Izento's CA18DET Build Thread

[float_6969]

Dude. That's the good s*** right there. That will NEVER crack. Good job!

[Izento]

Ok so first thing's first, I got the turbo outlet and downpipe off. Not much drama with that, I've done it before and it's relatively easy, although if you have hodor hands I could see why it would be a pain in the a**.

Here's a comparison of the Tomei pipe and stock O2 pipe

Pretty significant difference! That's a pretty big bottle neck. Here's the ISR downpipe

Heres the 2.5 inch downpipe. Look at that surface rust!

Additionally, Tomei engineered this outlet with having in mind that you are using a stud on the bottom-most hole, because you can't really fit a bolt in there. So I got an extra outlet stud and it all fits no problem. Place this stud at the notched part of the elbow.

With that said, the downpipe is clocked incorrectly on my setup. The 3 hole flange is fine and mates to the Tomei unit, no problem. The flange that connects to the cat is at a weird diagonal whereas my cat flange is parallel to the ground. Also for some reason the downpipe flange is not on a flat plane. They put a stupid little curve at the end of the pipe. Doesn't make any sense to me.

So my downpipe is now held to the cat with one bolt, just so I could secure it and get it partially going into the rest of the exhaust. Obviously it's a massive leak because the flange is clocked incorrectly. So I'll be taking this to the exhaust shop so they can chop and reweld it. Also I needed to take it there to get an o2 bung welded to the downpipe anyways. Strange that Isis doesn't already put a bung there.

After that, I'll finish sanding my brake booster, as it's always had rust on it from the previous owner having a master cylinder leak it looks like. I'm doing this to bide time until I go get a tune which will be sometime mid April. More to come!

[float_6969]

I never had to mess with the cat on any of my SR conversion stuff, but I do know it get weird if you're trying to mix-and-match SR and CA exhaust stuff. After the cat it's all the same, so none of that matters, but I THINK everything between the turbo and cat isn't the same between the two. I don't have emissions where I live, so I've never had to worry about it. I've always had custom made downpipes that go straight from the turbo to the cat-back in one piece.

Soooo, it's possible this is just another CA/SR compatibility issue. As long as the cat is still good though, I'd just cut the flange on the cat and have it rotated and welded back on. Then if the cat fails later, a normal SR cat should bolt right in.

There's an O2 bung on the Tomei outlet pipe, why not use that? None of the downpipes I've seen have O2 bungs in them unless it's S14 stuff and it's for the post-cat O2 sensor.

Make sure you hit the brake booster with some rust converter after you get it sanded and cleaned, before you paint it. Just painting over the rust won't stop it from spreading.

[Izento]

Yeah, I'm just running a cat so that if I get pulled over, the cops can't give me too much s*** since at least I'm running a cat, and it'll help quiet down the car a little.

As for the bung, AEM recommends placing their sensor 18 inches from the head's exhaust port and it seems too close to do in the o2 outlet. This is recommended for the o2 sensor's lifespan. I'm not sure how much people take this to heart, as the o2 bung on the outlet seems to be the most logical place to put the sensor, and less of a chance of running into a leak since there's only the o2 gasket that might have a leak rather than o2 gasket + downpipe connection gasket. Still never really got why ppl wouldn't run it on the o2 outlet as that's where the stock location is.

As an added bonus, I took the car out for a little put around the street. Holy mother of god! That turbo whistle, I can finally hear it on my car! Now I don't know if it's because my downpipe has a large f*** gap next to the cat, lol. But damn the car has more bass and the turbo whistle is pretty damn loud, and that's with me not even getting on it or entering boost because of the tune! The car sounds absolutely mean but isn't overwhelmingly loud, just a deeper sound. Will get a proper judge of it once I get the cat flange rewelded, but so far I'm liking what I'm hearing.

