As in every other case of engine's design flow, it's absolutely not obligatory for all CA18DET and SR20DET to blow, I just shared my knowledge of a quite present problem, never meaning that by all means ALL S-bodies engines would suffer from said problem. The situation results being similar to what happened in the 90s with BMW M52 engines and their famous nikasil engine lines problem being those engines untollerant to gass with high sulphur content, leading to very pronounced engine wear in a very short time. The problem was so serious that for british market M52 were provided with iron blocks, britains didn't accept the nikasil block engines. Many of those engines blew still in warranty, but many survived. I have had two 1998 BMWs with M52 engines (E36 and E39), actually have a 323ti compact E36 with 220whp NA which sees a lot of track time since I have it (5 years), with 273 000km and a nikasil block this car has absolutely no signs of any wear, compression is 185PSI on all cylinders and it has absolutely no oil cosumption. I never have had any problem related with the notorious nikasil block on any BMW I've had, but it doesn't mean other people didn't experience such problems. When certain engine shows a tendency to develop given type of problem it never affects all the units, but the tendency is still there.
Late 90's-early 2000's Nissan products.
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I have been active on various Nissan forums for a quite a long time and I have heard of a good number of spun bearings (usually #3) and lube-related failures of the SR engines, but all of the ones I read about usually relate to a dented oil pans blocking the oil pickup, which apparently is extremely close to the pan in these engines. So much that even a very small indentation or distortion of the oil pan can cause oil starvation at high RPM's. I however do not have any first hand knowledge of this, its only what I have read.
Seems that frequently any time people on the forums talk about converting to a CA or SR engine the first advice people usually give is "make sure you inspect the oil pan and dont buy one with dents in it" otherwise you risk getting an oil-starved engine.
Oil pooling in the head is not something I have read about until now. I dont read the CA/SR engine posts as much though so it may be a very common thing I'm just not aware of.
I have heard various people using the Accusump on the SR and it gets fairly favorable reviews from what I can see.
Seems that frequently any time people on the forums talk about converting to a CA or SR engine the first advice people usually give is "make sure you inspect the oil pan and dont buy one with dents in it" otherwise you risk getting an oil-starved engine.
Oil pooling in the head is not something I have read about until now. I dont read the CA/SR engine posts as much though so it may be a very common thing I'm just not aware of.
I have heard various people using the Accusump on the SR and it gets fairly favorable reviews from what I can see.
Originally Posted By: quint
I have been active on various Nissan forums for a quite a long time and I have heard of a good number of spun bearings (usually #3) and lube-related failures of the SR engines, but all of the ones I read about usually relate to a dented oil pans blocking the oil pickup, which apparently is extremely close to the pan in these engines. So much that even a very small indentation or distortion of the oil pan can cause oil starvation at high RPM's. I however do not have any first hand knowledge of this, its only what I have read.
Seems that frequently any time people on the forums talk about converting to a CA or SR engine the first advice people usually give is "make sure you inspect the oil pan and dont buy one with dents in it" otherwise you risk getting an oil-starved engine.
Never heard of such a possible cause for the numerous CA18DET/SR20DET spun bearings related engine problems. I have seen some of these engines severely damaged due to oil starvation of the bearings, but none of them had a dented sump.
I have been active on various Nissan forums for a quite a long time and I have heard of a good number of spun bearings (usually #3) and lube-related failures of the SR engines, but all of the ones I read about usually relate to a dented oil pans blocking the oil pickup, which apparently is extremely close to the pan in these engines. So much that even a very small indentation or distortion of the oil pan can cause oil starvation at high RPM's. I however do not have any first hand knowledge of this, its only what I have read.
Seems that frequently any time people on the forums talk about converting to a CA or SR engine the first advice people usually give is "make sure you inspect the oil pan and dont buy one with dents in it" otherwise you risk getting an oil-starved engine.
Never heard of such a possible cause for the numerous CA18DET/SR20DET spun bearings related engine problems. I have seen some of these engines severely damaged due to oil starvation of the bearings, but none of them had a dented sump.
My 97 Altima with the KA24DE was outstanding. I would drive another 1st generation Altima in a heartbeat.
Nissan quality has taken a dump since the 90's. We are a Hyundai dealer, but we have done several Versa engines. Junk.
Nissan quality has taken a dump since the 90's. We are a Hyundai dealer, but we have done several Versa engines. Junk.
