CA18_nut's CA18 powered S13. Pics inside

[CA18_nut]

Hi, this is a thread about my s13 with the Ca18det engine

Starting with a rebuild done some time ago,

Here's some pictures, couldnt be bothered to take too many, but atleast there's a few.

Piston rings gapped, and main/rod bearing clearance checked

Here we go


ACL Race Rod bearing


ACL race Main bearing


ACL race main and rod bearings


a spare 4port head





Mocal oil cooler


Oil cooler hose too the right, turbo coolant hoses too the left


Garrett gt2871r Inlet side


Garrett gt2871r exhuast side


Turbo next too head , size comparison


Old turbo T25g next to Gt2871r size comparison


Wiseco piston


wiseco piston 83mm


Various OEM parts


Various OEM parts


Old crank next to new crank (OEM)


Stock Pistons/rods


stock rod bearings guess which one failed


Painted Oil pan and rear suspension arms


Engine block


Wiseco pistons mounted, OEM headgasket


Big ends mounted and torqued to spec


Head and intake manifold mounted


Engine on stand , oil pan mounted


covers


mocal oil cooler mounted


the car , Volk SF challange 18" wheels

Other mods:
Nismo GT lsd pro 1,5way
Nismo engine and geabox mounts
Nismo bushings
Nismo front tension bracket
Nismo S tune suspension
Z32 TT brakes with braided lines
tanabe rear sway bar
apex stage 2 chip


the engine failed after 1 year, piston hit (and broke off) exhuast valves (too many revs) then seized in the cylinder, will post picture of the engine later its a horrible sight.

Picked up a new engine last weekend with rod knock , needs new crank, the engine has H beam rods, JE 84mm pistons , decked head and block ready for MLS, ARP head studs,new OEM water pump have begun tear down of the engine currently waiting for a socket for the ARP head studs,

I have also ordered some new parts
New OEM oil pump
Acl race rod and main bearings
Blitz SBC I color boost controller
Tomei 1,5mm super grommet mls head gasket
AEM UEGO wideband

I've noted that some people are having problems with the acl race bearings , I used them for several thousand KM without problems and will use them in the new engine too.

Update 14.04.2012
video 140-230km/t old video with the T25g turbo setup
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wz8_nDfSTsM[/youtube]

Recived AEM uego




Update 17.04.2012

Some more parts has arrived and I've begun reamoving the old headgasket from the head/block.


Tomei Headgasket MLS super grommet


Tomei headgakset instructions


OEM Nissan ca18 oil pump





Removing old gasket from Oil pan


Oil pan with old gasket


Nice clean surrface ( will obviously remove the residue inside the oil pan)


Old rusty oil pan


Done some grinding before sandblasting


Cleaned head surface


Cleaned block surace

I found a picture of the old engine after I pulled the head


Piston broke of the exhaust valves and seized in the cylinder




Now the rod


Forged H beam rod





Update 02/05/2012

The bearings and some exhaust gaskets



Mounted Crankshaft ( clearences checked with plastigage )





Pistons mounted











Arp Studs and Tomei headgasket



Head mounted



Oilpump mounted



2x Exhaust Cams mounted



Cam Gears



Timing belt , Intake cam advanced 1 tooth, Turbo mounted






Thanks for stopping by

[cbh148]

Nice ca18 man, sucks that it blew up. What do you think caused the piston to hit the valves? Jumped timing?

And definitely buyer beware with those ACL bearings. Nevar again.

How did you like the 2871 turbo? Was this used for drifting or what?

[CA18_nut]

Thank you, well it was my fault actually , 7500rpm in 3rd then hit 2nd istead of 4th and BAM engine died, I think I may buy the Nismo shifter hopefully it will be more precise.'

I didnt realize people where having trouble with them until after I bought them so I'll just measure the bearing clearance and use proper torque for the rod bolts as always and hope for the best. there's acl bearings in the engine I picked up aswell it developed rod knock after very few km/miles according to the guy who sold it.