Additionally, I replaced my oil return line as it was fraying against the steering wheel column. I put a steel braided line to replace the nylon braided one and I didn't quite fit it on properly so there's a very slow oil leak. So now I gotta get back under the car again, but I think I'll actually purchase some more nylon braided hose, as it's a bit more flexible underneath there so I can attach it to the oil pan a bit easier.

[float_6969]

I've had issues with the sensor being too far away from the engine which makes closed loop and logging do funny things.

The only time I had issues with that location was when I had my cam timing off and the exhaust valve was opening too early, but then EVERYTHING was overheating. Once I got that fixed, I never had an issue again.

I'd put it in the stock location.

Open exhausts + turbo's = good sounds.

Yeah, maybe you can get it routed with the nylon so it doesn't rub?

[Izento]

Small update. I finally got around to having the exhaust re-welded. The downpipe flange has been clocked and fitted to the cat. I also decided to fit the o2 sensor bung to the downpipe, as I thought might as well since I might regret it if I didn't do it at the exhaust shop. The shop was also nice enough to reclock my cat flanges and reposition the exhaust so that the exit sits a little more straight. He laughed at the job the previous exhaust shop did on my car, and said they probably had no clue what they were doing.

Car is as quiet as a kitten now tbh, which is disappointing given the cool turbo noise with the massive exhaust leak, but whatever. At least I won't get unwanted attention from the cops. I actually think this is going to be more important as the years go by with electric cars not making any noise and our tuner cars sticking out like sore thumbs.

I also replaced the oil return line back to the sump with a nylon line. Worked out very well and no more oil leak. I also bled the coolant system again, so now she's running really good. The car stumbles a tiny bit during cold start because of the wacky tune, but other than that, as long as I don't hit boost, she goes around town well enough.

Additionally, I installed the exhaust side catch can. The car isn't having any problems running the can, so I think I'm going to install the intake can side and see how to moves.

Next up is to schedule a tune. More to come hopefully next month!

[float_6969]

Making progress! Keep it up!

[VStar650CL]

electric cars not making any noise and our tuner cars sticking out like sore thumbs.

Actually, all EV's (and HEV's running in EV mode) have "pedestrian protection" noisemakers on board. Nissan calls theirs VSP, Vehicle Sound for Pedestrians. There are even a few out there running faux muscle car soundtracks. The big-bore electrics don't need much help in that department anyway. If you've ever listened to an E-Prix race then you know what I mean. It's a silken whine at 12K RPM instead of NASCAR thunder, but they're still pretty freakin' loud. I'm kinda fond of it.

I don't think you need to worry much about that anyway. Electric truly is the future of muscle cars for good reason, but they're just a greenie pipe dream for most of us in proletariatville. Our dealership just got our first Ariya sitting out back in "buyback and repo alley", and I'm quite sure it won't be the last. The CEO at Toyota reckons that full EV's will never grab more than 30% of the market even in dense urban areas suited to them, and I'm quite sure he's right. Despite what the green goblins and government goblins all think, the market just isn't there. The EV edicts in DC and Cali are only assuring that people will find ways to keep their old ICE heaps on the road forever. I shudder to think what the price of a used gasser will be in Cali five or eight years from now. Reality is, most of us will never, ever own an electric, and Ford, GM, and Nissan are already being hit between the eyes with the reality stick.

That all said, what a sweet ride you have! I watch everything posted in this thread, and my only words are, Wow."

[Izento]

I didn't get to provide any pictures of the exhaust, so here it is.

As you can see, they had to cut the flange closest to the engine and clock it. Pretty nice!

The o2 sensor bung was fitted to the downpipe. AEM Uego sensor plugged in. (that tie rod install needs to be done soon)

Here's how she lines up in the back

An added bonus, always remember saftey first! I got some road flares to go along with my Purple K extinguisher. For those that don't know, ABC extinguishers are corrosive to metal whereas Purple K isn't. They are much safer to use near electronics and wires while offering the same capability to fight the fire.

