Need a mechanic for my CA18det in the socal area. my limited skills are at an end and looking for a good mechanic in the area that's familiar with CA's and their butterfly system. LA/Riverside/San Diego. it makes no difference to me.

We've got a ton of CA experts here... You might not be at the end of your skills. What's the issue? Let's see if we can get you squared away!

Usually on the CA18, people will remove the butterfly system since all the components to make it work correctly are hard to source. Check in the FAQ section as I believe there is a diagram of how to route all the vacuum hoses and such. The minimum that you can do is just hook the actuator rod for the butterflies to the back of the manifold where the FPR is connected, that way on boost they will open but they will stay closed in vaccum.

That's the basic's off the top of my head. What is the real issue you are having?

[quote="sjbsuperman1425" all the components to make it work correctly are hard to source [/quote]



This is how I made for my customer S13 JDM CA18DET, nothing is from genuine OEM parts.
It is not hard to made the whole system by substitute, all parts are easy to find and not expensive.
here is what you need :
2" PVC drain pipe
2 x 2" pipe end cap
2 x brass nipple for 4mm hose
2 x one way check valve
1 x 3 way 12v solenoid
and some 4mm silicone vacuum hose.

We all use JDM ecu and the solenoid is controlled by the ECU pin 8,
It works exactlly the same as my OEM butterfly system. I don't see the different.
And the best part is, we all use nistune, the switching point can be adjust even if the air flow signal and injection amount totally throw off from stock tune.
The sub 4k rpm throttle response make a huge different.

Problem is finding the solenoid for it and making sure the vacuum lines are in the right places. I took a look at the diagrams as you guys suggested, but I don't think I have all the components of the butterfly system like the solenoid and tank. I'll snap a pic when I get home.

Took a look at the secondary butterfly sticky again ( thank whoever wrote that, you are great) and I've decided to go the Volvo cruise control route for simplicity. Looking for my digital camera so I can take some pics, so bear with me. This car has been looked at by a bunch of folks and worked on by some quality mechanics, and later some NOT so quality guy, and then after a very quality guy again with not a lot of time. So I've been left to my limited mechanical devices and knowledge, this forum, you tube, and a strong desire to finish. I appreciate the info you guys have put out and guided me to on this post. I will try not to mess this up, as I need to buy my standalone asap and tune this thing. Looks like Haltech will suit the need.

Some info on my formerly crashed and now resurrected from a rolling shell beauty: CA18det swap (done by the great guys at UP Garage in Washington, I bumped heads with my mechanic there over a misunderstanding but Doug is by far one of the best mechanics I've seen or dealt with and I truly miss his knowledge and frankness) Carrillo rods, wiseco pistons, arp studs, metal hg, tomei valves/retainers/ springs/ lifters, GT2871R turbo, SS autocrap manifold, hi flow cat, tanabe exhaust, fmic, aluminum radiator, tomei fpr, s15 lsd, tanabe sustec pro sport coilovers, clutchmasters hd clutch and lightweight flywheel, current apexi avcr, safc 2, moving to standalone. Engine was rebuilt with forged internals and should make some decent power. It's my daily driver turning into daily monster.