Tuning the Nissan CA

CA16 S, DE, CA18 DE / ET / DET & CA20 E,S,DE,DET

"All you need to know about performance parts and tuning the Nissan CA engine!"

Carref prides itself on providing the latest tips and guides to your modification project.

The Nissan CA provide a fun base for your project and with the best upgrades like ECU maps, turbo improvements and camshafts you will noticeably increase your driving pleasure.

Our aim here is to consider CA tuning and provide tips on the best modifications.

We rely on our visitors to pass on tips and tell us about their projects and what worked on their car, and this article is the culmination of the feedback we have received. First let us look at the history and specs of this engine and then consider which tuning modifications work best on it.

History of the Engine

• CA16S
  81 PS 80 hp at 5200 rpm and 123 N⋅m (91 lb⋅ft) at 3200 rpm
  
• CA16DE
  122 hp  at 6400 rpm and 137 N⋅m (101 lb⋅ft) at 5200 rpm
  
• CA18(i) 91 hp  at 5200 rpm
• CA18E 113 hp at 5600 rpm, 16.5 kg⋅m (162 N⋅m; 119 lb⋅ft) at 2800 rpm
• CA18S
  89 hp and 149 N⋅m (110 lb⋅ft)
  
• CA18DE
  131 hp  at 6400 rpm and 159 N⋅m (117 lb⋅ft) at 5200 rpm
  
• CA18ET  133 hp and 183 N⋅m (135 lb⋅ft) 
• CA18DET  166 hp and 228 N⋅m (168 lb⋅ft)
• CA20E  105 hp and 160 N⋅m (118 lb⋅ft)
• CA20S
  102 hp  at 5,200 rpm (118 lb⋅ft) at 3,600 rpm

Tuning the Nissan CA and best CA performance parts.

What are the most effective CA modifications

The greatest CA tuning parts on an engine are sensibly the ones that give the best value for money.

We won't be swayed by popular CA tuning parts, they need to be cost effective.

The camshaft profile plays a big part in the engines power output so camshaft upgrades make quite a large difference. The intake and exhaust durations will alter depending on the chosen camshaft profile, so large power band gains are on offer for camshaft upgrades.

Fast road camshafts tend to raise the power through the rpm range, you could drop a little low end power but top end will be higher.

Motorsport and race camshafts, raise the top end band but as a result the car will not idle smoothly and low end power nearly always suffers.

To create a twin cam version of the 2.0 block you could fit a twin cam head from the CA18DE/T and as long as you switch manifolds and alter the timing pulley belts it works quite well.

So the following have been created but are not official engine versions from Nissan.

• CA20DE/CA20DET/CA20T/CA20ET

In a typical daily driver should ideally to optimize your torque band to your usage of the car.

I'd be gobsmaked if you have found a CA Motorsport camshaft is a pleasure to live with when driving in heavy traffic.

Each engine responds better to mild cam durations so set your engine up on a rolling road.

The ecu map and fuelling also have a large bearing on the bhp gains you'll hit.

Extending exhaust or intake durations can alter the bhp band and on most engines the exhaust and intake durations do not need to match, although most cams and tuners use matched pairs there are some advantages to extending the intake or exhaust durations.

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Modifying to Stage 1:

 Remaps/piggy back ECU, Sports exhaust manifold, Panel air filters, Fast road camshaft, Intake headers, Drilled & smoothed airbox.

Modifying to Stage 2:

 Ported and polished head, Sports catalyst & performance exhaust, high flow fuel injectors, Fast road cam, fuel pump upgrades, induction kit.

Modifying to Stage 3:

 Twin charging conversions, Engine balancing & blueprinting, Competition cam, Crank and Piston upgrades to alter compression, Internal engine upgrades (head flowing porting/bigger valves), Adding or Upgrading forced induction (turbo/supercharger).

A remap should help to unlock the full potential of all the upgrades you've done to your CA. The APEXi SAFC 2 has been used on the CA projects with the N60 MAF  but the N62 can also be setup on a custom map. Mapping can be a pain on some setups, so consult with a specialist before buying parts to check they can be mapped.

It will usually give around 30% more power on turbocharged vehicles and you can expect to see around 15% on NASP engines, but your results usually vary depending on the upgrades you've done and the condition of your engine.

Shoving more air into the CA engine is the whole point to any engine tuning project.