Here's a shot from the top to see how damn close that Tomei elbow is to the firewall.

[float_6969]

That's a good looking piece!

[Izento]

Quick update, I have hooked up my dual catch cans. No oil spilling out of the cam covers! I think I was just an idiot and spilled oil during an oil change onto the top of my ignition coils last time. With that said, one stupid thing about these Saikou Michi catch cans is that I didn't order a oil level monitor, so I can't really see how full my catch cans are! So I decided to make my own and drill into the cans. I'll have pictures next time, but so far I did the intake side and it looks pretty good but just a tad too high. I'll make the exhaust side lower so that I can see when the oil level gets to a minimum level.

I also took the car for a drive with the base tune. She's running ok. I think the thermostat is slightly stuck since the car will reach 86C and then quickly jump down to 78C, and then stabilize to the 82C that it's supposed to be at. So now I'll change the thermostat again and I think she should be good. So far I got rid of all the old gas, so next up is to take it to the tuner. I promise this is going to happen within the next 3 months! I haven't been able to drive this car properly in so long, and it's about time I give you guys some dyno numbers.

[VStar650CL]

I think the thermostat is slightly stuck since the car will reach 86C and then quickly jump down to 78C, and then stabilize to the 82C that it's supposed to be at. So now I'll change the thermostat again and I think she should be good.

That's kind of normal, especially if you have oversized cooling capacity. The rating for a thermostat usually reflects "crack" temperature, the point where it starts to open and not the point where it opens fully. So what happens on first warmup is, once it cracks you get an intermittent stream of cool liquid from the radiator into the block, which the engine then needs to warm up. Depending where the sensor is located, that can cause a noticeable dip in temperature before all the coolant is warm and the system stabilizes. If your new 'stat does the same thing, I wouldn't worry about it. It's just an artifact of uneven coolant temperature after cold start.

[float_6969]

Agreed. That sound like typical mechanical thermostat behavior to me. You often don't see it with the stock gauge because it's designed to react slowly, so you don't see that peak.

[Izento]

Glad this forum still exists so I can pick your guys' brains. I thought it wasn't too crazy since I knew the thermo is supposed to open fully and it makes sense temps would drop dramatically, just never seen that happen with my old radiator hoses or rubber coolant intake hoses. Temps haven't gone crazy or over 86c. It's getting hot in Los Angeles, still running on stock radiator too. We'll see if I need to upgrade the rad when I hit the track after tune.

[float_6969]

Happy to help!

[Izento]

Ok, so here's some progress pics. I got the catch cans drilled out and a level indicator put in. Just some very simple plastic 90 degree barbs and some polyurethane hose. Also got some small rubber grommets to fit inside the drilled holes. After doing this, make sure to fill the catch can up with water, give a good shake and drain to remove the loose metallic shavings from drilling.

A little crooked, haha, but whatever it works. No leaks either which is great. Also, as a side note, these catch can walls are thick! Drilling this took forever and I had to use multiple drill sizes to finally punch through, and then widen the hole with a step drill.

I do recommend if you're going to do this to use clear barbs instead of black ones like I got. The barbs are kind of long, so it'll take some time for the oil and water to build up in the catch can before I see it.

Next up, I purchased some aluminum piping, so I'm finally going to fab up an intake. Should only take a 90 degree 3" elbow to get onto the turbo inlet, a 2.75" to 3" coupler, and another 2.75" to 3" coupler to connect the intake pipe to the Z32 maf. We'll see if I need to cut a little bit to make things fit.

[Izento]

Alright, so finally got around to finishing this turbo inlet pipe. I first purchased a SR20 intake pipe and it's at the completely wrong angle. I'm not sure why that would be considering the turbo sits at roughly the same area, maybe a couple degrees different to account for the CA18 tilt.

Regardless, here is the 2.75 inch SR20 pipe uncut. Since it doesn't reach anywhere near the turbo and needs an extra 90ish degree bend, I purchased a secondary pipe along with some 2.75 inch to 3 inch couplers.

