT USE HARDWARE STORE BOLTS! They will often be the wrong thread pitch and hardness. You should be able to swipe bolts off other Nissan engines. Most of us have a coffee can or two of miscellaneous bolts as they are common sizes.

Call ARP and say "give me your nuts." I'm sure they will gladly put them in your hand and let you twist them.

[cbh148]

DO NOT USE HARDWARE STORE BOLTS! They will often be the wrong thread pitch and hardness. You should be able to swipe bolts off other Nissan engines. Most of us have a coffee can or two of miscellaneous bolts as they are common sizes.

Well what my friend has in mind is getting the exact thread pitch bolts needed by using some tool to measure the pitch then finding that precise bolt at Ace Hardware.

Hell, we can take the engine up there to the store if needed to go through a variety of bolts to find ones the thread in perfectly.

Believe me, I was skeptical too. I assumed that he was talking about going to the hardware aisle at Lowe's or Home Depot, which is somewhat lacking. I've never been to an Ace Hardware of Fastenal, but from what I'm told, it's leaps and bounds bigger/better than the hardware selection at a Lowe's or Home Depot. And if they don't have what you need, they can order it.

Although I am hoping it doesn't have to come to that. And if the CA uses common bolts like the KA, I might be in luck.

[TheMAN]

I can assure you that ace or a do-it hardware store will NOT have most of what you need
I have both stores relatively close by and I shopped at them many times

fastenal has a wider selection, but they typically do not have the correct styles (flange head, non-shanked heads, captured washer, etc) nor the correct tensile strength or metal treatments

it's too bad you didn't dump all the bolts into a bucket at the very least, because finding them will be hard and time consuming at the junk yard, and will cost you a lot from the dealer


do yourself a favor and find yourself a copy of nissan fast and start looking up parts yourself and see what you are able to order here
there's various questionable places to get it from, so use your imagination

[themadscientist]

I've always joked about putting a coffee can of "JDM bolts" on Ebay as a joke.

[cbh148]

it's too bad you didn't dump all the bolts into a bucket at the very least, because finding them will be hard and time consuming at the junk yard, and will cost you a lot from the dealer


do yourself a favor and find yourself a copy of nissan fast and start looking up parts yourself and see what you are able to order here
there's various questionable places to get it from, so use your imagination

Oh believe me, if I could've gotten all the bolts in a bucket, I would've.

Does Nissan Fast give all the bolt dimensions for each bolt?

[biosehnsucht]

FAST generally (never?) does not.

[xDuhaniel]

http://www.nissanpartszone.com/Page_Pro ... ntsIndex=3

im in the same situation as you are, what i did was i found bolts that were similar, went to Wilco or Ace hardware find similar ones and did that. Or the website above where i've ordered a few oem parts which even breaks down to the bolts. Great customer service just pray they have it in stock. Goodluck

[cbh148]

Thanks for the advice! How have those 2 methods worked for you so far?

[mr_ca18det]

I've used nissan parts zone it took forever like 3 weeks to get a filter new head dowels and a couple gaskets. They did arrive correctly but they just order from nissan warehouses a dealer will get it to you faster and the cost throught the dealer for my crank timing gear as apposed to nissan parts zone was almost the same and i had it in 3 days. But you have to be patient when ordering as these are getting old and i think they have a hard time finding part numbers for everything.

[themadscientist]

Well the CA is so old the manuals are written on parchment in Aramaic.

[mr_ca18det]

This is the truth.

[cbh148]

Well I was able to find a bunch of bolts from the previous location yesterday. None of them stood out as particular ones that I needed, but they might come in handy later during assembly.

I still know I'm missing flywheel bolts and probably some oil pan bolts. I'm thinking that Fastenal/Ace bolts will work just fine, given that they're the right dimensions.

[TheMAN]

you'll want flange head M6x1.0 bolts for the oil pan... you can find them at ace or any parts store
if you search on ebay, you can buy OEM nissan flywheel bolts for the CA

[cbh148]

you'll want flange head M6x1.0 bolts for the oil pan... you can find them at ace or any parts store
if you search on ebay, you can buy OEM nissan flywheel bolts for the CA

Thank you so much!

Any other info like this is greatly appreciated! And pics will be up soon.

[ragenasian]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Nissan-F ... 500wt_1182

I find this guy to be overpriced much of the time but he has the bolts.

[cbh148]

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Nissan-F ... 500wt_1182

I find this guy to be overpriced much of the time but he has the bolts.

Yeah I've ordered ARP rod bolts through him. I wouldn't be surprised if I bite the bullet and just order flywheel bolts and transmission bolts from him too, just for the peace of mind.

