Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

i am set on getting a datsun 1600 for my next car (daily driver with power.), and majority of the ones i'm seeing for sale are sporting on of these three engines.

what i want to know is what are the pros and cons of these engines (sr20det, ca18det, fj20et) and overall in your mind which would be the best one to have in a 1600.

i want as much feed back as possible.

cheers.

The SR would be your best bet. As it is the newest out of the lot and there are heaps of off the shelf bolt ons available. Have a look on nissansilvia.com If you are on a budget the CA would save you quite a bit and still go hard in such a light car. Hope you are going to upgrade brakes and suspension. How much are you budgeting?

The SR would be your best bet. As it is the newest out of the lot and there are heaps of off the shelf bolt ons available. Have a look on nissansilvia.com If you are on a budget the CA would save you quite a bit and still go hard in such a light car. Hope you are going to upgrade brakes and suspension. How much are you budgeting?

well i plan on getting one thats had most of the hard work done (already had the engine conversion and shit) and then fine tune it. i think come the time to get one i'll be looking to spend up to 15 grand. just depends on the car, the engine, condition etc..

if you want to buy one already built, i think what ever motor has been swapped in there cant be part of your selectable criteria. unless there is a massive stockpile of 1600's with various engine conversions for sale that i dont know about?

sr20 or ca18. the fj20 is basically what the sr20 was based off and is a bit of a rattley old engine. CA18 aren't a bad engine (rather under rated by a lot of people) and the sr20 is a good engine.

CA's are an awesome bit of gear...id swap a SR for one in a heartbeat.

The Silvia guys are mad for thinking the SR is an upgrade. Dollar for dollar the SR 'upgrade' vs the built CA is a no brainer.

Im currently building one for my daughter's S13...great little engine that is not plagued by the weakness'/issues of the SR.

Edited by Swiper the Fox
CA's are an awesome bit of gear...id swap a SR for one in a heartbeat.

The Silvia guys are mad for thinking the SR is an upgrade. Dollar for dollar the SR 'upgrade' vs the built CA is a no brainer.

Im currently building one for my daughter's S13...great little engine that is not plagued by the weakness'/issues of the SR.

You have a point there "Mr. RH9".

BTW didn't you use to be Dirt Garage?

:)

To the OP, if you ask the CA18 enthusiast, CA18 = RB26 of the Silvia world.

1 tuff engine.

Having said that, I don't mind a SR20 either.

will depend on budget, and how much power you want from that budget.

now days all the motors have decent aftermarket stuff so you wont have a lot of trouble with parts.

Can get 200kw out of an SR relatively easily, where as a CA will need a bit more to get there.

I've had a CA and an SR, the CA was good fun, bulletproof, but lacked the 'kick' and i couldn't be bothered dumping $$ into it.

SR although its the tractor motor has been reliable and easy power.

i dont have a clue regarding the FJ, but hear good things, just an older motor is all.

can come down to personal preference. just make sure you do your research and dont jump into anything too quickly.

have fun

  • 2 weeks later...
You have a point there "Mr. RH9".

BTW didn't you use to be Dirt Garage?

:D

To the OP, if you ask the CA18 enthusiast, CA18 = RB26 of the Silvia world.

1 tuff engine.

Having said that, I don't mind a SR20 either.

:D

15k on the engine or in total?

a rebuilt sr20 turbo with ve head would be insane.

i own a s14 (australia model) with a stockish sr20det

pros:

lots of bottom end torque

good response, great for the street

large aftermarket support, parts easy to find, good prices.

new compared to ca and fj

cons

not so great top end

stock internals not that strong

weak stock turbo

crappy australian ecu

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • Wife wanted basket things in the wardrobe in our temporary house. Thought about ripping our the wardrobe and fitting the entire IKEA set, but it's a temporary house and we want to move in a few years. So IKEA advertises this as a 50cm unit, however the actually basket and rails measure 46cm wide. Only issue was depth, IKEA stuff is quite deep, where as the builder special junk is super shallow at less than 40cm. Send it, chopped the rails, then offset the mounting holes, job done, happy wife, less shit scattered all over the bedroom. Did the same to the other side too. Also drove the Skyline shit box today, dropped off oil at Supercheap Auto. I didn't realise they only now take max 2x bottles per visit. I visited 2x Supercheap Autos.  
    • I've seen similar actually in my situation. You never know what tables are attempted to be used when the car thinks it's -99C or +200C. The fail state is not usually that extreme but you know what I mean - it was in my case though! This is where being able to read all the sensors is useful cause you see this stuff really quickly.
    • The above is very important. However as long as you keep timing relatively low, it's plausible to make your own knock ears and plausible to learn to tune with a modern ECU that can do wideband O2 correction like a boost controller. I mean if you only have one viable road to even drive the car on, learning to tinker to this level may be worth doing given you can't do much else with the car...?
    • I find the fact that the rear plate has to be bent inwards at the rear not so bad: but the front is just awful: It's like come on. (these are my very old, now retired/turned in plates) TBH it is a lot of money to fix a minor issue, the fact I said "I'll never really spend the money on doing this" is why people ended up buying them as a gift for a 'car guy' who can be hard to shop for.. for car guy things.
    • I just bent the ends of my premo plates. It even went through Regency like that after the engine conversion and the inspector (a great bloke!) just squinted his eyes and said "I didn't see that". Plates, and how they look, are just something that have zero importance to me.
×
×
  • Create New...