So my GT2871r inlet is 3 inch, so I have to make all of these match up. Quite a big difference since the stock rubber inlet pipe that connects to the MAF is probably 2.5 inch.

Now to chop up this SR20 pipe and fab something up with couplers. I don't have a welder otherwise this would just be all metal.

Matching the curve to connect to the turbo inlet (this is a botched pipe I attempted. First time handling a sawzall without a vice grip. RIP).

Got a second pipe attempt in. Sanded down the edges.

2.75 inch straight coupler

Attach the SR20 pipe that I've now hacked up. I have to face the breather pipe the opposite direction though given the curve of this pipe.

As you can see, the pipe sticking out is for the breather system which is supposed to connect to the valve cover. In my case, it's supposed to connect to the catch can, which is then connected to the valve cover. Only issue is it's pointing towards the front of the car rather than the rear. This means I need to extend my catch can line so that I can connect it to this intake.

Here is the new catch can line connected. I think I'm going to switch this metal braided line out though as I'd like it to fit better.

Bonus points, found my old Initial D Stage 3 card. Always wanted an MR2 back in the day (still do). Maybe one day!

Ok, so now I've put off doing the sanding of that brake booster and also getting this tune done. I also purchased a Greddy R35 maf housing from Japan. More to come.

[Izento]

Whoops, looks like I didn't check my mailbox. Overnight parts from Japan! (always wanted to say that)

Keep in mind, this Greddy R35 MAF housing does NOT come with an R35 maf, or the screws to mount it (annoyingly). It does come with the pigtail though, which is very nice. That said, nice quality, good welds, rolled lips. Thanks Nengun, although strange that Greddy USA does not carry this part, and I even called them to double check. Now hopefully this helps with reversion and gives more stability, even though I have a BOV to atmosphere to prevent reversion (although the brings on the other issue of richness off throttle).

[Izento]

As a side note, I drove the car to a meet last weekend. Holy moly!!! The intake sounds insane. I can actually hear the air going into the intake straight into the turbo. Now, granted I only got up to about 5 psi ever since I'm still going to do the tune, the car sounds insane. Not as loud as a Honda B16 with an intake would, but much more pronounced than what I had previously with the rubber OEM tubing. I highly recommend if anyone is on the fence about getting an aluminum intake to do it for the sound. Similar to how most people do an exhaust for the sound, they're definitely missing out on the intake as well.

More to come.

[float_6969]

Hell yes! Love the progress, and also, all the turbo inlet noises should be heard by all!!!

[Izento]

Figured I would update this thread with some research info since progress has been slow due to funds.

I've decided I'm going to build my own hybrid turbo. Not sure when I'm going to purchase it, as I'm debating on getting the car tuned and just enjoy it for a bit, or to get the new turbo and then tune it.

Currently I'm running a GT2871r 48 Trim
Compressor wheel: 49.2mm/71mm
Turbine wheel: 53.9mm/47mm
Exhaust housing: 0.64 A/R

My goal is 350whp with a little room to grow to 400whp if I get bored. I don't think I can achieve 350whp on this trim, I'll just be blowing hot air.

With that said, after hours and hours of research reading DSM, Land Cruiser, and Audizine forums, I've settled on the compressor wheel of the GTX2867 after learning to read compressor maps, compressor/turbine info and whatnot. I'm actually surprised that there's so few S chassis guys that run hybrid turbos. There's almost zero information on building a turbo for an SR20, and especially a CA18 obviously.

Anyways, the GTX2867 compressor wheel seems to fit my power goals while also not going up to a large compressor wheel like the GT3071R 54mm/71mm.

