Izento's CA18DET Build Thread

Discuss topics related to the CA18DE and CA18DET series engines.
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Izento
Posts: 438
Joined: Fri Dec 12, 2008 12:20 pm
Car: RPS13

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So far, these past weeks, I have figured out my alarm is not loud whatsoever. Like, I can't even hear it even though I live 2 stories above my own damn car. I've since installed Hella horns and figured out that the installer didn't connect my horn output through the alarm. I called them back and they said they would do it for half the price they normal charge with about 2 hour labor (so it would come out to 1 hour). Well, I looked it up, figured out which wire I need to tap into and did it myself. It took less than 30 minutes. Now, to be fair, I didn't have horns installed, so even if he did hook up the horn wire, it wouldn't have done anything. But, I would think he would have done that regardless, given that my horns could be installed in a weird spot that he just couldn't see. Overall, I'm disappointed in the alarm installation and I'm disappointed in the labor quote. You don't do a half-a** job on a mechanics car, that's just asking for trouble. The company doesn't warrant a bad review, but they don't warrant my recommendations to other people.

I also got around to getting a horn button for my steering wheel while I was at it. If I got a horn, might as well get the button in case a cop asks me where the hell my horn is. I also figured out that you can't install a momo horn button on a nrg quick release without removing the steel metal ring inside. You have to remove the two golden screws on the inside of the quick release in order to loosen this metal ring.
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Here's the final product (I scraped the s*** out of my retainer ring while installing my horn, damn it, haha):
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Overall, my alarm is way louder and I'll definitely hear it in my sleep. I've been busy with work and haven't got around to installing fun parts yet. I changed up my pillar gauge pod to a 2 pod setup instead of 3. I don't need an oil temp gauge and it kind of got in the way when taking a left-hand turn at night. This should give me more vision and driving confidence. Next install will be the catch cans.


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Izento
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Joined: Fri Dec 12, 2008 12:20 pm
Car: RPS13

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I've been slacking on the updates, just haven't been motivated to do much after all that's happened. Anyways, I've still managed to get stuff done, just haven't posted it.

Here's the Hella horns I installed to make my alarm really loud.
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Here's how my new gauge setup looks like with the 2-pod. Looks better and doesn't blind my peripheral vision as much.
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Here's part of my security update. I've wired a PS/2 keyboard wire into the ecu and moved it to the glove box. Now my FC Commander is removable, and on top of that, whenever a tuner connects the datalogit, they can connect it through that wire, which allows the ecu to stay in place.

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This is my new dyno graph. 260 whp. My boost kept falling off in the high rev range, so my boost controller is f*** up or something. My NEW tuner suggested a different boost controller. His recommendation was an Apexi AVCR.

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Well, whaddya know? I just bought an AVCR!

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Izento
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Car: RPS13

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Oh, and if anyone is curious about the PS/2 wire for the Power FC Commander, follow this guide. http://www.banzai-racing.com/ps2_cable_ ... how-to.htm

It basically tells you to remove one pin from the PS/2 wire, which allows it to connect to the female port on the Power FC. Nothing is needed to change the male port of the PS/2 cable to connect to the Commander.

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float_6969
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Does the PFC not have built in boost control mapping?

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Izento
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float_6969 wrote:Does the PFC not have built in boost control mapping?
No. That is an option, but I've heard it sucks.

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Izento
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Car: RPS13

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Figured I haven't posted in a while, so we'll give this a small update.

It's getting sunny, so I've been wanting to drive the car lately but it hasn't been starting the last time after I drove it way back in January.The story to that, I started the car early that morning and it idled at 800 rpms right off the bat, no cold start revving, which I thought was strange and it had been doing it as of recent. I was thinking I might have had a boost leak somewhere. Anyways, so I go about my way to work with the car hesitating slightly, but I made it with mostly no issues. After my 8 hour shift, I start the car and it's idle was erratic, hesitating and barely keeping itself alive. I thought, hmmm, my bov might be leaking (I had that problem with an old hks bov). Well, I make my way home (not far) and the car is really acting up, so I pull over and it dies on me. I start it back up and cover my hand over the bov exit, but it doesn't change the idle. The car dies after a bit of idling. I start it back up and feather the throttle the remainder of the way home as it sputters and generally unhappy, I try to hit boost at one point to see if there is a boost leak and my gauge shows that I was building boost fine.