I will say this about Nissans. They used to be good cars. I test drove a 09 Maxima I was considering buying a while back, and I did not like it. Also test drove a brand new Versa and not only do I hate CVT's but the car felt like a throw-away car. At my work we have a fleet of a few Versa's and a Frontier truck and they all have under 60,000 miles and they just feel like cheap cars. The 4cylinder engines in all of them don't sound very good, like if you rev them up they sound like they can't handle it. I know they are not the most expensive vehicles Nissan makes but both the cars have cheap feeling steering and the truck has a really sloppy automatic transmission. Not a fan of Nissan at all, anymore. I think they have dropped in quality a lot. As for late 90s-early 2000s- as long as you stay away from the ones with the disintegrating cat converters they are probably OK. IMO Nissan quality now is about where Hyundai was in the 90s. Not sure what happened. I would not own one.
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Originally Posted By: hal
IMO Nissan quality now is about where Hyundai was in the 90s. Not sure what happened. I would not own one.
Ha! It's not that bad. Mitsubishi is not making the drivetrains for Nissan like they were for Hyundai in the 90's.
IMO Nissan quality now is about where Hyundai was in the 90s. Not sure what happened. I would not own one.
Ha! It's not that bad. Mitsubishi is not making the drivetrains for Nissan like they were for Hyundai in the 90's.
A lot of misinformation here. Probablby from people who have never had Nissan's
Here is my experience...
Dads 01 Supercharged Frontier. Sitting at 261,000 plus. Exhaust Manifolds replaced under warranty at 70k.
Knock sensor replaced at same time.
New radiator around 170k.
Other than that just BITOG maintenance. Original engine, and trans work great.
Moms 07 2.5 Altima
132k. Awesome car. One problem. Needed a Blower motor relay last year. No problems with engine or trans.
I daily drive a 95 Hardbody V6 90 miles a day. 205,000 miles ,and going strong.
Too new to really say, but my wknd ride is a 13 Titan with just over 13,000 miles. If you open it up it absolutely will suck the gas down. Driving in a normal manner MPG isn't as bad as people make it out to be. On rd trips I set the cruise to 73 mph, and the computer shows over 20 mpg. Not quite as good as the latest offerings, but more than acceptable to me considering the low end grunt it makes.
Just about all of the competitions gas V8's need 4000 revs to make peak torque while the dated Titan needs only 3400 rpm. 90% available at 2500 rpm.
Pulling a 6500+lb trailer nearly 200 miles, the computer showed 15.2 mpg. Towing that load was a breeze.
Had a 12 Frontier 6 speed. Liked it a lot, but got rid of it at 23k due to cosmetic damage.
02-06 Nissan 2.5 motors did have issues. The motor itself was never bad. It was precat problems, and intake butterfly screws that caused big problems. 07+ 2.5s are very reliable.
Here is my experience...
Dads 01 Supercharged Frontier. Sitting at 261,000 plus. Exhaust Manifolds replaced under warranty at 70k.
Knock sensor replaced at same time.
New radiator around 170k.
Other than that just BITOG maintenance. Original engine, and trans work great.
Moms 07 2.5 Altima
132k. Awesome car. One problem. Needed a Blower motor relay last year. No problems with engine or trans.
I daily drive a 95 Hardbody V6 90 miles a day. 205,000 miles ,and going strong.
Too new to really say, but my wknd ride is a 13 Titan with just over 13,000 miles. If you open it up it absolutely will suck the gas down. Driving in a normal manner MPG isn't as bad as people make it out to be. On rd trips I set the cruise to 73 mph, and the computer shows over 20 mpg. Not quite as good as the latest offerings, but more than acceptable to me considering the low end grunt it makes.
Just about all of the competitions gas V8's need 4000 revs to make peak torque while the dated Titan needs only 3400 rpm. 90% available at 2500 rpm.
Pulling a 6500+lb trailer nearly 200 miles, the computer showed 15.2 mpg. Towing that load was a breeze.
Had a 12 Frontier 6 speed. Liked it a lot, but got rid of it at 23k due to cosmetic damage.
02-06 Nissan 2.5 motors did have issues. The motor itself was never bad. It was precat problems, and intake butterfly screws that caused big problems. 07+ 2.5s are very reliable.
Taking a thought from another thread, I wonder if running without a filter, or just a screen, would alleviate the flow problem. Just a thought. That input about the oil pans rings a bell. The clearance down there was so tight that at one time we could not even find a magnetic drain plug that would clear. The engines were inordinately sensitive to overfilling as well. Oil would go frothy in no time if overfilled. I forget the name of the company that developed a crank scraper to help with the problem.
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