GTX2876 55 Trim Specs:
Compressor wheel: 50mm/67mm
Turbine wheel: 54mm/47mm
Exhaust housing: 0.64 A/R

After reading through a Zilvia thread from Pure Turbo's back in 2012 when they were building hybrid turbos for people on Zilvia

https://zilvia.net/f/showthread.php?t=482023

I searched them out and was surprised they are still in business in SoCal. They recommended me PT Turbos in Los Angeles, as Pure Turbos doesn't do hybrids anymore, they're focused on the BMW kids with their B58s and s***.

After contacting PT Turbos and asking about the difference between the GT and GTX backplate bevel not being compatible, they said it was definitely possible to machine. Here's a example picture of what I'm talking about on the GTX wheel. The GT wheel is flat.

As for compressor wheel, the new one will fit with some machining of the compressor housing to fit a larger inducer. After some debating on blade count, it seems like 8+0 would fit my application the best. Apparently they also stock KTS wheels, which are one of the biggest and most well known wheel manufacturers in the world, as apposed to Mamba/Kinugawa that are made in Taiwan.

All in all, got a quote for upgraded billet compressor wheel, machining of the compressor housing and balance for much much cheaper than a GTX2867 brand new. Anyways, just thought this was interesting and will definitely be something I do in the future.

[float_6969]

Sounds great! I'd love to see how it ends up working.

I know it requires custom turbo manifolds, but I'm a HUGE fan of the BorgWarner EFR turbos. The integrated recirc valve and twin-scroll wastegate can't be oversold.

[dash]

Freshalloy were littered with SR20 'hybrid -T28' turbo variants. Most built by local turbo shops
Took some street cars to 11sec quarters. SXOC had tons of ca18 street car dynos, torque in ft-lbs vs rpm also. 4 port tho
Sure you're not 'over-thinking' ? Can't imagine what 'new performance' you're chasing out of a ca18, not done already
I personally don't ride the technology wave, as I've seen TOOO much old stuff, smack the sh*t outta new stuff. All hype imo.

[Izento]

Alright, time for an update. I finally got around to installing the Tein inner/outer tie rods and GK Tech Roll Center Correction Kit V1.

Here's where we're starting out. As you can see, the boots are all torn to s***. Bushings are on their way out too.

Also unfortunate that when I first came to California, I went to a shop called SR20store and the shop owner stole my Nismo Power brace. I didn't realize as I just drove the car home and let it sit for months before going under it again. Ah, you live and you learn. Going under the car again just reminded me of it

Got the tie rod off the knuckle. Thank god I bought a tie rod separator which I used on my daily driver a month before.

Here's the new tie rod and Megan Racing silicone boot attached.

The GK Tech RCCK installed onto the knuckle. THIS TOOK FOREVER. The front lower control arm (FLCA) was so difficult to get off of the knuckle. The shank was seized onto the knuckle and I had to absolutely destroy the bushing with my tie rod seperator fork. More on that later.

Now for the other side! The tie rod on this side was a little easier to remove.

Once again the FLCA shank was almost impossible to remove from the knuckle. I had to literally jump on the tie rod seperator bar just to hear a loud crack as the arm broke free of the knuckle. Took me like 30 minutes and half a bottle of PB Blaster.

RCCK attached to passenger side knuckle.

Ok, so here is before and after!

Huge difference in angle!

This took 8 hours for me to complete! I think GK Tech says this should only take 2 hours, but I will admit, I suck a** at working on cars. Just be prepared to deal with the seized FLCA to knuckle bolt, and to absolutely ruin your ball joint.

Now here's the huge caveat. The car is absolutely f*** because I destroyed the ball joints on the control arms and so it's inoperable. I tried moving the car just to see how bad it was and it's completely destroyed, lol. Also, it should be noted that if you get the GK Tech RCCK, it adds a f*** ton of camber. So you will need to adjust your camber plates on your coilovers. It also pushes out the tires about 20mm or so. If you run wide rims/tires, it will definitely poke out. My setup is 17x7 running a 215 tire, and it pokes out somewhat significantly. You'll need to run that drift boi camber to keep the tuck.

