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Location:
Canberra
Registered:
July 2005
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Location:
Canberra
Registered:
July 2005
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Re: Tricky's RA23
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Thu, 08 September 2005 11:54
 
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With a bit of lovin', she's gonna come up just fine!
Here's the worst of the rust
going...
going...
GORNE!
Fingers crossed that that's the last I'll see of that shite. Shouldn't be a problem. All the rust was zapped, it's etch primed and has a couple of layers of topcoat, and it's going to be under sound deadening, so minimal air and no moisture.
Very shortly I will be annihalating the remaining rust, and then installing some black plush or dark burgundy plush knox carpets, over which I shall be placing these puppies:
A big thanks to fonzy (w810sc) for the seats. Thanks also to normo for the window winder.
Now I have to get a centre console and a parcel tray (probably make this), rig up something as a dash mat, retrim the windscreen pillars, fix the dash and change the colour of some of the interior trim and the inside'll be done.
As far as the mechanicals are concerned, I told a fib above. It is a 88210, according to the head. I was mislead by the post of the original owner into thinking the block was a 88230, and I figured since it had an EFI thermo housing, it was a 270 head. Anyways, I have here an original 18RGEU electronic dizzy to hook up sometime, and I need to get a recoed radiator and fix various coolant leaks (dang ethylene glycol finds the leaks quickly). Then it's time for the mods  .
What I wanna do in the short term is the following:
-Do a brake/front suspension upgrade. Probably based around FC RX7 calipers
-get a shell and fab up some bits for a R&P conversion
-do an undisclosed rear suspension upgrade (I don't wanna deal with the "'ya can't do that" crap, so you'll have to wait for a while)
-Try some stuff out on 18RGs. Eventually, when I am older than 25 (if petrol is still available to the peasants) do something crazy. Along the lines of BEAMS 3SGE, 2ZZGE if/when they become widely available, or dick around with converting a 4AGZE to miller cycle (now THAT would be individual).
Sorry for the boring non-exterior pics. I promise I'll get some glamour pics up one day.
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Location:
Canberra
Registered:
October 2004
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Re: Tricky's RA23
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Fri, 09 September 2005 15:55
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Nice car.
Yours has less dents,less rust and more power than my Celica T_T
Does it also wear P plates? The amount of 1st gen Celicas I've seen with P plates lately is incredible. Obviously Gen X didn't kill them all.
BTW what Uni are you at? Depending on which one it is, the RA23 might have a TA22 carpark buddy.
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Location:
Canberra
Registered:
July 2005
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Re: Tricky's RA23
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Sat, 10 September 2005 10:38
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Thanks!
I like it too!
I do have P plates ATM, but I qualified for my full licence about a month ago. Just gotta bite the bullet and give the bastards some more money!
Funny you should mention generation X. My mum owned a TA22 when she was somewhat younger!
I am an ANUS... (ANU student for those uninformed). Stylish carpark buddies are always appreciated! At ANU I have seen a presumably 3TGTE TA22 (blue), a red original TA22 and a silver TA22 with P plates and a big tip, owned by one of the people building the new north oval facilities. Sometimes doesn't feel like I have a car that strays from the norm... Also shows that quite a few people have good taste in cars
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Location:
Adelaide
Registered:
June 2003
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Re: Tricky's RA23
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Sun, 11 September 2005 02:03
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That looks like a good starting block for a nice car.
I wish I had your rust instead of the rust my RA23 had.
I look forward to seeing updates on the progress.
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Location:
Canberra
Registered:
July 2005
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Re: Tricky's RA23
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Sun, 11 September 2005 07:28
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Thanks for the feedback! Did u have some pretty shocking rust? That was the main reason I picked this one up. Rust was minimal and it was cheap (especially for what it is).
Updates will come shortly. I think the interior will be nearly finished in about a week...
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Location:
Adelaide
Registered:
June 2003
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Re: Tricky's RA23
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Sun, 11 September 2005 12:35
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Yeah, I had to do some welding in a few places.
I didn't want to bog, as that has a much shorter lifespan than steel.
My car was cheap too, if $250 qualifies as cheap.
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Location:
Canberra
Registered:
July 2005
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Re: Tricky's RA23
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Tue, 13 September 2005 23:51
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For sure. No bogging for Tristan. I only wanna deal with the rust once, so I'm not taking major shortcuts like that.