It is my street/light track car, so it was used for some drifting I think the 2871 is a nice match for the ca18, I used a POOR quality bleed valve to adjust the pressure so full bost hit just after 4000rpm, I hope too lower this abit with the blitz sbc, my goal is to finish the new engine before May, Im going to a dyno session with a buddy in may so will get some hp numbers for the new motor if it's finished. It's just a stage 2 setup with stock injectors and stock maf Im hoping for 230whp, hopefully I wont be dissapointed

[boost_boy]

Sorry you whacked your motor, but you missing gears was not supposed to create that issue. It could very well have been a fatigued set of rod bolts and those poor valve reliefs on those wiseco's didn't help either.

[CA18_nut]

Brand new arp rod bolts torqued to spec they held up fine, the piston seized in the cylinder after hitting the valves then the rod/wrist pin tore apart the piston, Ill try to get up some pictures today, updated the first post with a video of the acceleration 140-230km/t , the video is with the t25g setup so shifting at only 6500rpm, I will make a new video once Ive finished the car with the gt2871

[float_6969]

The rods didn't bend??!?! Go Nissan! That's a stout rod.

I was wondering about the 6500rpm shifting. I thought I was watching a KA vid for a minute. I don't think my CA EVER see's a day without shifting at 7500. Actually, I've been shifting at 8K now with the HKS cams. And it feels like it'd go higher, but that will wait till I'm on the dyno.

[CA18_nut]

The rod did bend but Im not sure if that happen before or after the piston seized in the cylinder, and I was using apex forged H Beam rods, will upload a picture of that soon , the 6500rpm shifting was because I was losing pressure at 7000rpm due too a bad bleed valve and I wasnt really going for a top speed run just having some fun

[float_6969]

moar pics please!

[CA18_nut]

moar pics please!

done

Updated first post, got some new parts and started cleaning block/head and oilpan , also added some pics of the blown engine.

[CA18_nut]

I've ran into a problem , the new engine needs 1 new rod, the rod bearing that failed f..ked up the rod too, soo my problem is I now have 3 good rods from my blown engine, and I have the 3 good rods in my new engine . both rod sets are H beam however the rod in the new engine weighs 30grams (330g vs 360g) more than the ones in the blown engine so I cant mix them , so the way I see it I have 2 options
1. Buy a new set of rods
2. use the old stock rods

Thoughts ?

[cbh148]

Contact the rod manufacturer and see if they can help you out. It's worth a shot if it could save you nearly a grand.

And the rod can't be line-bored and weight adjusted?

[CA18_nut]

Thanks I will give that a shot , Im sure it's possible to weight adjust them but no one in my area can do that. I might just have to use the stock rods

[float_6969]

See if you can get one rod to match what you have. If not, the stock rods are fine to 500HP, maybe more. Plan on ARP bolts in them though to be safe.

[CA18_nut]

thanks i will go with stock rods for now

update coming soon

[float_6969]

Ouch! Did you get a new/have the stock crankshaft checked? How did the other rods hold up? Did you check them for stretch? The CA always seems to have things happen to the #3 cylinder. So weird.

I wonder how many revs that motor hit when you shifted into 2nd? 10K? What kind of timing belt did you have on there? I wonder if the belt stretched and the valve timing got off and the piston hit the valve. Although at those kind of revs, it could have just simply dropped a valve.

[CA18_nut]

The crankshaft that was in the blown engine was brand new , it looks like either the piston skirt (it was torn off) or a part of the cylinder wall smashed into the crank , look at this picture you can see the mark in the crank to the left of the right big end.



There are some scratches in the journals on the crank so a regrind is needed at the very least , however I still have the crank from the first engine and I've checked it and it seems to be in good condition , so I will be using that.

The rods that made it looks ok but I havent checked them yet. 85mph in second gear = 10600rpm, I think that was a little high for the stock hydraulic lifters, I wa using a Greddy timing belt.

A little "fun" fact , 10600 rrevolutions a minute that's 176,6 revolutions every SECOND

[Moedigzz]

imho, that looks like a rod failure.(the pics with the piston sideways in the bore)

[float_6969]

Did it at least sound cool at 10K rpm, LOL!