Talk about frustrating.

[r34 gtr]

A while back I had to order a bunch of m7 bolts for mounting my trigger sensor to my oil pump. They were ridiculously hard to get, and I had to order a bag of 50 to get the 2 that I needed. No idea if they will work for all the oil pump bolts, but you are welcome to come grab you a handful.

ARP has got you covered for the flywheel bolts (or ebay, where there are tons of OEM. I think OEM and ARP are pretty close in price though)

And I would just use hardware store bolts for the oil pan. Nothing under a whole lot of stress there.

[cbh148]

A while back I had to order a bunch of m7 bolts for mounting my trigger sensor to my oil pump. They were ridiculously hard to get, and I had to order a bag of 50 to get the 2 that I needed. No idea if they will work for all the oil pump bolts, but you are welcome to come grab you a handful.

ARP has got you covered for the flywheel bolts (or ebay, where there are tons of OEM. I think OEM and ARP are pretty close in price though)

And I would just use hardware store bolts for the oil pan. Nothing under a whole lot of stress there.

Thanks for the advice, Tim. I'll come by soon to get said handful of bolts. You'll have to roll with me to Hazel Green (where the project is now) sometime soon to see the work in progress. That, and we gotta go mountain biking.

I need to get one of those big plastic clear cases with a variety of metric bolts inside.

Where's a good, clear, detailed, English factory service manual for these engines that a CA18 newbie should use for assembly? I'm having someone else assemble my engine since I'm hardly ever able to work on it thanks to school, work, and the 40 minute drive to get to where it is.

[TheMAN]

there are various S13 200SX PDF manuals floating around... they are scans.... it'll have most of the information you'll need... it covers the 4 port head EDM CA, but the 8 port JDM version... but there aren't enough differences to matter

[cbh148]

there are various S13 200SX PDF manuals floating around... they are scans.... it'll have most of the information you'll need... it covers the 4 port head EDM CA, but the 8 port JDM version... but there aren't enough differences to matter

Awesome, thanks man.

[cbh148]

Tim, got any other CA18 stuff to sell? I'm putting it together now and just broke an oil squirter...

[TheMAN]

how did you manage to do that? there are oil squirters on ebay too

[cbh148]

how did you manage to do that? there are oil squirters on ebay too

There was some crud in the hole that the little guide post goes in on from the squirter. When my friend tightened it down to 25 ft-lbs, the ring of the squirter cracked. We're getting it welded back tomorrow.

I bought ARP head studs, part # 202-4702, and we can't get the damn studs to thread in any more then half a turn! What gives?! The box that the studs came in say CA18DET! The instructions for them say to only HAND TIGHTEN the studs into the block.

[TheMAN]

did you try installing the other end into the block? IIRC the studs have different thread pitches on each end

and yeah... make sure everything you're doing in the engine is as clean as possible... not only will you avoid problems like the oil squirter breaking, your engine will have reduced friction due to lack of trapped dust... reduced friction = better performance

[biosehnsucht]

The ARP CA kit not actually working on CA is an old issue:
to-all-you-arp-head-stud-users-t171021.html

Most of us ended up with I think SR main stud kits and used them for the CA head studs.

[cbh148]

The ARP CA kit not actually working on CA is an old issue:
to-all-you-arp-head-stud-users-t171021.html

Most of us ended up with I think SR main stud kits and used them for the CA head studs.

Wow, yeah I read that after much googling.

That's an extremely important bit of information. Is it in the ca18 FAQ?

Gonna call ARP today and see what they can do for me. Might have to raise some hell.

And I know I don't have the studs upside down because the end that can have an Allen key placed in it has to be the top end.

All s*** aside, how does this happen? Even ARP's catalog says to use the part number I have. Several trusted websites sell them.

My face when these studs wouldn't thread in:

[D_Stirls]

I think it's due to the EDM and JDM CA's having (i assume) different threads tapped in the block.

[cbh148]

Just got off the phone with ARP. The guy wants me to mic a set of stock head bolts. Anyone got the specs?

I'm gonna try to have this issue fixed for future buyers. I'd love to get a directory of engine block numbers to figure out which ones have which threads (if there is in fact 2 different threads). That might be somewhat far-fetched since we're few and far in between.

[biosehnsucht]

EDM, JDM, and USDM CA18DE(T) all have identical head bolts. I double checked this across JDM, EDM, USDM FAST earlier tonight.

10 per vehicle each

Code: Select all

Part code   Desc                 Part #
11056       BOLT-CYLINDER HEAD   11056-D4200
11056C      WASHER-PLAIN         11058-16A00

11056C are the special washers shaped to fit the head.