I park the car and go to start it the next day, only to have it come alive for a split second before shutting down. I do this maybe once more before it wont start again (probably flooded at that point). I fix a problematic coupler and notice my plug to the round long cylinder Image
(not my picture, my valve cover is nicer :>) was unplugged, so I plug that back in as well, then go to fire up the car, but no cigar. The battery sounds weak from having tried to start it, even with my battery charger plugged onto it, the battery had died too many times in it's lifetime that it wasn't retaining a charge. I decided I didn't want to deal with the s*** battery problem anymore so I bought a new Odyssey P925.
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I am very impressed with the battery, as you get to choose your own terminals and the whole battery comes in a very compact size. But it didn't help my no start issue of course, so I decided to pull apart the whole AAC/IACV piece to see if there was any blockage inside. The actuator seems to be in good shape and nothing seems wrong inside, so it could be the brown cylinder that maybe isn't working if there were a problem with anything in that piece. I also checked my spark plugs, which looked pretty rich and had a fuel smell to them, but weren't wet.

I am not inclined to think it's the coolant temp sensor, since my Power FC is getting a reading out of it, but maybe I'm wrong and the ecu can still get a read, but it still could prevent the famous rough start/no start symptoms I'm having. I'll probably just buy a new temp sensor since they're so cheap, but I'm willing to bet the problem lies in the cold start sensor, which is the black box thing on the far left of this picture. So now I'm on the hunt for one of those things.
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float_6969
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The one of the left is the cold start valve that increases the idle up to around 1500rpm when you first start it and then slowly idles it down. The long skinny one is the fast idle for the A/C. The last one is the idle control valve. The long skinny one is never the issue. It's one of the other ones. Have you ohm'd them out to see if they have continuity?

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Izento
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Started thinking about my car today and thought I'd pop back in here. I've moved to Los Angeles, so i've put a lot of stuff on hold.

I somewhat? solved the rich issue. My plugs were fouled, so I cleaned them up and the car has been running fine ever since. I also changed the CAS to a brand new one.

I rearranged my battery box to look a little better, as I can actually put the lid on now.

All that's left is to install my angle kit that I've been putting off, tie rods and new Apexi boost controller. After that, the car should be basically temporarily done........said no one ever.

(Pics coming soon)

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float_6969
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Pics! and Vids?!?!?

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Izento
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This is the old CAS. It's got a fair bit of rust in it, most likely from the old cams (not my Tomei set). The teeth weren't god awful, so I don't believe it was slipping, but I may be wrong.
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NS52 part number, if anyone is wondering.
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Here's the circuit breaker. Quite nice to have whenever I want to disconnect the battery connection.
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OMFG. These nuts (hehehe) were so hard to tighten. I dread untightening them some day.
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Odyssey PC925 battery. Quite nice, but doesn't hold a charge for too long with my alarm (to be expected).
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All said and done besides the cleanup.
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Izento
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float_6969 wrote:
Fri Dec 22, 2017 6:48 am
Pics! and Vids?!?!?
Vids maybe when I get the car ready for my dream track, since I'm so close to it now. Willow Springs :naughty:

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Izento
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Sorry yall, no updates lately. Life got me caught up. Still got the same car and CA powered. We still going strong.

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float_6969
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Basically the same for me, though my engine is STILL out. It's basically all put back together AGAIN, I just need to get the engine to my brother in laws shop and get it put back together.

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Izento
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I broke my clutch pedal :(

If anyone has one for sale, lmk. Too many clutch kicks, hahaha.

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float_6969
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WTH?!?! Where did it break?

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Izento
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It broke on the clutch pedal itself. There are welds that weaken over time, especially if you clutch kick a lot (which was how I first learned how to drift as my e-brake never worked properly).

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Izento
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Also a reason why Nismo personally made a reinforced clutch pedal, but it doesn't work for LHD :(

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float_6969
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Well that's annoying, LOL!

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float_6969
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Well that's annoying, LOL!

