I'll be getting my freshly rebuilt CA18DET FWD engine within a few weeks. I plan on making my exhaust, intake, and intercooler piping systems myself since I want to learn how to weld and I have plenty of time to do it the right way. My goal is about 250whp. The turbo is a T2/T3 hybrid and the downpipe was already made (just past the oil pan) and appears to be a 3" diameter. I would like the exhaust to not be annoyingly loud. The car is 25 years old so it's emissions exempt here in NY.

1. What size intercooler should I look to run? New, try something off eBay (probably not), or source something off of a car in a yard?
2. What size IC pipes should I run? I was thinking 2.25 or 2.5 would be sufficient.
3. What size exhaust should I run? I was thinking keep it 3" for the flex pipe, one high flow cat (200 cell), then bring it down to 2.5 for the resonator and muffler.

Any suggestions for sourcing intercooler pipes, couplers, exhaust pipes, mufflers, etc would be greatly appreciated. I was thinking of going with this place for a one stop shop, but I'm not sure how reputable they are: http://www.siliconeintakes.com/

I have 2in coming directly of the turbo and 2.5in the rest of the way to the throttle plate. My exhuast is currently a 2.25 downpipe, I will run that till the cat tunnel and then have 2.5 rest of the way back whenever i actually build my exhust.

I can take a few snaps showing you how i ran my IC pipes if u need any idea help N13's require a little thought and possible cutting next to the rad.

Photos would be great. I figured I'd have to do some cutting to get the pipes to work. I might consider running a narrower radiator with thicker core to allow space for the pipes. Depends on what I can find and if I can fit a radiator in there and still have access to the radiator cap.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIygUjcf ... re=youtube[/youtube]

Thanks for the photos and video. I have the RWD intake manifold, so my piping will be almost the exact opposite of yours. I'm also going to relocate the battery to the trunk, so I'll use that space for the cone filter and MAF.


What size core should I look at getting? I'm guessing eBay sources are not to be trusted?

I changed the title of the thread so I don't have to open another one to stay on topic. Liquid, per our conversation on the EXA forum, I'm curious about hooking up the vacuum system with AIV and EGR removed from the picture. My guess is the charcoal canister and vacuum tank can be removed too, but if I remove both then I'm confused how to hook up the FPR and Power Valve system.




For everyone else, my engine will be delivered on Monday so I'll probably be asking questions about coolant, fuel, and vacuum lines as well as wiring in the very near future.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7B8fhIPS ... re=youtube[/youtube]

Hope this helps jay! i figure a vid is better then photos

Thanks liquid. My setup will need to be different because I'll have the RWD intake manifold, but I get the idea. I found a nice diagram after, go figure, running search on google that brought me to a much older post on this site. After checking it out I modified my original diagram. The engine arrives today, at which time I'll get a better feel for what I need to do to get it running in the FWD configuration. I'll update my diagram with the PCV, turbo, and BOV too so I'll be ready to go when I put the engine in. I also plan on making a nice diagram of the cooling system, since it is also slightly different.

If you swap over the necessary components from your CA16DE engine to the engine you're about to receive, you will have to make very few modifications. And since your turbo doesn't need coolant, you don't have the drama of dealing with coolant lines. Your intake manifold is the AWD/RWD variant and your TB is now facing the driver's side, so making intercooler piping should be straight-forward. Your turbo's outlet is clocked straight-up, so it will be best to run your intecooler piping from the turbo towards the passenger side of the car to the intercooler and the out through the driver's side of the car, terminating at the T-body. Did you get the clutch and harness stuff, yet?

Dee, the gear arrived either Friday or Saturday, I was out of town but my in-laws were checking up on the house. I didn't have time to open anything up because I got home at 3am and had to head into work at 7am. I'll crack open the boxes when I get home this afternoon and let you know the condition of the items.

I'm really just trying to feel out everything I need to do before I do it. I'm pretty sure the vacuum line stuff is worked out now since I found the diagram for the CA18DET. Coolant plumbing I'll figure out when the engine arrives today and I can compare the two and take a look at a web site a guy from the EXA site made on what plumbing goes where.

Intercooler piping is indeed going to be easy, I'm just going to take my time finding out what I want to do for a radiator (OEM versus aftermarket aluminum with custom brackets) and intercooler core size.

livelyjay wrote:Dee, the gear arrived either Friday or Saturday, I was out of town but my in-laws were checking up on the house. I didn't have time to open anything up because I got home at 3am and had to head into work at 7am. I'll crack open the boxes when I get home this afternoon and let you know the condition of the items.

I'm really just trying to feel out everything I need to do before I do it. I'm pretty sure the vacuum line stuff is worked out now since I found the diagram for the CA18DET. Coolant plumbing I'll figure out when the engine arrives today and I can compare the two and take a look at a web site a guy from the EXA site made on what plumbing goes where.

Intercooler piping is indeed going to be easy, I'm just going to take my time finding out what I want to do for a radiator (OEM versus aftermarket aluminum with custom brackets) and intercooler core size.

