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CA18DE head to CA20 Block

11K views 12 replies 2 participants last post by  Gsolo 
#1 ·
I've heard that you can mate a CA20 block with a ca16/8DE head. What would you need to do this? i have the computer for the ca18de witch I assume will help alot.
 
#2 ·
Sixways said:
I've heard that you can mate a CA20 block with a ca16/8DE head. What would you need to do this? i have the computer for the ca18de witch I assume will help alot.
use the search button, this topic has been extensively discussed. in summary though, you can put 18de head on 20e block, but you have to either a) shave the block which puts you back to a 1.8liter or b) custom timing belt
 
#3 ·
I did look around a bit but I couldn't find anything dinitive. I heard some people say that you can shave the block and use the ca18 rods and you'll still have the same desplacement. I don't know the specs on the ca20 block but it would seem that if the boer was bigger and the crank still had a longer storke that it'd be a bigger motor? I've also herd that you can use the stoke timing blet but it will retard or afvance your timing a bit.
 
#4 ·
Sixways said:
I did look around a bit but I couldn't find anything dinitive. I heard some people say that you can shave the block and use the ca18 rods and you'll still have the same desplacement. I don't know the specs on the ca20 block but it would seem that if the boer was bigger and the crank still had a longer storke that it'd be a bigger motor? I've also herd that you can use the stoke timing blet but it will retard or afvance your timing a bit.
yes, if you shave the 20 block you'd still have a bigger bore...but why go through the trouble? just bore out a 18 for the same effect. And i suppose some of our old threads about CA20DE could have "disapeared" cause they're kinda old by now. The stock timing belt won't work cause the 2 liter was single overhead cam as opposed to the dohc have two cams..obviously. So the 2 liter belt isn't long enough for that, and the ca18 had shorter block so that timing belt is a hair short. And the 2 liter didn't have the idler pulley which you'd want to have. You can tap the block though for the idler. And for the belt you just have to find something thats the right size....i've never researched the belt, that was something i was going to do when i got to it.


Anyhow, major idea is that you can use the 2 liter block and bottom end, just add the 1.8 liters crank girdle. Stock con rods woudl be ok up to a point, i'd say for safety anything much more than 250hp you'd want custom conecting rods....and for pistons you'd probably have to get custom because you want to leave the comp ratio low for a turbo....unless you're going n/a then stock woudl be fine. The 1.8dohc head fits on the 20 block no prob except for different stud sizes which can be taken care of no problem. Then of course as explained the cam belt is the hardest ordeal.

Or...you can bore a 1.8 block and get a stroker crank with short con rods and you can get somewhere around 2 liter.

whatever you do, a CA20DET would easily out do the SR20DET ....of course i'm a little bias
 
#5 ·
Wow, I sounded retarded in that last post. oh well that's what i get for not sleeping lol. Anyways, would it be worth the time to shave it enough to get the dohc belt to fit?
 
#6 ·
I dont' really think that a CA20det would out run a SR20det. It'd be close, but sence the aftermarket parts companys have embrased the SR20 it would be easyer to find high quality parts and in the end produce more power. Why dosn't anyone make cams for the CA**DE's?
 
#7 ·
Sixways said:
Wow, I sounded retarded in that last post. oh well that's what i get for not sleeping lol. Anyways, would it be worth the time to shave it enough to get the dohc belt to fit?
shaving the block would bring you back down the the 1.8 liter stroke, unless you used the 2 liter crank with a short con rod. You'd still get the benefits, but getting a conrod could be hard for that. If you can do it great, theres nothign wrong with it :D

And i said that a CA20DET could outrun a SR20DET cause it's true. But yes you're right there is no support for the CA engines. I've been playing around though with my desktop dyno and a CA20DET with ported head and custom grind cam with only 10 psi boost and a good intercooler would estimate 435hp at 10000rpm (yikes!!) but at 8500 rpm its only making 434 hp :D Peak torque 306ft-lbs at 6000rpm, but still has low grunt making 122ft-lbs at 2000rpm. Thats only with 10 psi!! do some custom (expensive) internals to handle more boost...20psi...587hp at 7500 rpm and 411ft-lbs at 7500rpm. Only odd thing is it makes the same ft-lbs at 2000rpm regardless of boost, could be the program making up for a little lag??

