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Originally posted by netrati

Got a quick question for you guys. There is the person I know that says he running close to 500hp on stock ca18det internals. He just has aftermarket turbo, inj, fuel pump, intercooler, blah blah. But everything inside is stock. Is he full of sh!t?

Yes he is fos.

CA pistons need replacing at around 350hp and the rods at around 400hp.

He's also need a big turbo - TD06 20G or larger.

Originally posted by Smiley

I heard somewhere that CA18DETs are really tough and you can push heaps more out of them than the SR20s.

No, I believe there are SR20's in Japan producing in excess of 800hp whereas I've never heard of a CA producing much more than 600hp. Mind you the SR's producing that sort of power have been stroked to 2.2 whereas the CA's are only upto 1950cc or less.

The CA is a tough little engine though and technologically more advanced than the SR. Its more compact and weighs 20 kgs less despite having an iron block compared to the SR's aluminium block.

I've just started the process of fitting an RB25 to my 180SX (with 320hp CA) and looking at the RB25 I can't help but think its really a 6 pot CA.......or should that be the CA is just a 4 pot RB :D

Either way they're incredibly similar :D

Standard he has no hope, they have sealing issues that prevent them from making decent power, at least with a standard headgasket anyway. In short he is full of shit, though they are an iron block which makes them quite robust and they don't have rocker arms like a SR (this can be fixed easily) plus they are dirt cheap. Like any engine they have short comings, but they can be worked around their downfalls. I know of a handful of CA's in australia that make in excess of 300rwkw. Like anything budget is the issue.

xRHETTx, yes you can

Smiley, capacity will always win in the end

Originally posted by xRHETTx

Ive been wondering for a while...

Can u fit a CA20 block from a pintara to a CA18? (Just like Rb30 to RB25?) Or am I wrong completely?

Its not an easy conversion and I don't believe anyones done it in the UK.

I'm a bit of a CA fan too be honest :( In the UK, the 180SX (200SX here) only came with the CA so we have a number of well developed CA powered cars over here. Norris Designs built a 540bhp car and there are a few 450hp to 500hp cars driving about.

Its quite a revvy engine compared to the SR and its only real weakness seems to be that the big-end bearings commonly fail between 80,000 and 100,000 miles.

As far as the headgaskets go....I run mine at 21/22 psi on a standard gasket and I've never had any problems :D

I rember the best thing about my ca was getting to 8400 rpm, and it was humming like mad, I was trying to find a rev limiter. The ownly limit i came to was I was running out of road. It just kept going. I was almost running out of tacko.

I realy liked the ca. Was fairly good 2 work on. And I agree in a away it reminds of an rb. GO the CA.

If u look around u could get some good info from some people. I remeber a guy called glen lumpy cambel, i think his name. He was like the ca guru on the net.

Have a look around http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/nissans13/ forum. U could probably get some good info of these guys.

Well my mate has a CA with an SR20 turbo on it, FMIC, exhaust, filter and boost is uncontrolled... he has been hitting about 1.5bar boost for a while now wasn't until the other day in 3rd gear he hit 1.83 bar and sometime whilst racing a TT supra a few times he blue the head gasket but not a real big blow supriseingly it has held up damn well!! No internal damage or anything so they are a tough little beast ey.

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