Looking for info on building a Ca engine to replace the A series on my 1k.

Reason being:

-They ca16,18 lighterthan L series at 113kg

-pre-86 dont need catalyc converters and other bits.

-Were available from nissan since 1979 in carb form and later E.F.I. Twin carb possible.

-5 speeds are everywhere for them.

-Beefy Electronic Dizzy in the right place on SOCH head which is better than the e15 dizzy on rear.

-They are crossflow with a better design than the Naps-Z? (can anyone confirm?)

-A twin cam head is available from ca18de. Therefore very versatile for later upgrade.
Cheaper than LZ conversion!!! althought not as wild as LZ head de heads have good hp.

-Higher performance inlet cam from ca16de fits on twin cam ca18de.

-2mm larger exhaust valves gives 23% better flow overall as stated on nissanforums.

-Steve Newings is making 241hp out of his stroker version a ca18 at 1998cc @8100.

-Ca20 blocks are everywhere.
Although taller (maybe) deck height maybe can be decked. Using ca18det rods and maybe off the shelf pistons (anyone confirm)

-Some if not all Ca20 have a steel crank but crap rods therefore best to use ca16,18 Turbo ones. (can anyone confirm)

-280zx geabox with tall 1,2 short 3,4 and tall overdrive ratios can fit with bellhousing change using 9/79-84 boxes.

-Came in many cars: Pintara, gazelles and s3 bluebirds.

-Anyone know the Ca history or what earlier engine if offshoots from (eg. g18 = z18)

Hey D there is a CA20 carb model in my back yard, with a 5 speed box, its got a crook head nd one of the plugs holes needs to be welded, its urs for what eva is reasonable.

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be VERY wary of this info. a CA isn't a CA in this case. you would be wise to take a measuring tape along to the wreckers with your block dims and measure it up yourself.

there's a reason why you very rarely ever SEE a complete and running engine like this and i'm pretty sure it has to do with oil and water gallery positions.

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actually the exhaust and inlet cams from the CA16DE are more aggressive than the CA18. you don't need any 'high performance grind'.

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true. all CA20s have steel cranks but as you said the rods might as well be made of buckshot. Your best bet would be a shotpeened / polished L20 crank and rods with a small amount of machining (i think) to take the bigger counterweights. i have no experience with this but from what i have heard from reliable sources this works very well.

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i doubt it very much. the NAPS heads are really very good, but the factory manifolding that people use with the NAPS heads make them flow poorly as a combo.

CA20s are a very underrated plugger IMO, but you need to look toward the L series cranks and rods, aftermarket bearings (the factory ones are white metal ) and the crossflow head makes for good useable power if you ditch everything that came from nissan on the inlet side of the engine and replace it with something custom (that INCLUDES the inlet manifold and pollution gear).

CA18ETs were a SOHC design as well, if a little old, and came in the japanese S12 / gazelle. parts 'should be' interchangeable, but again, a tape measure will confirm or deny anything.

good luck. sounds like a cool little project

Woodydat thanx for the offer I will seriously consider it for the block and 5 speed. As soon as I work out which way Im heading SOCH or DOCH cause....

Pro-240c thanks for that and just found
Just found an awesome site!!!!

http://www.gaskets.com.tw/data/pdf-catalog/takoma-nissan-01.pdf

it shows clearly the head gaskets of every engine ever made by nissan and others. It shows that the SOCH has more water galleries than the DOCH!!!!!!
Maybe they worked out that the xtra galleries werent needed. Which would mean the SOCH block has more boost potential if setup the same as a DOCH one.

So I can only use the steel crank from the ca20 then on a ca18de block which means Ill never register it with carbs.
The other option is to use the ca20 block and crank and use the ca18det rods and some other pistons.

As for naps z its supposed to be a pollution motor never made for performance and the water galleries dont allow any big porting but they work with turbos to overcome this.
In fully worked NA form an L will juice it.

http://www.geocities.com/zgarage2001/engine.html

http://www.autospeed.com/cms/A_2092/article.html

This last link show the ca engine was considered for the next nissan engine more than the sr20. Some CA where die pressure cast in alloy!!! imagine finding these babies!!! Feral and Steve Newing would be interested Im sure! The only problem was they made 2-3 decibels more in full song! so what! that means we all miss out on all alloy ca engines with further developed narrow angle twin cam heads to suit our possible ca18 conversions in the futue....

Now if I followed the path of ca20 with ca18de rods I need to find pistons for the bigger bore and journals sizes. Also if a L crank fits the ca20 then Id rather a stroker z24 or ka24 cranks and get the capacity straight off right? Where did you read about the L crank and rods conversion?....

Check this out....!!!!

http://www.antrx.com/smf/index.php?topic=3698.msg71191#msg71191

This guy "fraz" has almost solved the ca20 twin cam setup just look at the pics and hes posts its a beautiful work in progress.

those 2.4l strokers you're talking of are really at their limit as far as NA engines go. you might get a longer stroke but the bore sizes are so large - and the meat between them so thin - that a few milliseconds of detonation is all that's needed to end up with a cracked / warped block. at 7000rpm+, that's a recipe for "speed holes" in your bonnet.
a safer bet would be to use the Z24 crank but not bore it out as much, say only 80thou instead of 120thou, and "make do" with 2.2L. remember the Z24 crank needs block machining to make fit in an L series, so chances are you're heading into R&D territory with the CA20 block. you may also want to look at the other Z series cranks available.

i see what you're saying about the water galleries. nice find there too. maybe (if they're not interconnected) you could plug and weld the galleries and have the face machined flat to match the block...?

it's certainly not impossible but a little research will save a lot of headache later on.

what about using the Z24 block? are they similiar to the L20 or the CA20 blocks? cause you can always remove the numbers and use the 2L numbers. if the head will fit the Z24 block?

proably not the most legal thing to do but. it has been done many a time

that brings up the original issue with the L series block that D was worried about - weight.

Z24 blocks are iron and weigh more than the L series blocks which weigh more then the CA blocks (maybe it's all them water galleries that make them so light...?).

if you're using a Z24 crank i think you'll need KA24 pistons - that's the case when using the LD28 crank and rods in an L28 block anyways coz the KA pistons are nice and shallow.

Its a good point about over boring I was mainly thinking of keeping the 84.5 or even going no more than 85mm bore but really 2ltrs would be fine really to keep it budget.
The link with "fraz" ca20 twin cam he has somehow solved the problem so Ill contact him to see what the story is.

I found another link TOMEI have the crank for the ca18 to ca20 capacity kit with pistons and other bits
http://www.ooparts-international.co.jp/index/car/listbybrand/tomei/engine_kit/
Its quite pricey though if they are using the ca20 steel crank as it shows no stroke difference.
The L series is already indestructable hence its extra weight. So is the Z and KA equating to great big turbo candidates. The CA so far seems the NA budget buildup.

so what do you plan to do exactly?

use the CA18 crank and rods in the CA20 block with a CA18 head?

or use a CA20 block and head with an L series crank and rods?

coz the first one seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to, when all you'd need to do is bore out a CA18 to get just under 2.0L anyway.