Inspecting A CA18DET

[krazy skwerel]

Ok so I might be going to look at this CA motor set that a guy has in town. Anything in perticular I should look out for? Thank you for your help.

[float_6969]

Do a compression test if possible. Pulling the oil pan or valve covers will tell you a lot as well. Look for oil coking. If the color of the aluminum in the head is very dark brown, the motor hasn't been very well taken care of and I would expect to rebuild it.

[krazy skwerel]

It is supposed to have 40k miles on it and was in an s12. Says the harness has some places where it is cut, but is still a complete harness just need to reconect the few wires that are cut.

[float_6969]

If it was a CA in an S12, then it's a CA18E(T). It's an 8V SOHC. Make sure this is a DOHC motor. If it's the single, I wouldn't mess with it.

[krazy skwerel]

I know the difference, the way he makes it sound is he had swapped in the CA18DET. lol I'm not about to buy an ET.

[float_6969]

Just checking!

[krazy skwerel]

It's all good I am just torn between this and a sohc kat build, but I have been trying to figure that out for nearly 4 years so damned indecisive.

[tyrannix]

so do both

either buy teh CA now and drop it in and enjoy it while building up the KA

or

slap on a turbo to the KA, and have fun until you blow it up, then drop in a CA (or start building up the CA while driving the KA)

either way, do *something* and youll start having more fun in your car

we cant decide for you, but you can do a t3 flanged turbo and a cheap SSAC manifold (then lines, and piping) and you would more than likely be able to reuse the turbo, and piping for the CA

I will tell you this tho. when i got back to the states, i was |--| that close to turboing the KAE in the (93k mile) 89 donor car for my rebuild project., while i was waiting for machine work and little odds and ends. (ill share a blunder on my part that blew the HG on the KA tho. I took the MAF housing from a CA MAF and bolted the sensor from the KA onto it. within driving 50 miles like that the headgasket blew .....

but had that not happened, i would have been driving a KAET for a lot longer while getting the CA ready to drop in

so theres storytime for today. I would turbo the KA to get some more driving fun, while doing a hoss build on a CA

CJ

[krazy skwerel]

Thats way more money than I want to waste. Though it would be fun, the Government don't pay me enough to do that. If I can get this engine here in town I am gonna go CA. Always liked the engine. Hell even if I cant get this engine. I'll probly still go CA. Also this engine has 40K miles and he wants 1000 obo.

Modified by krazy skwerel at 3:58 PM 12/29/2006
Modified by krazy skwerel at 4:02 PM 12/29/2006