New Zealand Datsun Club

DJZ wrote:Where? I must be blind.

Christ I'm useless for getting that wrong, looked that familiar old bonnet shape and mirrors and made a huge dick of myself

I forgive you James, they do have a similar sort of look to a Z31. There's still a C32 for you to have a look at if you get a chance too.

Very nice 120y!
Not much of these here where i live and i have a 1200 sedan.I really like the colour

Is it a daily?looks tuff..

darrenwilson wrote:Very nice 120y!
Not much of these here where i live and i have a 1200 sedan.I really like the colour

Is it a daily?looks tuff..

Sort of a half daily - i have an R30 Skyline Wagon as the other half daily at the mo.

Bit of a down date on this - blew the head gasket and or cracked head a couple of months ago. Had a few far out plans for it but picked up a cheap enough CA18DE etc today, from Geymouth (what a road that is) - some great snow on the hills etc. Just want to get it all back up and running again

It has has a cambelt, rockercover gaskets and waterpump change 1000kms ago and came out of a rusty u11/12 came with a set of DET pistons and DET Sump, Loom, ECU, and a CA18ET 5 speed - CA71B casting etc - if anyone needs these bits let me know as mine already has it all.

Anyway ive not changed one from fwd to rwd but it looks like i can unbolt the two ends on the inlet manifold and turn them round - anyone had a go at it?

I finally got an exhaust manifold flange aswell that i can use too - as the factory ones have those two little ring type gaskets and I've always had issues with the custom one i had made.

Started removing all the dirty little water lines etc these engines have - then ill whip the old motor out and swap the majority of the other stuff over as most of that is new.

Want to tidy up the engine bay aswell while its out so probably wont be ready for akaroa - got the R30 to take thou.

good score, and yeah its a great drive, photos are beutiful, havnt done the manifold change myself, but have heard its do-able, be good to see this back on the road again, whats the plan for the old motor?

So I've got the motor and box out, much easier pulling it out as one, although I lost the $80 worth of redline gearbox. Oil all over the ground. Must remember to drain gearbox oil BEFORE removing engine. Pretty much got the new engine stripped in readiness for rwd manifolds etc. Picked up manifold gaskets from BNT today, Thanks Carl (2ic town branch) got mean deals.

One thing I've just noticed with the CA18 8 port engines (ones with the butterfly setup) is that the butterflys are open with no vacuum and shut when they get it making it suck harder through 4 ports. Is always thought is was the other way around. Has anyone run one without the diaphragm hooked up as that might be easier than trying to remove them, then retune.

yeah, they should be shut when you have high vacuum, such as idle and low load conditions, needing less air, so it closes half of the runners, making the air it does need, travel faster, increasing torque.
When you have your throttle wide open/have not much vacuum, you are under a higher engine load, therefore it opens up the butterflies to allow more air in.

I think thats how it works anyway.....you can just hook them straight up to a vacuum port, but they are meant to operate better when hooked up as per factory

There's a diagram of how they're supposed to work somewhere at the NIco foums. Maybe in the FAQ thread in the CA18 specific forums.

Ok so currently doing manifold swap as Dan (datsunboy) and I have already deleted all the waterlines etc from the RWD manifold and the FWD one is slightly different. Heaps of extra stuff going in the wrong direction etc.

Getting it all ready - well actually john had a young mate that wanted to see what "mechanic ing" was all about and with John's (broke) guidance he managed to get my old motor pretty much stripped - including box, flywheel and clutch off aswell as manifolds of the FWD one.

But going to bolt the engine mounts up the right side went on all sweet, then hello Jim the left hand side is not drilled or tapped in the block. The blankings are there though.

To repeat - FWD CA18DE'S FROM U11'S ARE NOT BOLT IN READY TO RWD APPLICATION.

So hopefully in the next week ill have them drilled and tapped and then throw it all back together.

Wrap a small cable tie around the drill bit very tightly, to act as a depth gauge to prevent drilling too deep.