Rhonda, The Longest 18det S12 Swap In The History Of The Club

I got this car back in late 01, early 02, my senior year. It did not run when I bought it. It was parked in our field by one of my dads friends...and I fell in love with the thing...dont know why. It belonged to one of my dads friends daughters. She had ran the car without oil and the first piston tossed the rod. I picked up a reman short block for the car, but we didnt have the head checked. The valves on cylinder one got messed up when the engine tossed the rod on number 1. And after driving on the reman 20e block for like 78 miles those valves decided to melt all over piston number 1. I then bought mystery 18det from a guy down in salem after I had parked the s12 under a tree for a couple of months. The 18det came from a mk2 jdm rsx. Many people at the time did not realize that the mk2 rsx had actually came with the 18det, so many people thought the engine was ff because it was non intercooled with a charge pipe crossing the valve cover like the 18et. Anyways...mods list time I guess;

20e centerfore dual friction clutch

cometic head gasket

stripped interior

custom harness bar

nismo ebay 4 pt harness

280sx shifter with nismo shift knob

Megan racing gauges including oil pressure, oil temp, boost.

Monsta Performance Dump Pipe

XS S13 Downpipe/test pipe

Starion FMIC

What is left to do;

I need a dropping resistor, arp head studs, misc hoses/nuts bolts, fmic piping, and the car needs to be wired. Then Exhaust work. Then, I will need to sort my suspension....anyways, here is some misc. pics












18det 1st gen block







1st gen 18det head (note the extra intake ports.)



2nd gen intake manifold

1st gen intake manifold







weeny t25







complete 1st gen 18det (20e in background.)

I was gonna ask if you had given up so I could get your shell.  lol

Now finish it

wow is that an actual s12 ca18det? since it has no stock intercooler?

I think it looks more badass like that.

You can tell that is the successor to the CA18ET.

So in the last 6 years you have driven your s12 a total of 78 miles? Haha.

Thats really cool that you have a authentic S12 CA18DET, those are pretty hard to come by.  Makes the car unique  and fast  with the right mods of course

Man I hope my swap doesn't start goin like this. That would suck. Finish it. Oh and nice 510.

Man I hope my swap doesn't start goin like this. That would suck. Finish it. Oh and nice 510.

the 510 is under a tarp...it has some front end damage that cant be seen....I forgot to mention i had dropped in another 20e for a short time after the reman crapped out...and i did drive the car for like 2 months or so, which included one autox where it wooped my brothers 86. Because of the way the 1st gen 18det head was I ended up going with the 2nd gen head. I forgot to mention the problems with the 1st gen head, and the fact that i didnt have a wiring harness for the thing. The 1st gen head has 8 intake runners instead of 4. Has a valve system on the intake that has butterflies in it, so it opens up and closes the intake at certain rpm. This sounds good, but I have been told that it doesnt take boost well. I also have pics of the engine in the car now...but photobucket was being retarded yesterday.

Colin, no, you cant have my shell. You would prolly sell it after putting a ka in it or something...lol.

I got my dropping resistor on wenesday, the day before thanksgiving. I got a pm from hillkill the day before on tuesday telling me he had sent it out...not sure how he got it to me in one day from cally on the day before thanksgiving...but wow, omfg. I also got a silicone coupler that I needed to go from my maf to my intake pipe. Next up, arp head studs and fmic piping. Then I got some wiring to do, and some fab work also...pics to come in a week or 4. I am hoping I can get dad to clean up the other bay in the shop here soon so I can push her in and get some work done. If not, I got a big pop up festival style tent i can set up and push her into...but the kind of winds we get down here can easily push it down...so i am kind of lax about going that route.

forgot to mention i still need to go into a junkyard and snag me some maxima fans...btw, if anyone in the northwest has a spare r180 let me know! I want to find a spare diff for me to have wielded.

I went to put my intake pipe on today and i found out with the coupler on it it is to long and my filter is up on my headlight lol. Now I need to get it cut down...so one more thing on the to do/to buy list which looks kind of like this....:

Intercooler Piping
N1 Muffler                      
arp head studs
heater core hoses
misc water hoses
valve cover screws that came up missing
diodes for my stock tach
i need to have my downpipe flange cut then reclocked to match my dump pipe
my bolts, nuts, washers, and two L bends for holding up my fmic
need a bracket made to attach my seat to my stock sliders

Next two things i am going to buy are my arp head studs and fmic piping...then i can bang out the smaller stuff and hopefully make room to get some work done on the thing...

UPDATES

good job

Resurrected!

Amazing to see that engine.

No coil-on-plug!  Is that correct or modified at some point?

I wonder if that upper intake mani is the same as USDM fwd CA16/18DE?

Very strange port design.  Different from JDM S13 8 port CA18DET.

Now I wonder if fwd CA16/18DE has the same strange 8 port.

Power steer pump on passenger side?

Very cool stuff.

IMO no FMIC here.  Play to the strength of the short intake path and use water injection to cool the charge instead.  Would b a shame to lose the fast spooling by installing a FMIC.  FMIC ugly with side facing mani anyways.

The strange port design and intake mani over the valve cover is the actual 1st gen, CA18det non-intercooled. They fixed this in the S13 with the front TB mounted style(like my motor) and the 8 ports are all the same size. The Euro 4port head is also similar to mine, except the injectors are centered, the butterflies are removed, and the ports are well.. fused together from 8 ports to 4.

theres a fairly simple mod you can do involving normal plug wires and GM coilpacks to solve that infamous ca18det coilpack issue we experence.

http://www.nicoclub.com/articles.php?id=251827

julie
theres a fairly simple mod you can do involving normal plug wires and GM coilpacks to solve that infamous ca18det coilpack issue we experence.

http://www.nicoclub.com/articles.php?id=251827

Love that mod.  Wanna do it badly.  Moddin the ecu is tha part that scares me.  Anyone have insight into whats up with that?

Silver hatch FTW!!! forgot to say that before lol

Xano
This single post needs stickied in the CA18DET tech section if its not already.

IggyEGuana Resurrected!

Amazing to see that engine.

No coil-on-plug! Is that correct or modified at some point?

I wonder if that upper intake mani is the same as USDM fwd CA16/18DE?

Very strange port design. Different from JDM S13 8 port CA18DET.

Now I wonder if fwd CA16/18DE has the same strange 8 port.

Power steer pump on passenger side?

Very cool stuff.

IMO no FMIC here. Play to the strength of the short intake path and use water injection to cool the charge instead. Would b a shame to lose the fast spooling by installing a FMIC. FMIC ugly with side facing mani anyways.