[CA18_nut]

It sounded cool until the BOOM I'm still waiting for the main and rod bearings, they should be here monday so I will make an update then , I've hooked up the Blitz SBC boost controller and the AEM UEGO... god I hate waiting for parts

[float_6969]

Yea, it sucks. I hate it too.

[CA18_nut]

Alright time for an update , as you know I've been waiting for my main/rod bearings I got them on monday so I've made some progress , hopefully start-up this weekend if everything goes smoothly. Anyway on to the pictures

The bearings and some exhaust gaskets



Mounted Crankshaft ( clearences checked with plastigage )





Pistons mounted











Arp Studs and Tomei headgasket



Head mounted



Oilpump mounted



2x Exhaust Cams mounted



Cam Gears



Timing belt , Intake cam advanced 1 tooth, Turbo mounted



I will add the update to the first post

[CA18_nut]

on sunday a friend helped me lift in the engine , monday was the first test drive with the new engine there was a few vacum problems but got that sorted out yesterday , there is still a lot of work to be done to the car, my interior is a mess at the moment and I need to reroute the ic piping. I will post some pictures later and a video when it is running properly, I have not set a dyno date yet but hopefully it will be soon

[float_6969]

It's alive!.... sorta, LOL

[CA18_nut]

yes it is alive now , yesterday I unleashed the beast and ran into sevral problems (I wonder when they will stop) first I set up the blitz sbc to 1hkpa/14,5psi and it ran fine and pulled hard , boost came in a bit late peak boost at 4500rpm but from theere boost was stable right upto th limiter , the Power meter function on the sbc said 274ps however I dont know how reliable this is, I found the graphs on the sbc to be very handy but now onto the first problems , cheap ebay silicone hoses is CRAP they crack by just looking at them , one of the hoses to the SBC solenoid cracked and boost shot up to 1,35hkpa/19,5psi, I replaced the hoses with some high quality rubber ones and for the moment it is fine , now the second problem , today the radiator hose littearly pissed coolant so I will have to replace that aswell , not really big problems but annoying , and now the car misfires at 4-5k rpm Iam thinking a vacum problem so I will check that NOW If I figure it out and get the car running I will make a short acceleration video.

here's a few pictures
engine


Clutch/flywheel ACT 6puck clutch


ready to lift it in


engine hooked up and ready to run it fired on the first try


I took the speed and rpm signal for the sbc from behind the instrument cluster


rear of the cluster

[bimeur]

cool work made on this engine.

How did you get a Tomei HG?

They're normaly discontinued for the CA18.......

[CA18_nut]

thank you , I bought it from FRsport I think they were just selling the "left overs" .

havent updated in a while beacuse I found rust ... I HATE rust ... nice big hole in the framerail hurray...

[float_6969]

Yes, I hate it too. My S14 is a bit rusty, but oh well.

[CA18_nut]

Alright I am back having welded all the rust I could find under the car.

Then I had to take the oilpan off because of an oil leak on the rear end of the oilpan, apparently I didnt get a proper seal when I did it with the engine on the stand , it sucks because getting a proper seal now is going to be even harder, so here is the problem I ran into , after I had removed all the tiny bolts that hold the pan in place the rear end of the oilpan wouldnt drop down , the pan was sort of stuck "inside" the plate between the engine and gearbox , it took some time getting it out but eventually it came down but now the problem is getting it back into place , I test fitted it just now and the dip in the plate is once again the problem , I cant get the pan into place because the lip on the rear end of the oilpan is not clearing the dip in the plate, I cant remeber having this problem the last time I took the oilpan off while the engine was in the car, anyone got any ideas ?

I realize without pictures it might not make much sense so I will try to upload some picture soon.

Thanks in advance

[float_6969]

What plate?

[CA18_nut]

Been a while since my last update , I managed to get the oil pan off with some force , the car is currently sitting in the garage where it will be for another 4 months. I will do some work to it, mostly minor stuff like re routing the turbo intake and ic pipes but I should also adjust the rear diff however I dont have a warm garage to work in and with this cold weather it is hell.

I have a video of some of the features of the blitz sbc boost controller I will upload it when I get home from work