Charlotte's CA18DET Datsun 1600

Update 12th December 2002

First some pics of the interior hoodlining and trim, and my 2 current datto's together;

Hoodliner completed!		Detail of rear trim.

The datto has been running beautifully since the last update and we have been doing a few things on the 'to-do' list as well. Some of these things have included:

• replacing a bent tie rod and getting a proper wheel alignment and two new front tyres
• fixing numerous small electrical problems; fuel guage not working somtimes, rear passenger side indicator wroking only intermittently, headlights not working at all, and the entire loom being a big mess generally after 30-odd years of people tampering with it! Fixing this involved getting the headlights re-wired and getting the rear loom re-wired also. Now everything works, finally! Pics of this are below;

Rear loom before	Rear loom before	Rear loom after	Rear loom after
		The headlights after being rewired and having new relays installed. >>

The other projects we have been working on is the blow-off valve installation and oil catch can fabrication and installation.

Blow-off valve

In the old shell the car was fitted with a blow-off valve (the one from Andrew's ET Pulsar then later the GTi-R) but it did not seem to be working. When we rebuilt the car we decided to leave it without a BOV for a while and see how it went, mainly because I didn't have the funds for it at the time. Without a BOV the car ran fine but on gear changes there was a fair bit of compressor stall. This is where the compressed in the the pipes and intercooler between the turbo and the throttle butterfly hits the butterfly when it closes suddenly and pulses in the reverse direction back out through the turbo and the air filter. It sounds kind of like a sequential BOV.

How bad this is for your turbo is highly debateable. I have heard this discussed at length but I think the general conclusion is that it will not be too damaging to your turbo unless you are running more boost than standard, or a little bit more. Many Nissan motors didn't actually come out with a BOV or boost recirculation valve as factory, including the CA18DET, RB30ET (VL turbo) or the E15ET (Pulsar ET or Exa). I had turned down the boost to about 9-10 psi anyway but did want to run more safely so I decided to invest in a BOV. Also I was getting sick of the fluttery sound when changing gears. ;)

I ended up getting a Go Fast Bits brand one for $190, heaps cheaper than a Turbosmart one plus they look and sound just as good. Fitting was quite easy as the unit came with an adapter to weld onto the existing intercooler piping. After this was done and the piping painted and fitted to the car again, we just slid the BOV onto the adapter and did up the 3 screws that were supplied, then joined up the vaccum line to a spare outlet in the plenum. We decided to mount the BOV as close to the throttle as possible, this way the compressed air can flow straight out the valve and not have to travel too far back down the intercooler pipe before being released.

Anyway here's the pics;

Positioning the adapter ready to weld onto the intercooler pipe.

Fitted in place with vaccum line attached.

From above

Oil Catch Can

Due to the design of the oil breather hoses on the tappet covers, CA18DET's tend to have a lot of blow through. One line is attached to the plenum and the other to the pipe just before the turbo intake. This creates a kind of flow as the air pushed out through the boost in the plenum is transferred to the crank case and out the other oil breather line to the pipe before the turbo. This results in a great deal of oil going through the turbo, intercooler pipes and intercooler and eventually being burnt in the motor; not good if you're after a nice clean burn for power, plus it can be very messy.

The solution? An oil catch can, also known as an oil-air separator. This is a small canister located in the engine bay that collects any oil that may escape from the tappet cover, by recieving the two breather lines on the tappet cover. A filter is attached to the top or side of the canister so as not to pressurise the crank case, and a drain plug is inserted at the bottom so the oil can be drained at regular intervals. The old connections on the plenum and piping before the turbo are blocked off.

Here are some pics of the finished product;

There is also a full tech article and some more detailed progress pics in the technical section here.

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