CA18DET Rebuild or engine swap?

[tctommy]

CA18DET Rebuild or engine swap?

Hi All, 

Recently my current CA18DET just blew up (cracked piston rings) and overheated.

Ive got a spare engine lying around with unconfirmed kms (obtained from a previous purchase).

My question is what would be the best path for just getting the car going again (and reliably).

Should I refurbish the engine back to OEM? or just bolt her up with a new head gasket?

Also, if anyone knows who is decent with CA's in Brissy, let me know.

 

Cheers

[No Crust Racing]

As one of the rare people still using a CA, you should give it all to me. 

• What is this car? daily? track? drift? 
• What do you want to do with this car? 
• What power do you want from this car? 
• What's your budget? 

If you have a spare bottom end, you could easily get it inspected by an an engine builder to assess condition. Then make a call about whether you can just slap a head gasket on it, all your old shit and go for gold. 

If it's a track car/you have a decent budget, then you have lots more options (and should do certain things). 

In stock tune, they do not "just blow up" and crack rings. Mine has done 146ks on a stock bottom end and is still being abused on the track with a mild 200rwkw setup. They are strong motors for the age/design. I did replace a head gasket, but that was due to my dodgy tuning learning adventure. 

Find the root cause, if it was heat related then you might have a fuel delivery issue leaning it out or an overboost issue leaning it out. 

Stock ECU? Stock turbo? Lots of questions. 

[hypergear]

 CAs are pretty cool little nugget. I rebuilt mine in 09, it made 314rwkws on Pump 98 fuel using an old ATR43G4 turbo internally gated.

 

And I sponsored a drive whom also had a built CA18det that made 344rwkws on P100 fuel using the same turbo externally gated.

 

 

[No Crust Racing]

Where is it now?

[hypergear]

 

3 minutes ago, ActionDan said:

Where is it now?

Its been sold a while ago. But it did leave with some pretty of cool video footages at Winton.

 

[tctommy]

Lovely numbers I must say

I've decided to go a fully forged bottom end. Keeping the s15 turbo for now. Targets should be around 300hp at break in and after 400+

We figured out after a bit of looking that it was a boost spike that blew the piston rings. 

[No Crust Racing]

I think you'll struggle to make 300rwhp on a GT2560 without some reasonable cams and even then I'm not sure.

You could try running it at 20psi+ to get there, but don't expect turbo to live long.

I run the same turbo and they are pretty much out of puff by 16-18psi max. Check the comp maps.

[tctommy]

Yeah I'd agree, at the end of the day its just a number. My main goal is a well balanced and responsive engine. 

Long term a set of good cams, injectors and a decent turbo should do the trick, maybe even an ATR43G4, who knows. 

[No Crust Racing]

I will subside to your build thread

[R_34]

Plenty of guys (well less and less in fact) here in France runs the CA18 with a gt2560r and the max reliable boost is about 18psi, anything beyond that and the turbo is just breathing hot air up top. Bloody good turbo for smallish/slowish track but it runs out of puff quickly. I agree that you'll not see 300whp with this turbo unless in kill mode, 280whp is more what it can make.

Cheap way for the cam is installing an exhaust cam at the intake to get a bit more lift or a CA16DE intake cam to get a bit more lift and duration. But to be honest don't bother, there is more to be gained with other breathing mode and a smart turbo choice than slapping cams on it.

A mate is using a GT3071 (not sure is it's the cropped 56.5 turbine or the 60mm one) internally gated on his stockish CA. The only upgraded internal parts are metal headgasket and ARP rod bolts. He was running 24 psi (E85) for years (mainly on track) and the oil pump let go last year.