As to the accuracy of a program like this??? I believe 500hp is very easy with 20psi. And I think we all know you could prolly still build up more boost or better porting, maybe bigger valves....and the turbo used for the numbers is just a Rajay 300B. They don't have modern turbos for some reason :(

anyhow....i'm done going off a little here. If you do want 500hp though for cheap, then go with sr20det. I'll stick to my love of the 80's
 
#8 ·
At 10,000 rpm? I don't think that the motor would support that kind of rev limit, esecaly under boost. What makes the ca18 make more power? It just dosn't make sence that it would have a better power capacity but not still be in production.
 
#9 ·
Sixways said:
At 10,000 rpm? I don't think that the motor would support that kind of rev limit, esecaly under boost. What makes the ca18 make more power? It just dosn't make sence that it would have a better power capacity but not still be in production.
i didn't like 10000 either....i kept playing around for a few hours on cam profile and got peak horse down between 7500 - 8000 with 10 and 20 psi.

the CA design gave more torque than the SR20 and it revved up QUICKER....not higher but quicker. nissan dropped it cause it was heavy and they didn't think they coudl improve on it. Not to mention honda had their 2 liter doing good, toyota had a 1.6 doing very good....nissan felt they needed a 2 liter with good horsepower. Since they never made the CA20 a dohc, they just made a new engine with some better qualities. SR20 to begin with is a stronger built motor, but doesn't make shit for torque. I strongly believe if nissan had kept developement on the CA20 they coudl have come out with awesome head designs and had jsut as good of engine.

And a lot of engine go by that have good power possibilities but aren't used anymore.....and actually i'm not sure if the SR20 is used anymore, at least in the states. Look at what happened to the VG30. Even the MA09ERT :D
 
#10 ·
i don't much care for the head design. Just the way they set up the valves with the cam straigt on top it sorta wierd. How do you adjust the vale lash? It's just weird to me, I like the honda design more. Too dab i don't have an ass load of money, I'd make a CA20DE with a 12000rpm red line and 500lt-lbs :D It'd slay any honda or Volkwagon :)
the se-r might have an SR but I don't think so.
 
#11 ·
Sixways said:
i don't much care for the head design. Just the way they set up the valves with the cam straigt on top it sorta wierd. How do you adjust the vale lash? It's just weird to me, I like the honda design more. Too dab i don't have an ass load of money, I'd make a CA20DE with a 12000rpm red line and 500lt-lbs :D It'd slay any honda or Volkwagon :)
the se-r might have an SR but I don't think so.
the new se-r 's have the 2.5 which is weak trust me. I've driven a few se-r's and spec v's ...they didn't impress me much. The Altima SE-R on the other hand!!

And i'm not sure about valve lash on the ca engine, i never had to do it. I imagine it'd be damn near the same idea as the E16 though....
 
#12 ·
Ok so what are the options for making a biger CA? We should make a list of the different combos.

There's the way scorpile at nissanexa.com did his.
He used a CA18(sohc) block and bored it out, and a CA16de head that was shaved 1mm. for internals he used CA20 pistons with CA18 crank and rods.

CA16DE: 78mm/83.6mm
CA18DE: 83mm/83.6mm
CA20E: 84.5mm/88mm
ca20 block/CA20 crank = 2055cc
CA20 block/CA18 crank = 2019cc
CA20 Block/CA16 Crank = 1897cc

Option #1:
I think if you used all the CA20 compents, you would need to use shorter rods so you can shave the block to get the timing belt to fit right. youd have the same bore and stroke so the cc's shouldn't change.

Option #2:
Use the CA20 block with the CA18 crank and rods with CA20 pistons. You'd lose a little bit of the stroke but you'd still have a pretty big motor.

Any idea's about these setups?

I wish I had more detailed information about these motors, like how long the rods are, the distance from the top of the crank to the head, and just how much needs to come off of the CA20 block for the head to fit right. Dose anyone have this info?
 
#13 ·
i wouldn't like the idea of using the ca16 head....but the rest of that idea sounds good. And using a shorter rod would be perfect. I think just boring the 18 block and using the 2 liter crank would be best though the more i think about it. And somewhere on the forums here is the size of the 2 liter deck. I'm not sure what size rods would be needed for the idea though.

Your second option you listed is a good idea, but would be a high rpm motor cause you're losing little over 4 mm of stroke.

If the 1.8 block can be safely bored to 84.5 and the 88 stroke crank is used then i suppose you could have a very good setup. use the 1.8 rods with 2.0 pistons. only thing...i'm trying to remember if the crank bearings were the same size....damn, i left all my notes back home in washington of course :( i'll try searching the forums again tonight and find some of my old threads.
 
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