Adoom

Phil probably measured it with cheeseburgers. You think this guy has internal mics sitting around? I would say if he did he wouldn't have asked us the question. its going into the machine shop anyway so get it measured, this doesn't seem very hard to me Tom? other option is to buy some gear to measure it properly. By the sounds he is sending it to grotty's so its going to steer him in the right direction.

I don't have any micrometers(or cheeseburgers/bananas/cellphones), it would be nice, but the amount of times I'd use them doesn't really justify buying any. I assume cheap ones are not worth buying.

The most precision measuring tool I have is vernier calipers.

I am taking it to the guys at Custom Works eventually, when I have some money.

But because I have no money yet, I did try installing both #5 caps and they seem to be exactly the same. I cannot see or feel any misalignment where the cap meet the block on either of them, so their machining seems to be pretty consistent.

yes, I meant 8 port.

Absolutely no hurry at all.

 

What car is your engine going into?

If you have a motor that has suffered water damage, then I thought perhaps you might have an "odd" piston that was reusable.

My avatar is a clue

I've had a CA18ET in my starlet since.....2005? 173rwkw. It had a terminal failure last time I went to manfield. Either the head gasket went or the ethanol injection failed, but I ended up with two melted plugs and a whole lot of coolant in two cylinders and some scored bores/pistons, that was the point at which I stopped taking the engine apart and just shoved it under the bench.

The early CA18DET was bought before this as an eventual upgrade. But I was convinced not to use it and to try find a late model CA18DET without the weird inlet manifold.

So now I have this later model CA18DET that I am in the process of rebuilding, as limited funds allow. I've done the head. But all the parts needed for the block add up to quite a lot.

The four port motors only have the injector feeding the "allways open" port. The head of the other valve gets really caked up with shite.

I have a four port head squirreled away for my supercharged CA18 build.

If you had a spare det piston in good order, id be interested if you wanted to part with it.

 

great info thread btw.

I think you meant "the 8 port motors with four always open ports...". And yes, those usually closed ports were clogged to buggery with oily crud on the early motor.

I have THREE sets of det pistons. But I need to decide which set I will be using before I can give any away. Are you in a hurry?

Get that shit skimmed, and do skids all day long.

That's what I needed to hear.

Yeah that top one is pretty gnarly i mean its not where the fire ring sits but yeah. Also noticed the pitting between the liner and block which wont help sealing at all

The liner comment confused me for a bit. It doesn't have a liner, it's a CA18 block. The "pitting" around the "liner" is old gasket residue. I probably could have done a better job of cleaning it up before taking the photo. As far as I can tell, there is no pitting apart from how the hole is bigger.

I was planning on getting the deck resurfaced.

I just noticed this...

Only these two are corroded. All the others are fine.

There is normally 8mm between the hole and the bore. With this corrosion it's only 6mm.

Is it still okay to use. Seedy Al, Cam?

the early ca18et blocks had no crank girdle too.

 

True, I have one of those too. But it's still shaped like a long block and I cbf getting it out from under the bench and stripping it. It's fucked though, the late engine is my upgrade.

I forgot about the crank girdle. This early CA18DET did not have a girdle. The late engine did have a girdle. They both have oil squirters. The CA18ET does not have squirters.

There doesn't seem to be an easy way to tell if an early engine will have a girdle. Probably not, but some early(DET) engines apparently do have them.

Best way to tell is remove the sump.

Does the engine number have any meaning, or is it just like a unique identifier?

I had them both to hand and wondered if there was any differences between the blocks, I thought I'd share.

The early one is one of the first CA18DET, with the cross over manifold and no intercooler, from a bluebird afaik. It has an 8 port manifold, at low revs, every 2nd intake port is blocked, so it only has one functioning inlet valve. It seems in better condition than the later one, but I think it sat for a long time with water in the block that evaporated and left crusty varnish stuff behind. The water pump would not turn and the water galleries were full of shit.

The late one is from a S13 silvia. It has the 4 port head. It has bigger inlet valves. It was cheap because it had a knock. I found that it had spun one of the big end bearings. Probably because it had NEVER HAD AN OIL CHANGE EVER!!!!!!!! The oil was like tar. Everything was caked in it. Half the lifters were seized. Poor engine.

One rod and crank journal were toast, but I have spares.

But enough waffling, here are some photos.

The casting around the crank bearings seems to be thicker.

Black = Late

Brown = early 

Casting for that oil drain has sharper corners but not so rough.

The late one doesn't have the ball valve thing in the filter housing.

The casting around the crank bearing seemed thicker in the late one.

Again, it looks a bit thicker to me.