I would go with an aftermarket radiator is space is an issue and most aluminum radiators are thicker in diameter. Besides, the aftermarket units for the pulsar are more than competent and will be ample for your cooling needs. As for the vacuum lines, the CA18DET doesn't have many vacuum duties, so try not to make it look like your CA16DE set-up because you will be make more of a mess for yourself. If you plan on using the butterfly valves, that's all you should be concerned with. Other than that, your biggest issue to me is wiring and not the physical install of the engine as I made some important mods that will benefit assist you in the swapping process.

Here we go, finally arrived. A few things to note.
1. There is a chip out of the crank pulley. That's not a big deal right?
2. One of the sensors or whatever on the intake manifold is missing a connector, wires pulled out and all. It's also not a big deal because I'm not running AC right?
3. Coolant line coming off underneath the throttle body goes where?
4. Vacuum line off of the throttle body, before the throttle plate, goes where?

livelyjay wrote:Here we go, finally arrived. A few things to note.
1. There is a chip out of the crank pulley. That's not a big deal right?
2. One of the sensors or whatever on the intake manifold is missing a connector, wires pulled out and all. It's also not a big deal because I'm not running AC right?
3. Coolant line coming off underneath the throttle body goes where?
4. Vacuum line off of the throttle body, before the throttle plate, goes where?

1. Chip is not a big deal.
2. You are correct. No A/C, this is not a problem. But still needed to keep the broken part there to seal that port.
3. Remember, things change in the fact that your engine has now been converted to a FWD application, so things are going to change. If you want to install water nipples to heat-up the water to your throttle body, that's fine, but you can always call me on this as well.
4. Honestly, cap it and be done with it. Don't want to make unnecessary headaches for yourself.

Starting swapping pieces over. More pictures for clarification purposes, but you'll have to zoom to read what I wrote. These images cover all of the plumbing connections that I could find. If I missed any, please let me know.

Blue shows up like crap on a black background with the JPG conversion. Coil pack harness on OEM is 4 pin + 2 pin connectors, while DET is 6 pin. Which way should I rewire it (6 pin connector onto OEM harness or 4 pin + 2 pin onto DET coil pack harness), or should I just use OEM coil pack harness?

I stayed with the 4+2 style, mostly cause i paid $90 for a brand new coil pack harness a few years ago and i aint letting that go to waste! i dunt think nissan would have many of them left :P

I almost went with the rwd style manifold when i got my motor, but just swapped 'em when i relized i didnt wanna fiddle with the throttle cable.

looks pretty sweet jay

So I've been curious about this for a while now. I didn't do the hard work for my swap, i just swapped chassis' so idk too much about the actual swap. So is the bolt pattern on the RWD manifold the same on both ends so the throttle body and the back plate can interchange between ends?

mdb4879 wrote:So I've been curious about this for a while now. I didn't do the hard work for my swap, i just swapped chassis' so idk too much about the actual swap. So is the bolt pattern on the RWD manifold the same on both ends so the throttle body and the back plate can interchange between ends?

What do you mean you didn't do the hard work and just chassis swapped?

The RWD manifold can be used on a FWD application. You swap the Throttle body and end cap. Swapping the end cap and TB makes it so you have to extend the brake booster line.

New vacuum diagram. Does this about cover it?

If you look to the rear of your intake manifold, there should be a 1/8 threaded hole intended for you to add a copper bung to assist with vacuum stations. Don't forget to take that banjo bolt with washer/gaskets and plug the water outlet on the front upper right corner of the block. Other than that, take your time and do it right the first time. You've invested the loot already, now let your patience seal the deal.

One thing i gotta mention. i dunno if other ppl have had issues, but i found it is best to run a dedicated source line for bov. my bov wouldn't work right under lighter loads and caused fluttering when i shared other things with it.
even the boost gauge can cause a drop for the bov vac signal, all that extra tube. I just feed mine off the fpr.

Point is, no tee's on the bov line

livelyjay wrote:What do you mean you didn't do the hard work and just chassis swapped?

A friend of mine (Mazikowski) did the initial swap into his '87 Pulsar. We live in North Alabama and when the April tornadoes came through a little over a year ago his garage fell on his car and totaled it. I bought his car and swapped the swap into my '87 with a knocking rod. All I did was pull his motor, wiring harness and vacuum system and all, mark the few plugs that connected to the chassis, and dropped it into my chassis. I never had to swap the ends of the manifold. That had already been done for me.

boost_boy wrote:If you look to the rear of your intake manifold, there should be a 1/8 threaded hole intended for you to add a copper bung to assist with vacuum stations. Don't forget to take that banjo bolt with washer/gaskets and plug the water outlet on the front upper right corner of the block. Other than that, take your time and do it right the first time. You've invested the loot already, now let your patience seal the deal.

I found the coolant outlet that's still open, when I find the banjo bolt I'll plug it up and use thread locker to make sure it doesn't come out.

If I use that threaded hole for my vacuum source, couldn't I just remove the end plate with all the vac/coolant lines on it and put on a solid piece of metal? That sure would look a lot cleaner. Then I could run a single line off of the I.M. to a vacuum distribution block on the firewall and go from there.

