OMG! Proud owner of a CA18DET front clip!!! $1400! COLD A/C! NICE!

[Nowhere]

!!She's mine. I have bought my very own ca18det front clip! 117k on the odometer.

I arrived, greeted, and went to work. The clip was BURRIED (underneath and besides some RB20 and RB25 front clips ). I removed the spark plugs and sprayed a bunch of PB blaster in each cylinder. With a booster box I cranked the engine for about a minute total (the clip has been sitting for a year). When the oil pressure light did not go off, I verified the sump was dry ( STOOPID!!! After turning the engine over!! ARGH! ). After swallowing 3 quarts of oil and starting for another 20 seconds or so, OIL PRESSURE! I primed the engine for a good minute with the sparks out..

The sparks were put back in (they were light brown, no oily deposits! ) and the coil packs were hooked up. As this is a front clip, no fuel tank. An inline high pressure pump made for an old MPEFI ford was used to run the car. The high pressure line was plumbed as well as the return line. After running the fuel pump for a few minutes we gave'er a run! The car started on the 2nd try! Dam, this thing is loud and smokes like a mo fo (pb blaster)!

The car ran like crap for about 2 minutes, seemed it was running on 2 or 3 cylinders. After a couple of 4k revs and idling for a while, she smoothed out real nice.

The transmission shifts nice, I can't test the clutch though as there's no load on the engine.. All the gears shifted with out any grinding..

Once the engine was running well, a vaccum gauge on the intake showed a steady 17" vacuum, no bumps. I never saw any "boost" though. I'm sure no boost can be generated without a load on the engine though..

I tried the A/C for kicks, nice and cold! lol

The turbo seals Miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight be bad.... There was oil in the hot pipe coming directly off the turbo as well as the metal pipe riiiiiiiight before the 45* bend before going down to the intercooler.

When the engine was turned off, I saw a little smoke? coming out of the compressor side of the turbo (after I took the hot pipe off). I'm not sure if the turbo is burning/leaking/spraying oil, or if it's from the crankcase ventilation system. It was white smoke, not too dense though..

All that for 1400 clams

Any input or sugguestions??

I'm not sure what to do about maintenence items. Should I change the water pump, timing belt (tensioner too??), vacuum lines, valve cover gaskets, etc, etc, BEFORE I remove the engine from the clip for my project?? I think I should change/maintain the engine in the clip and then verify running condition after that..

With 70k miles or so, should I change the oil pump?Would an oil pressure gauge show the condition of the main bearings?Should I FLUSH the cooling system before I change the water pump?Should I do an OIL FLUSH on the clip too?

Pictures Tuesday..


Modified by Nowhere at 3:47 AM 8/22/2005

[Nowhere]

OOh, no rust on the cams.. Nice and clean in there.There was the ususal salt/JDM white crap on the aluminium, nothing serious though.

[c-rad]

Sounds like a good deal. Too bad you have to drain the A/C system though and get a new drier and I THINK you need to mate the KA lines with the CA lines going into the compressor. Other than that, good deal. I'll have to check it out sometime. Altamonte is just a hop skip and a jump down I-4

[Nowhere]

Sounds like a good deal. Too bad you have to drain the A/C system though and get a new drier and I THINK you need to mate the KA lines with the CA lines going into the compressor. Other than that, good deal. I'll have to check it out sometime. Altamonte is just a hop skip and a jump down I-4

This swap is MUCH more radical than a 240 swap.. No KA parts for me! Wonder if it's r12 or 134a?

[c-rad]

It's R12.

[sdtouge]

congrats!

hpoefully there was fluid in the transmission.

[Nowhere]

congrats!

hpoefully there was fluid in the transmission.

My heart skipped a beat when I thought of that when I was testing the clip. However, when I saw there was a fluid level line on the plastic bag that was taped over the tail housing, I knew they did not drain the transmission.

[81na ZX]

This swap is MUCH more radical than a 240 swap..

hmmm whats it going in then?