The later one has two extra bolt holes on either side of the engine mount.

The black paint on the early one seems to have held up a lot better than the later one....

Late

Early

The late one has a water jacket hole missing between 2 and 3.

come spend more money with us!

That's the eventual plan Just as soon as I have some.

I finally got my head all together because gf was overseas for work for 2 weeks. I only had to install the valve springs 3 times! The initial install. The, FUCK, how did I forget the valve stem seals, reinstall. And the, WTF do you mean the springs only go one way around reinstall.

I should have read the manual. HAHA

Now I'm pretty good at installing valve spring collets though.

how worried are you about the motor?

Enough that I don't want it to fail prematurely.

Mixed up caps is a recipe for disaster, get them measured up properly when you get the machine work done. Then get them honed or align bored as needed.

I thought as much.

Due to the passing of time and a lack of labeling...

I have a CA18DET block I intend to use. The only machining I think it needs is to surface the deck and hone the bores.

But I have two sets of main caps.... one set is from an earlier block that I am not using.

I am 100% sure which caps belong in which set, and I know what order they go in since their numbers are cast in.

Buuuuut, I don't know which set of mains caps belong to the block I am using :/

Is there a way to work this out by measuring? Both sets are standard size.

Or will I be in for a line bore and over size bearings?

So I finally got around to working on this little trailer.

I have some rimu planks, but they are rough as and much too thick. so I asked the "builder" at work if he could put them through his thicknesser to make them 15mm.

My wood working skills are weak.

I ended up with this.

I had already oiled one of the planks, to see how it looked.

It turned out much better than I expected. SO PROUD

The box is not attached yet, I need to oil it more.

I made a towbar carrier to put my minibike on. I just used stuff I had lying around.

Some re-bar. The old washing line post... 5mm wall thickness tube.

It's kinda heavy.

I've put some foam on it, where it touches the bike, since I took the photos.

my guess is older than new

So some time between yesterday, and dinosaurs?

I got this beast at the British car day on Sunday. $5 from an old lady.

Reckon I can put it behind the mini bike I'll make up a shallow box on it with some rimu I have. Otherwise, I'll keep it just as it is and make a removable tow hitch on the back of the bike.

Anyone have any idea how old it might be? I can't find any markings on the frame/tires/wheels....

I use to ride at karapodi in upperhut, the track was quite good in alot of places I was riding a XR650, I am not sure how a mini bike would handle, but I think the flat places would be fun.

Yeh, I was trying to recall how much flat there was. It starts off quite flat I think.

Hey all mini bike riders of the Hutt.

Where do you ride?

I want to avoid riding on any roads with traffic.

I've just been riding on the Hutt River trail because I have easy access from my house in Totara Park.

I've gone as far south as Silverstream and North up to Harcourt park. 

The response has been mostly positive, with looks of LOLZ and/or jealousy. I get the occasional laser eyes from grumpy looking fuckers.

I've been thinking Karapoti might be good. AFAIK you can ride dirt bikes there. I just need to finish my towbar carrier monstrosity of heavy.

Muffler arrived the other day.

Got a brass plug for my spare fuel bottle.

Leaks like a sieve It won't really work with an o-ring. But it will be okay if the bottle is kept upright.

Welded the muffler to the exhaust and painted it.

Was a bit late for a test ride, I go tomorrow.

Tested my basket. It can also carry drink bottles!

Hutt River trail where it goes past harcourt park.

I made this basket to hold my extra fuel bottle. The frame is mig welded 6mm steel rod. I stole some flax leaves from the park. It took a while to work out an effective weaving method. It seems fairly strong.

The other casualty.

Today I modified the stand so it, you know... actually works.

I made it longer. Angled it further out from the bike. And put a stop on it so it can't turn all the way around.

off to the warehouse for gloves and pads?

I had already been to the warehouse(you can see it written on my hand) to buy a skateboard style helmet as I thought my mountainbike helmet didn't look right.

I think knee pads, gloves and longer sleeves at least.

I did about 22km on that ride and crashed just before the half way point. I intended to go all the way to Avalon.

I also bought a 750ml aluminium drink bottle from the warehouse for $5 as an additional fuel tank. I duct taped it to the front forks and took the tape with me so I could replace it. The lid is plastic and I don't think the seal likes petrol too much, but it wasn't leaking. Hopefully it's a standard thread and I can get a brass/steel blanking plug with the right thread and a proper o-ring.

Spent some time picking all the little stones out of my skin. Then trying to find plasters big enough to stop me from making a mess on the furniture.

Apparently it doesn't handle very well on the loose gravel piled up in the middle of the road.