So, gameplan is I'm going to be buying some new FLCAs. I'm probably going to go with aftermarket and purchase Techno Toy Tuning's spherical bearing FLCAs with adjustable +25mm track width. If you don't know, Techno Toy Tuning is very well known for AE86 suspension parts, along with 240z. They're the best in the business for that, so I'm willing to bet the S13 FLCAs are going to be fire. I'll keep it stock track width, but will be nice to have the option to go wider if I ever get around to piecing together my dream Sileighty front end. Maybe one day after I'm done buying gofast parts I'll do cosmetics.

[Izento]

Oh also, I don't know how I got the 2nd most popular build thread on CA18 Nico. I guess everyone else just quit or did their build threads too fast, lol. I'm an idiot and have no idea what I'm doing! Still having fun though with this platform!

[float_6969]

Thanks for the continued updates!

I love that you keep coming in here. I still keep an eye on this place, but the Facebook page turned this place into a ghost town. I go SOOO sick of answering the exact same questions every week there though. The great place about a forum is you can search for answers!

Also, you can't really do a build thread on FB either.

Anyway, thanks for helping to keep this little corner of NICO alive!

[VStar650CL]

I love that you keep coming in here. I still keep an eye on this place, but the Facebook page turned this place into a ghost town. I go SOOO sick of answering the exact same questions every week there though. The great place about a forum is you can search for answers!

It's funny how people don't get it, that usually your only prayer of getting answers on FB is if somebody else had your same problem yesterday or last week. Personally, I think Zuck should rename it "Short Attention Span Theatre".

Anyway, thanks for helping to keep this little corner of NICO alive!

+1

[Izento]

Small update, I've figured out that new stock control arms with brand new bushings are very cheap, so I've gone with those. I'm going to prioritize funds for the tune rather than fancy suspension arms. Also I need a new shifter as well, so clearly getting ahead of myself. Will have more news soon.

[Izento]

So I got the new stock control arms. Driver side went pretty smooth. I also corrected the toe because for some reason toe got all out of wack doing these suspension changes.

Here's the old control arm. Notice the black taper ontop of the bushing. That is part of the GKtech RCCK. I had to pop that off because it settled onto the bushing. Didn't give me too much grief.

New arm installed with fresh bushing.

Onto the passenger side! Oh how I hate cars. First, the bolt which attached the control arm to the subframe would simply not come out. Took over an hour just to get that bolt out. After I finally got the control arm off, the black taper was completely stuck. I still haven't gotten it off the old control arm. The design of this kit is kind of bad, but I guess that's what I get for grabbing version 1. So now the car sits on jack stands until I can get a new taper or go to a shop with a press. I've emailed Gktech to see if they can help me out and send a taper, but I'm not sure if they even have this part anymore considering it's about 7 years old.

More to come.

[Izento]

The Gktech RCCK taper got stuck on the damaged control arm ball joint so hard that I decided to cut the balljoint down and then drill out the center in hopes it would weaken the structure and allow me to knock the taper off.

Turns out it didn't really help at all. This thing was super stuck!

Then I realized I have a pulley puller, and I could attach it to the balljoint.

Success!

Here is the other pain point. The control arm attached to the subframe got stuck previously. The bolt just kept rotating, even though I removed the nut on the other side. I had to wedge my pry bar in between the control arm and the subframe in order to allow the bolt to grab onto something so I could rotate it out.

Here it is all attached back together with the new control arm.

Here's how she sits after I reset the toe just eyeballing it. Tons of camber, tons of angle, looks good though.

I'll remember all of this whenever I get new control arms. This taper was a b**** to remove, and I even called GKTech to see if they had spare tapers but they have discontinued the part since it's for the V1 kit. Who knew it was a bad idea to have a removable taper instead of just building it into the part? Next time I'll just use the pulley puller straight away and should save me a lot of grief. This took me like 20 hours in total.

Next is to get an alignment and then tune.