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Izento
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New update. My alternator isn't charging the system. Probably a blown fuse. I was researching and apparently, the second fuse from the top left in the driver side kick panel controls part of the alternator's charging function. So, gonna look at that and see if that's the reason. Some have also said that the bulb being burnt out for the battery in the cluster can also affect things (though I highly doubt it). Also don't know if my bulb from the cluster is burnt. Will be checking this weekend.

Yes, once again I'm still alive. I am moving this September, but been very busy with both of my jobs here in Cali. I'm now an executive assistant/driver. I drive my boss who is the CEO of a company in LA in a Land Rover Autobiography (which funnily enough has electric problems, which I believe they are notorious for). It's pretty legit and a decent job that keeps me on my toes. If you guys also didn't notice, as my second job, I'm an esports writer now (Google my name *cue pretentious voice* also you'll get to see what I look like), so that's been my passion and what I've poured my free hours into. Maybe once I get my new place I'll start doing what needs to be done to the car in terms of tune, adding my angle kit and refurbishing the diff and adding bucket seats.

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float_6969
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Thanks for the update!

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Izento
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Turns out the bulb from my cluster probably was still working (though I don't know for sure), but I replaced it and it hasn't turned on. I know the polarity is finnicky (with LED bulbs at least, but I replaced it with a regular once, still flipped it and the light didn't turn on during the ON position). Most likely my wire reading from the alternator has a break somewhere. If Nissan designed their alternators to run off of a bulb for the cluster in order to regulate alternator charge to the entire system, they're a lot more dim witted than I thought. We'll find out if that's the case this weekend once I wire the battery bulb to a ACC 12v source.

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Izento
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Also, probably the worst thing and my biggest fault as a "mechanic" is that I still don't know how to use a voltmeter properly. None of the YT videos make sense to me. I still have enough knowledge to hook it up to my battery and see if it's running above 13v to see if my alternator is performing. We'll see if that proves true soon as I've ordered a wire gauge kit to help me splice some wires in.

dash
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Car: s13 ca18

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dash bulb only lit to indicate no charging. Probably excited by another wire iirc.
My dash bulb came on when my alternator failed, due to a slow coolant drip from hose right above.
I fabbed a clear plastic 'shield' over the replacement alternator while I repaired coolant leak

Later charging problem was due to a poor contact at the big 75? amp fuse underhood. You could see where it burned
Scraped/cleaned/greased and was back in service. Alternator still good. Seem like rugged reliable units

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Izento
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Figured out that the problem was either due to the sub harness or the actual alternator itself. I guess my alternator wasn't actually charging (can't believe I didn't even test the alternator). Everything is working properly. Got the alternator rebuilt and everything is charging properly at 14.4v.

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Izento
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Just wanted to give a tiny update.

I went for a "spirited drive" and smoked a Lambo and kept up with a 911 on a touge in California with never even driving the road they wanted to race on. My dampers were actually too stiff, so my brakes were skipping on bumps in the road during hard braking, but I kept it in line. Rich kids. Still need to solve my rich problems for the fuel, and I still haven't replaced the FPR. Gonna happen when I take it in for a tune. Also, those f*** at Apexi, their commander still fades out for the LED bulbs. I can't read s*** on my OLED (newer version) commander, and if you've been keeping up on this thread, this car isn't a daily driver, and I also don't even keep my commander in the car. So max, the commander has about 1000 runtime hours.

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float_6969
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That's awesome about the race!!! Are the coils adjustable so you can soften them up a bit?

That sucks about the commander. It's not like they're cheap crap either.

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Izento
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Yeah, coilovers are adjustable thankfully. I still haven't run the same road again, but I assume running on lower damper settings will help a ton with the skipping. I'm just going to wait for another commander and tune and then see where I land.

Also, thinking about getting a tattoo lately to represent my real street racing days. What do you boys think?I'm gonna make the Japanese characters a little more clearer, but the premise is still there.
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float_6969
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Looks BA to me! How hard are commanders to get? Didn't Apex sell some kind of software that let you tune it via laptop?

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Izento
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Yeah they did, but Commanders are f*** so sick. They're a water temp gauge, knock sensor reader, RPM reader, injector reader, ALL IN ONE! Plus you can tune with it if you're super desperate. Also, they have a security feature built in as well to where you can't start the car without a Commander. It's honestly the biggest bang for your buck.


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