Hello and a question

[dhen]

Hi,

I've lurked on here for a while, but this is my first post. I had someone swap in a CA18DET I bought on eBay into my old MGA. Everything seemed fine until I took off the valve covers to paint them and found rust on one of the cams:



Here's a closeup:



It's only on the surface, but when I touched it I felt some metal bits crumble onto my finger. When I think about it now I shouldn't have done this...

Anyway, I was hoping to get away with just taking a wire wheel to it and reinstalling it. I doubt it would rust anymore since it's going to be used regularly now. Would this work? How do you remove it? It looks like I just remove the twelve bolts on top. What should I torque them to when I put the cam back in.

I'm totally new to these engines so any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Darian

PS How do you increase the idle speed?

[Ca_Silvia]

Dude get the FSM from the stickies at the top of the CA page that will tell you how to remove the cams and tell you how to set the idle properly.

Good luck and have fun!

[Bwana]

Did Todd put that together for you? I have a CA in my '77 B.

[dhen]

Did Todd put that together for you? I have a CA in my '77 B.

How did you guess? Yes, I just got it back on Sunday.

Darian

[Bwana]

I have one of Todd's rear suspensions in my B. I've known him for a couple years now and he told me awhile back that he was putting a CA in an A. I actually sold him the crank pulley for your engine. I wouldn't worry about that rust, it shouldn't cause any problems.

Put up some more pics of the car if you get a chance, I'd love to see it!

[ca18detgabby]

very cool

[themadscientist]

it's fine, change your oil a few times and you will be straight. The business surface of the cams (lobes) are great, you will be ok.

[dhen]

I have one of Todd's rear suspensions in my B. I've known him for a couple years now and he told me awhile back that he was putting a CA in an A. I actually sold him the crank pulley for your engine. I wouldn't worry about that rust, it shouldn't cause any problems.

Put up some more pics of the car if you get a chance, I'd love to see it!

Small world. I remember him saying I needed a new crank pulley. Buying these engines off of eBay is a bit of a crap shoot, and I should feel lucky that the engine so far has been great, but almost everything else has had issues. I've had to buy a new turbo and air flow meter and the computer was screwed. The thing was filthy when he picked it up and it looked like it had been sitting in the rain for a long time. Right now I'm trying to deal with a leaky transmission...

Having said all that, I'm happy with the work he did. Was it worth it, hell yes! The MGA is a fun car, but was always underpowered. I've been having a lot of fun with the new swap.

A lot of people have wanted to see pictures. I'll try to get some up this week. I think that I have the only MGA with a CA engine.

Good to know that the engine seems okay.

Thanks everyone,

Darian

[dhen]

As requested:

Here's the basic stats:

1962 MGA MkIINissan 1.8 liter CA18DET engine. Puts out 175 hp at a stock 6 lbs of boost. I'm running 10 lbs.Stock rear end (4:1 differential)Stock MGC 72-spoke wheels with 195/60 15R tires.TPI Instruments gauges except for the boost gauges 65 Mustang aluminum radiator. (It blew rusty water all over the engine compartment which is what the brown stuff is.)2 1/2” exhaust. (I didn't feel like climbing under the car to take a picture of it.)



The car is a lot of fun to drive. Went for a ride with my son and accelerated so hard that he hit his head on the back of the car. (Sorry Nick.) Under about 3,000 RPM it feels like a normal MGA, but it's got extra power when you need it. (It redlines at about 7,200.)

Right now it's got a few bugs, of course. One issue I'm having is that the engine is running too hot. I'm looking into several options about how to deal with that.

What the hell. Here's a few other pictures if anyone's interested:









Darian

[Bwana]

I love MG A's! Pure British roadster there! I use a '65 mustang radiator in my B and I've had 0 overheating problems with it. What size fan are you using?

Here's a pic of my engine compartment back before I got around to painting it...

[zmannz]

*falls on ground drooling* I have an extra swap laying around, I have been looking into an old datsun or triumph for a project like this. I am partial to hard top coupes myself but those are some rockin' rides.

[dhen]

I love MG A's! Pure British roadster there! I use a '65 mustang radiator in my B and I've had 0 overheating problems with it. What size fan are you using?

Here's a pic of my engine compartment back before I got around to painting it...

I've got a 14" fan. There's a lot of rust in the block, so that's one possibility. One person who looked at it thinks I'm not getting enough air flow out of the engine bay since it runs at 190 and heats up after 10 minutes or so on the highway. I may install a couple of pull fans in the wheel wells to deal with this, but I'm not sure yet.

The engine runs at a steady 220 but seems happy to do so.

*falls on ground drooling* I have an extra swap laying around, I have been looking into an old datsun or triumph for a project like this. I am partial to hard top coupes myself but those are some rockin' rides.

Yeah, there's something about having a light car with a powerful engine that's a lot of fun...

[themadscientist]

that is one hell of a sleeper. I would never expect to see that engine under the hood of a car like that.