New motor

VC come pick me up when it's run in. It may help me make up my mind!

Hanco I think if money was no object then all of us would be running a RB25.
The option is quite appealing to me too. Even considering the initial outlay (R14k) excl mounts, EMS, etc. But lets face it, it's a bit pricey all in one go. And if something went wrong or it was a bad motor from the start, then the costs will get high very quickly.

I'm surprised that there is so little support for the RB20DET. In that link Riekert posted you can see a front clip of one. The Silver top marked Z32 GTS.

I've now been offered the RB20DET for R4k. Does that change anything?

AFAIK the rb20det uses the exact same gearbox as the ca18det. so then your outlay will be cheaper!

Doctor G wrote:

VC come pick me up when it's run in. It may help me make up my mind!

Hanco I think if money was no object then all of us would be running a RB25.
The option is quite appealing to me too. Even considering the initial outlay (R14k) excl mounts, EMS, etc. But lets face it, it's a bit pricey all in one go. And if something went wrong or it was a bad motor from the start, then the costs will get high very quickly.

I'm surprised that there is so little support for the RB20DET. In that link Riekert posted you can see a front clip of one. The Silver top marked Z32 GTS.

I've now been offered the RB20DET for R4k. Does that change anything?

I dont think the RB20 is a bad motor at all! Just when it comes to power to $ ratio....its not the best out there!

Once again, what you wanna do with the car will decide the outcome of the your choice.

Come to think of it now, the price diff between SR20 and RB25 aren't that huge. And the RB25 can fit on your CA box with the correct bellhousing where as the SR20 can't...

That might also swing your vote!

VC you sure about that? Cause yeah that may sway me definitely.

Hanco, how much will a custom bell housing cost? And won't the RB25 rip my CA box in half the first time I boost it 😮

Oh yeah how is the RB25 on fuel consumption? For everyday use?

Now once you brought the everyday use up that changes everything.

That means you want something more economical. Any straight six would chow more juice than a 4 cylinder.

And as for the gearbox thing....then why does the guys running high powered CA18's dont rip theirs apart, and then why would the RB20DET use the same box? I think thats safe to say that the CA boxes are strong enough for a stock RB.

HancoB wrote:

And the RB25 can fit on your CA box with the correct bellhousing where as the SR20 can't...

SR and CA gearboxes are exactly the same appart from their bellhousings.

So an SR or CA gearbox will work if you get a bellhousing off a Skyline 2.0 or 3.0 SGLi (RB20E and RB30E)

Sokar wrote:

HancoB wrote:

And the RB25 can fit on your CA box with the correct bellhousing where as the SR20 can't...

SR and CA gearboxes are exactly the same appart from their bellhousings.

So an SR or CA gearbox will work if you get a bellhousing off a Skyline 2.0 or 3.0 SGLi (RB20E and RB30E)

Well there you go. That even fits. 😉

interesting.

I thought about it now over lunch. Yes the RB motor isn't much more expensive than a SR20DET, depending where you buy, the SR could even be more expensive!!

But, did some reading now, and there will just be too many things to change to make the RB25 work for me. Cutting away part of the hood support, engine sitting too high and too far forward (and thats WITH a skyline cross member!) and stuff like that, I don't really have time for now. Pity, cause like we established now, it's probably the best bang for buck swap.

Looks like the SR is leading....

Talk to the guys who have done a RB swop in a s13. They might give you better info on all the mods needed.

I don't see the SR as a big upgrade from a CA, rather go for a v8 if you want to be different from the norm.

Why not stick with CA18??

Gary57 wrote:

Why not stick with CA18??

Yeah then Id rather stick to CA.

You have it all in, just start modding the crap out of it.

Thats something different. everyone is doing SR20...getting boring now.

A UBER hot CA should look quite JDM hay!

Gary57 wrote:

Why not stick with CA18??

We discussed rebuilding the CA not too long ago on this forum. I remember the figure for a stock rebuild to be around R10k. And for a built motor the figure goes to R20k easily. That's without upgrading the cams, turbo, turbo mani etc.

If I have to spend around R20k, I want to have a lot more performance and reliability.

And although there isn't much wrong with my current setup, attempting to squeze the kind of hp out of it that I want, without opening it up and at least refreshing it will be asking for trouble.

What can be done to the CA to give the low end, pre-boost performance I want, and still give me at least 220wkw up top? I'm thinking bump the CR to around 9.5:1, with a GT2871R turbo, cams, headwork etc etc. built bottom end, and then Water Meth injection to compensate for the high CR?

Lastly, how expensive will a supercharger/turbo conversion be? That's bound to take care of low end boost issues, but may be pricey. I've only seen 1 or 2 attempts at that on the net, and may be too complicated for my liking.

not so much difference between the ca and the sr????

its like night and day.

sr is a similar price to the ca, but...

the sr has more power, more torque, is cheaper to rebuild, is easy as pie to mod and find AM parts for, and the engine has many different parts that are swappable from the FWD sentra/sabre sr20's.

also compared to the other motors (RB) it just drops into place with no cutting, welding or any other type of fabrication.

its actually an easy choice IMO!

ditto

The CA has a cast iron block plus its cams act directly so the valves so it likes so rev more.

The CA was only replaced with the SR because the CA was too expensive to produce.

Not knocking the SR, its a really great engine but there is nothing wrong with the CA. I love mine 🙂

Trance101 wrote:

The CA has a cast iron block plus its cams act directly so the valves so it likes so rev more.

The CA was only replaced with the SR because the CA was too expensive to produce.

Not knocking the SR, its a really great engine but there is nothing wrong with the CA. I love mine 🙂

Yeah the CA isn't a bad motor. Had 2 N/A ones that I loved to bits.

But how do I get a reliable 220-250wkw out of the CA18DET and still have decent off-boost drivability? I don't want a very peaky powercurve. Any big turbo will make a lot of peak power on just about any motor. More interested in a fast, drivable setup.

Busy with my RB25 swop in my S14 at the moment ,It just seemed logical to me to rather then opening up a SR for decent power ,A stock RB is 180 wkw ,Upgrade the bolt on bits and you looking at 250-260 wkw easy 😀 ,BIG but,The outlay has been very expensive for me as i had to start from scratch and i am having someone doing it for me ,PM me if you interested in knowing how much 😮 I dont know if this helps as i have a S14 but just my 2C

I'm doing a SR20 on my S13 now, and I went the expensive route! Everything has been done for me. I bought the motor and gearbox for R7000-00 (Slant top S14 VVT). Only mods - Brian Crower Cams with vernier pulleys, FMIC (huge one), 5 puk button clutch, Walbro fuel pump, Fuel pressure regulator, Ali radiator, Induction kit, still my old 63mm exhaust, BOV (greddy type) and stock ECU, boost controller, 0.9bar boost. Car will be making round 215kw and 390nm torque on the flywheel.

Now all this motor included adds up to about R20 000. And that is a fast reliable motor for R20 000! That aint a bad price! Some may not agree, but getting a CA18 to that level with R20 000 is possible. But thats is almost the edge on the CA18.

If I slap a management system on t\with a decent turbo and manifold with injectors and exhaust I would kick half the cars asses at any event!

But that would cost you another R20 000. So it depens on what you want!

Mario you got your motor and box for a steal!! Where did you buy it?