Staff Bio's >> D'Angelo (boost_boy)

D'Angelo (boost_boy)
CA18 Forum Moderator
RB Forums Moderator

Born and raised in Miami, Fla. Father of 3, ages 14 (girl), 9 (girl), and 7 (boy).
Graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School on famed South Beach.
I joined the United States Marine Corps exactly one month after graduating high school. My first duty station was Camp LeJeune North Carolina in which I was stationed for 2.5 years. I bought my first car, a 1987 Nissan Sentra GXE in December of 1990 and vowed one day to make it faster than it really was. I got orders to Okinawa, Japan in early 1991 at which time I became familiar with the Japanese culture and its cars.

I specifically fell in love with the Nissan Silvia and was especially intrigued by its cute little engine with the squary-red valve covers. Went to a used car lot to discover a 1986 Nissan Sunny with a CA16DE as its power plant. Seeing that it looked identical to the engine in the Silvia, I made a vow to one day own that Silvia engine and put it in my sentra.

I was later transferred to Hawaii due to injuries sustained during training for Desert Storm and was very disappointed because I had made plans on having a Silvia engine shipped back to the states. I purchased a 1988 Hyundai Excel sedan to move around Hawaii in and stumbled across a 1988 Nissan Pulsar with a motor that looked identical to the Silvia engine. Further research help me to discover that the Sentra and the Pulsar has the same chassis and I then realized that I can put this engine into my car.

In 1997, I took on my first CA16DE swap into my 1987 Sentra and got it to run. I got greedy and opted for the CA18DE, which ran a little better, but started to knock because of a failed oil pump. I would eventually throw in another CA18DE until the itch for turbocharging was too bad to soothe with scratching, so in 1999, I turned to a friend that imports motors and had him bring in my first AWD/FWD CA18DET engine which lasted all but 10 days before I blew it up.

He brought a few more motors in and they too became victims of my experimental CA18DE ecu’s done by Jim Wolf Technology (Yes, I was the 1st guinea pig in the U.S. with the aspirated Pulsar ecu tuned by JWT). I ordered my first set of Wiseco pistons in 1999 and cracked the ring lands on them within the 1st 1000 miles. After trial and error, the programmed ecus seemed to be a bit more stable and engines started lasting longer. Tired of sending my ecu’s back to California for upgrades, in mid 2000, I purchased my 1st S.D.S. standalone engine management system.
I have yet to blow an engine from my tuning and this has been instrumental in my successes with the beloved CA18DET.

Cars I own:

1990 Nissan Sentra with CA18DET and a gang of go-fast goodies.
1990 Nissan Sentra with built CA18DET sitting on an engine stand for nearly 2 years and a gang of go-fast goodies as well.
1993 Ford Taurus SHO (Black on Black Auto) mine...
1993 Ford Taurus SHO (Black on Black Auto) my girlfriend's
1993 Ford Taurus SHO (Black on Tan) for sale
1991 Nissan 240sx with CA18DET engine installed (to be traded)
1993 Nissan 240sx convertible soon to have a CA18DET engine, but in Auto.
1995 Hyundai Elantra with a Mitsubishi 4G63 engine out of the Galant AMG (my everyday whip).

I was medically retired from the Marine Corps in 1994 and am currently employed by the Department of Homeland Security. I am a true Nissan/Infiniti enthusiast who's serious about performance and reliability. I have made many friends dealing with Nissan cars and expect to make many more in the days to come.