[slownslurious]

my motor makes boost with no load, you can rev it up in neutral and I get a few psi... that with the oil stuff you observed make me wonder if your turbo is gone. If so I may have a stock CA turbo I can sell you soon if you are interested. But hopefullly yours will be ok.A bit of oil in the pipes is pretty normal, I've never seen bone dry piping in a tubo car thats been run for a while. If its significant accumulation though, then you might have a problem. Mine ran like **** on 3 cyls for a while too, and then stabilized on 3 cyls after 4 minutes. I swapped the plugs and it started running fine.

[float_6969]

Congrats! As far as the maintenece stuff, I'd do as much as your budget will allow.

[Nowhere]

my motor makes boost with no load, you can rev it up in neutral and I get a few psi... that with the oil stuff you observed make me wonder if your turbo is gone. If so I may have a stock CA turbo I can sell you soon if you are interested. But hopefullly yours will be ok.A bit of oil in the pipes is pretty normal, I've never seen bone dry piping in a tubo car thats been run for a while. If its significant accumulation though, then you might have a problem. Mine ran like **** on 3 cyls for a while too, and then stabilized on 3 cyls after 4 minutes. I swapped the plugs and it started running fine.

Hmmm... I think I'll pull the inlet off the turbo and verify it spins freely with acceptable play..

With you making boost in neutral, are you reving it WAAY up there? I prolly went WOT until maybe 4500 rpm or so.. When WOT, the gauge (One of those brake pressure/vacuum pumps w/gauge) pegged @ 0 but never seemed to climb at all..

Nothing past about 1' of downpipe makes for a LOUD car, I thought I could hear the turbo whhhhhhhhhhhhhhh up..

Elaborate some more on how you were able to build turbo boost in neutral..

[c-rad]

The only way to build boost in neutral is to super retard the timing. You need load on the engine otherwise.

[Nowhere]

The only way to build boost in neutral is to super retard the timing. You need load on the engine otherwise.

shwew

[sdtouge]

my was building about 4psi before it would cut in nuetral, and thats when i set my timing to 16 lol, when its suppost to be ten.

[NeedCAforS13]

what are you doing with the clip leftovers?

p.s. I'm right near UCF and if you need any help with CA stuff I'd be glad to lend a hand

Sean

[slownslurious]

I get a couple psi on my boost gauge when I rev up to 5 or 6kyou gotta rev it like you mean it though.

[Nowhere]

Here's a front clip startup video...Click here to see Video

When I start my clip, I don't get the wherrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr upon first startup (kinna sounds like the turbo is spooling, but not building pressure.......).

Hmmm, I need to take the inlet pipe off the turbo and run more tests....

Enjoy!!

[fallen180sx]

sweet! where you get your clip from?

[Nowhere]

Here's a front clip startup video...Click here to see Video

When I start my clip, I don't get the wherrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr upon first startup (kinna sounds like the turbo is spooling, but not building pressure.......).

Hmmm, I need to take the inlet pipe off the turbo and run more tests....

Enjoy!!

Oh yeah, that's not my clip.... It's a video I found .on the net..

[float_6969]

well if your clip is similar to that one, and you've got the stock air box and resonator hooked up, you probabally wont' hear much of the turbo spooling up, as the point of the resonator is to muffle that as much as possible. With and opend DP, I'd doubt you could hear it.

[Nowhere]

well if your clip is similar to that one, and you've got the stock air box and resonator hooked up, you probabally wont' hear much of the turbo spooling up, as the point of the resonator is to muffle that as much as possible. With and opend DP, I'd doubt you could hear it.

Yeah, that fawlker was LOUD!

SOME oil in the intercooler plumbing is ok correct? I'll have a LOT of pictures Tues (going into MY storage unit...).

[xyster]

yep, some oil is fine, especially considering the age/mileage of that clip. A buddy of mine got an SR clip that had a pool of oil 1" deep in the hot pipe right where it joins the turbo, and it turned out to be fine.

[fallen180sx]

where you get it

[float_6969]

yea, a little oil is normal. Get a catch can, and it should all but eliminate it.