As for the vacuum system, I have read a bunch of stuff and I am more confused now because I am getting some stories from you guys, and other stories from the Pulsar guys.
1. Is the CA18DET butterfly control solenoid the same as the solenoid on the CA16DE and CA18DE? If so, I can wire it to the CA18DET ECU the same way right?
2. Do I use the vacuum configuration off of the JDM CA18DET (1 solenoid controlling butterflies and FPR) or the USDM system (1 solenoid for butterflies, another for FPR)?

I ordered all of my new coolant hoses and t-stat yesterday, so they should be here before the weekend. I got the lower temperature t-stat (180 degrees), should I have just gotten the OEM 190 degree one?

I'm going to head over to the auto store tomorrow and grab a lot of lines for the various items that need to be hooked up, or order silicone ones online. Should I get regular or silicone lines? I'd go today, but I forgot to measure what size fuel line I need. So far I have this list:
Brake Booster - 10mm
Vacuum Canister, boost gauge, power valve, FPR, and solenoids - 3mm
Intake Valves - 11.5mm
Intake manifold vacuum source, near the TB, on the passenger side for RWD guys, passenger/firewall near block off plate for FWD guys - 5mm
Am I missing anything? I need to measure the other crank case vent, the one that would typically go into a catch can, so I can buy a line and can for that.

mdb4879 wrote:

livelyjay wrote:What do you mean you didn't do the hard work and just chassis swapped?

A friend of mine (Mazikowski) did the initial swap into his '87 Pulsar. We live in North Alabama and when the April tornadoes came through a little over a year ago his garage fell on his car and totaled it. I bought his car and swapped the swap into my '87 with a knocking rod. All I did was pull his motor, wiring harness and vacuum system and all, mark the few plugs that connected to the chassis, and dropped it into my chassis. I never had to swap the ends of the manifold. That had already been done for me.

So that's what happened to Maz, wondered where he went. That sucks for him and I hope he was able to recover from the tornadoes. Good for you though since all you had to do was pull it out and plop it into your car. How's it running?

Yeah, Maz no longer has any Pulsars. He still loves them, but just doesn't have one anymore. Right now he's in the planning process for swapping an RB25 into hit 280Z.

My car runs alright. It has a few minor issues that would/will be resolved when it's rebuilt. But considering how little money I have in it I'm perfectly happy with spinning tires through second and being on par with 350Zs and such. I just put a video of the dyno from the other day on youtube (also my first video ever on youtube), so you'll get an idea of how it runs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1mnHj8x ... e=youtu.be

Nice smoke show

Other swap items unpacked and pictures taken. I have a lot of work ahead of me wiring wise. I think I'm going to map out each and every wire on the JDM harness just so I know what's what. I'll find out if I need to swap any plugs onto my OEM harness because of incompatibility, but if memory serves me well I don't think I'll need to. I shredded some plugs pulling my engine out, so I'll be swapping JDM ones in place of those. The wires at the ECU seem a little ragged, this harness obviously had aftermarket alterations. Shouldn't matter that much as I'll be chopping the plug off and soldering it onto my OEM harness.

ECU, MAF, Ignitor, Clutch, and some wiring


New clutch is huge compared to OEM

Since I am removing the charcoal canister, what do I do with the fuel line that was attached to it?

That line from the tank is just a breather. I left it open on my E16 car, but I guess it'd be a better idea to put some sort of a breather filter on it. Idk what'd happen if you were to cap it off.

Thanks MDB. When I get around to ordering the items for my catch can I'll grab an extra breather filter.

So, I started work with the wiring harness last night. It's kind of messy and I have some questions.
1. There is a weird plug tied into the ECU plug and harness. You can see it in the picture below. What is it? Can I remove it?
2. There was a weird shielding cable tied into about 12 of the harness wires. I cut it out, is that ok?

ECU plug with unknown white plug tied into it


Shielding cable shown at top of picture. ECU plug wires organized but unknown white plug left in tact for now



Some other questions:
I have an unused transmission cooler sitting in my garage. Pretty sure I can use it as an oil cooler, right? If so, would installing it between the turbo and the oil pan be a good place?

Man, my finished harness doesn't even look as neat as that, lol.

That shielded part isn't for the MAF is it?

Between the turbo and the oil pan won't work very well. The oil just drains from the turbo. There isn't very much pressure forcing it out, so it wouldn't flow through the cooler well and you wouldn't get the vast majority of the motor's oil through it period.. There is a specific angle from the turbo to the oil pan that helps to drain the oil best, also, so I definitely wouldn't put it there. I think usually there is some sandwich adapter that goes between the oil filter and the block to go to a cooler. Or you can use a filter relocation kit and have the cooler inline withe the filter that way. Either way it'd be best to have a thermostat in the system to warm up the oil and regulate it's temperature, just like in your water system. Otherwise it'll take forever to warm up and be hazardous to your motor, even more so than no thermostat in you water system.