Nissan CA18 troubleshooting

[anthonemorris]

So I'm hoping in checking the 2 coils that this car carries that somehow I get it to start and run as intended. If aftermarket coils do the trick then I should see slight hp improvement as well.

 

[anthonemorris]

Mechanic and I have the same thoughts. Between today and Wednesday I should know if the coils are good or not as we both suspected the coils although they making spark it may not be strong enough to carry the engine anymore. Is so a couple good aftermarket coils are in order. His electrician should pass either today to tomorrow to confirm.

 

[anthonemorris]

So no luck with our diagnosis. Coils are in good condition. Fuel pressure good. Spark very good. Engine tumbles. Timing good. But somehow there is no fuel ending up in the combustion chamber. Any reason why besides the injector timing?

 

[nirtime]

Nissan CA18 woes

Possibly a very clogged fuel filter, no power to the relay or issues with the pump perharps.

 

[anthonemorris]

Re: Nissan CA18 woes

New pump, filters. Changed fuses and relays when I got the car.

 

[anthonemorris]

Re: Nissan CA18 woes

Also an electrician just ran through the car on Friday. Everything was checked

 

[nirtime]

Re: Nissan CA18 woes

Seems like a difficult one to diagnose there

 

[anthonemorris]

Haven't posted in a while. Have started to go into the car myself. Found the ecu but haven't taken it out yet. When some more progress is made I'll let you guys know

 

[nirtime]

Nissan CA18 woes

Looking forward to the updates.

 

[anthonemorris]

So my options to get my car on the road are as follows

Ca16 engine complete (can keep my current setup)

A replacement Ca18i with harness and ecu

Sr18/20 with cable type gearbox or hydraulic manual conversion

Qg18 complete with hydraulic manual conversion

OR

Full auto conversion for any of the above

 

[nirtime]

Re: Nissan CA18 woes

Personally I'd go SR20VE or VET on a u12. Its a car with a lot of potential.

 

[grimreaper009]

Re: Nissan CA18 woes

lol i cant see you going auto in that car at all....the sr20 would be nice

 

[anthonemorris]

Still digging inside the car and found a consult port in the dash behind the kick panel. That means of can read and write to my ecu, which means I just need to get someone with a consult tool to scan the car and see what values are wrong and hopefully we can get it sorted without a swap. The hunt for a cheap diagnosis is on

 

[anthonemorris]

Re: Nissan CA18 woes

so far all I can do is wait. want to try a few things. first i want to change my plug wires to something rated for the engine as the wires on th car are for the 180b (as i saw on the box). next thing i will try is a fresh set of v-power ngk plugs (proper spec plugs btw). going to get a charged battery and see if it will crank over at my hands.

if that doesn't work then i'm considering a ga16de swap which would put me back up and running in the shortest space of time.

 

[anthonemorris]

Okay so I've some good news and bad news.

Good news is that the car starts now and can idle.
Bad news is that the car is backfiring and cuts off when rpm is raised.
Almost everywhere that I look for information says timing (improper firing order) and the fact that it's doing so out the intake means that it definitely is that. As the intake valve is still open when the spark plugs ignite it goes straight up and out the inlet and the car cuts off.

Will try to find documentation on the proper firing order of the cylinders both on intake and exhaust side and see what happens.

 

[nirtime]

Nissan CA18 woes

Good headway there! Quite a break through.

 

[anthonemorris]

So I've started to do some cleaning up as the car is still down. Started working on the cooling system. Changing hoses and actually doing what I paid for with the civic. Just hoping that it's not as bad seeing that I've had no leaks and currently have a bone dry block. Should be fun. My only issue would be in taking down the intake manifold as the throttle body is a simple removal and installation. Will post on how it goes

 

[anthonemorris]

So on doing a bit of research on variants of the engine (ca20 to be exact), I found quite an interesting explanation for why my car is "spitting". The firing order is 1-3-4-2. On the distributor cap the order is labelled as such so basically as the 1 cylinder is nearest the drive belts you would put it in the shown order. What this guy did amazed me as he switched to a 1-2-3-4 order instead and got a proper idle, start, and rev range. Has me thinking that the aftermarket parts are mislabelled. Will go deeper when I try on my own car

 

[nirtime]

It could very well be a mislabelled aftermarket part. Ive experienced that a lot in doing auto electrical for mods.

 

[anthonemorris]

ok guys so the best news yet. got the car started!!!

it was the wrong firing order but it started nonetheless. the 1-2-3-4 order worked out well. the thing i did was mirror the order on the exhaust side for it to start properly. now i'm going to put it in the right order and mirror it on the exhaust side (regardless of what the cap says) and see what can happen there.