Headers flow the air from the air cleaner and allow it to be pulled into the engine cylinders with fuel for the squish phase.

The bore size, shape and flow rate of the Intake can make a large change to fuel mixing and power on the CA.

Commonly we find the headers are begging for performance upgrades, although a few makers provide decently flowing headers.

Big valve conversions on the CA, doing a bit of port matching and head flowing will also lift power, and significantly will raise potential for a greater power increase on other modifications.

Which turbo upgrades are best?

NASP engines need quite a lot of work when you add a turbo, so we have a separate guide to help you take into account the pros and cons of going this route on your CA

The more air you can get into an engine, the more fuel it can burn and uprating the induction with a turbocharger upgrade makes impressive power gains.

When your motor has a turbocharger upgrades are going to make more power and we find turbo charged engines will have strengthened components.

However most engines have weakspots

We recommend you find these limits and fit higher quality components to cope with the power.

We see many people spending a loads of money on turbo upgrades on the CA only to suffer the indignity of watching the motor go up in smoke on it's first outing after it's completed.

Larger upgraded turbo chargers commonly suffer a bottom end lag, and smaller turbo chargers spool up quickly but won't have the peak end torque gains.

Thanks to progress the choice of turbochargers is always moving on and we commonly find variable vane turbochargers, allowing the vane profile is altered according to speed to lower lag and increase top end bhp.

Twin scroll turbochargers divert the exhaust gases into 2 channels and flow these at differently angled vanes in the turbocharger. They also improve the scavenging effect of the engine.

It is common that there's a limit in the air flow sensor (AFM/MAF/MAP) on these engines when a lot more air is being drawn into the engine.

Going up you'll find 4 bar air sensors coping with quite large power gains, whereas the OEM air sensor sapped bhp at a much lower level.

Adding a supercharger or additional turbo will make large bhp gains, although harder to get working. We have a twincharger bhp adding guide if you want to read more.

Fuelling

When you lift the power you will need to look at to the fuel delivery.

More power needs more fuel. We would recommend you to over specify your injectors flow rate.

The accepted safe increase is to add another 20% when fitting an injector, this allows for injector deterioration and provides you some spare capacity should the engine need more fuel.

We think this one is common sense, but you'll need to match your fuel injector to the type of fuel your car uses as well.

All the following flywheel power targets will assume an injector duty cycle of 80% and a base of 58psi of fuel pressure at idle.

4 Cylinder turbocharged engines

• 58 PSI 340cc/min 200hp
• 58 PSI 511cc/min 300hp
• 58 PSI 682cc/min 400hp

4 Cylinder NASP engines

• 58 PSI 285cc/min 200hp
• 58 PSI 426cc/min 300hp

4 Cylinder supercharged engines

• 58 PSI 312cc/min 200hp
• 58 PSI 468cc/min 300hp
• 58 PSI 625cc/min 400hp

Choosing the right performance exhaust

One of the most common mistakes and problems we see in tuning projects is usually down to the exhaust, or rather a poorly chosen exhaust for your engine.

You should look to uprate your exhaust if your current exhaust is actually creating a flow problem.

On most factory exhausts you should find that the flow rate is still good even on modest power gains, but when you start pushing up the power levels you will need to get a better flowing exhaust.

Do not go with the biggest exhaust you can find this will slow up the exhaust flow rate - the best for power gains are usually between 1.5 to 2.5 inches. It is the shape and material more than the bore size.

Typically exhaust restrictions are in the catalyst and filters installed, so adding a freer flowing performance alternative will help avoid this restriction.

Weak spots Issues & problem areas on the

The engines are generally reliable and solid as long as they are regularly serviced and maintained.

Regular oil changes are vital on the , especially when tuned and will help extend the life and reliability of the engine.

For more information on Tuning your engine please join us in our friendly forum where you can discuss tuning options in more detail with our owners. It would also be worth reading our unbiased tuning articles to get a full grasp of the benefits and drawbacks of each modification.

Please help us improve these tips by sending us your feedback in the comments box below.

We love to hear what our visitors have got up to and which parts work best for them on each model of car. Comments are used to improve the accuracy of these articles which are continually updated.

This article was written by Waynne Smith on TorqueCars, and I appreciate your feedback and suggestions. This entry was filed under Nissan. You can leave a response below or join TorqueCars forum to discuss this article and car modification in detail with our members.

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