I will say, one of the very few advantages the CA has over an SR/RB is the fact that there were quite a few variations of the CA in America, and while the CA18det was not one of them, it did use quite a few of the same pieces that the American CA18et and CA20de used. This makes find minimal maintenance parts a lot easier to find at Discount/Auto Zone.

Other than that, the CA18det seems to have a common gremlin of hesitating under heavy throttle right before boost. It seems to be cause by something different for everyone, and I have never seen a "silver bullet" type cure.

And, like others have pointed out, they are older, so replacing seals, gaskets, pumps etc. is ALWAYS a good idea. But that stuff that some people would recommend doing on any swap just to make sure its a fresh, clean, reliable one. That and the previously mentioned power argument.

 

I know, and I MAY not end up doing it afterall. I mean, who knows? I guess it's gonna be a wait-and see-kinda thing.

 

ca20e, i dont know of any ca20de...(google confirms lol)

 

^^^ i 100% agree

parts for the ca will be more common then other swaps esp a ka... ka parts are very common ka's are almost like a backyard motor everyone seems to have one laying around or in a junkyard.. as for the sr20det there are parts that are common in the usa for them such as sparkplugs, and u can use the american sr20de wich is the N/a sr20 motor you find in an older sentra se-r and i think the nissan NX has an sr20de in them as well... FWD N/A ofcourse but alot of the parts are universal between the two...

some other swaps like the vq35 or the ls1 or sbc swaps or 1js parts are also common for parts in the usa but the swap will do more of a hurt to your wallet compared to an sr20det... the sr20 motor is known for "the best bang for your buck" swap wise..you get good power and a huge platform to build off to get power for a decent price.. you can get an s13 sr and slap an s15 turno on it and gain alot of power. and if you go along the lines of doing bigger injectors and tune and such you can get around 300+ hp but like you said on the first page "i want to do what i want to do ya know what im saying" i agree do what you want... but if you are really wanting to go for something with good power or a good platform to build on for a small price id go KA24DE or SR20det and either just turbo the ka along the line...

 

i personally like CAs...but its def not "different" if you REALLLLY want to be different...save your pennies and find a FJ20det...

 

I know, I just wish I could make it a not so bad choice.. Maybe I shouldn't go with it, but I'm not gonna give up on it yet. I have to research it and then make the decision.

 

i think a cool built would be a NA motor like a na sr build i know a ka n/a build i think it had like 11:1 or 18:1 im not sure wich it was but it didnt get much power but it was still sick becuase its differant everyone just wants to turbo shit lol turbo this turbo that its cool id i had the money id deff swap an ls1 or do a sbc 350 my friend lee just finished his SBC swap its a fucking beast the car has soo much power 300 with stock shit but its alot of fabercation work becuase we pushed the motor back into the fire wall becuase of the power to weight ... 350 blocks are not much heavyer then a ka wich is odd lol but they are not much he spend 2000 on his whole swap thats with custom headders and 1pc drive shaft if anyone is interested here is a pic of the swap its an older pic its all that i have but its an sbc chevy 350 in an s13coupe if you wana see more pics go to DDK (DAMN DRIFT KIDS) 2009!!!! (DDk DDk) | MySpace.com and look for lee kremmibien in the pics section

 

^^ i agree just do alot of homework and find the right platform for you... ive had a 240 for 3 years and i started out not knowing shit and i still dont know alot becuase there is soo much to know about these cars its not even funny

 

Well, I'm just gonna have to keep researching it more, but I want to thank all of you for all your valuable time.

 

Don't get a CA to be different. CA's are cool, but with all the maintenance you're going to have to do on a 20+ year old motor, it WILL cost more than an SR, and it WON'T make as much power unless you put a lot of money into it.

My old CA was pretty cool... but I don't think I'd do it again. The SR in my S14 was way more fun, for way less $. And finding aftermarket CA parts is nearly impossible.



Frank, it's an FJ20ET. Nissan misnamed the twin cam FJ's for some reason... or maybe it predated the "D" twin cam denomination...