I've got an update! I had a productive day yesterday, taking full advantage of hard earned leave/uni holidays  . I got rid of the rust in the drivers side, around the drain hole, accelerator mount, accelerator pivot and a bit on the sill. That means I'm ready for carpet and seats. There was a bit of rust I found under the battery carrier.
So, the only remaining rust I know about is a tiny bit of surface rust under the rear seat and a few spots in the boot. Two of these will need to be cut out and welded up.
I also took care of this:
with this:
cost me $255. Wasn't too bad, and it was definately the best deal in Canberra.
I also replaced all hoses, the thermostat and stuck new hose clamps on. There is, however, a leak  and no, it isn't with my home made head-->thermostat housing gasket, it's at the upper thermostat housing gasket... Shitty adhesive gasket  I'll have to stick some goop on it.
I also have this:
apparently it is a genuine 18RGEU electronic dizzy. Problem is the vac. advance servo is fooked. Turns out they aren't readily exchanchable with the points dizzy due to the octane screw. Bugger. So I used the points dizzy housing and the elec. dizzy internals. And it started first time!! It did die a couple of times, but it was simple things like a wire the ignitor not being tight and one of the wires from the battery +ve not being tight. Only problem is this:
Yes, that is a dodgy bracket. So ideally I'd like to track down a GEU vacuum advance servo and get the captive bracket thingy installed.
There seems to be heaps of blowby, so It's time to track down some 18RG bits and pieces to rebuild over Christmas(preferably not costing $1000 from a wreckers  ) . What I wanna do is take any block, bore it to 92mm (2.2L) stick in some 10.5-11.5:1 forgies and top it off with a 88270 head with some work. The 45mm DCOE's should love it, but I may consider changing to 20V quads and redesign the ignition (probably with CAS and 4 x coil packs). I love the sound of Webers, but I have to admit, there is more midrange power available with EFI, and better idle control, and you don't need to tune it as often...
So there is the progress thus far...
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Location:
Adelaide
Registered:
June 2003
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Re: Tricky's RA23
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Wed, 14 September 2005 03:23
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I have a couple of 88270 heads that need some water port work. If you have trouble finding something good, let me know we can work something out.
I also have an 88253 18RGU head that I don't really want, it's been pressure tested and has no cracks. It also doesn't need and water port welding work done. These heads have ports about the same as the 88270 heads and the larger valves too. I'd want to make up some port profiles before I god rid of it though.
I have an 18RGU dizzy that had a damaged vacuum advance. It was crash damaged and a little bent. I managed to straighten it out and it still worked fine.
One issue we found was that some 18RG vacuum advances need different size holes to go into. The 88210 dizzy needs a smaller hole I think than the later ones.
When you swapped over the electronic dizzy internals did you change the bottom end of the shaft too? I ask because the advance curves are dependent on the bottom of the shaft. Each engine has a different amount of mechanical advance. I don't really remember what numbers were degree numbers written on my dizzies, but there were differences.
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Location:
Canberra
Registered:
July 2005
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Re: Tricky's RA23
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Wed, 14 September 2005 08:33
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Thanks for the offers! I may well be very interested quite shortly! As far as the dizzy is concerned, at this stage, it is a 88210 housing, shaft and weights with an 88270 centre bit (The bit that pivots for centrifugal advance. I think they are slightly different masses for the two engines), 210 sensor platform and 210 vacuum servo.
As for the different centrifugal advance bits, on the 270 flange things, there were numbers 11.5 & 13.5 and on the 210, 17.5 & 15.5. I guess these correspond to advance angles? Other than that, the driven part of the shafts seemed the same.
Another thing I have to do is hook up the vacuum advance. It hasn't been on as long as I've had the car, and there doesn't seem to be a nipple on the Webers... I'm sure I'll figure something out!
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Location:
Adelaide
Registered:
June 2003
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Location:
Canberra
Registered:
July 2005
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Re: Tricky's RA23
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Sat, 17 September 2005 07:27
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I can't verify that it is a genuine 210 dizzy. I can't find any part numbers either. Where would they be located? For that matter, I can't find any numbers on the electric dizzy. The bodies of the two dizzy's are quite similar, the main difference being that in the points dizzy, the clips are detachable from the body, whereas they are integral in the electronic one. The caps seem interchangable. One thing I also noticed was my points dizzy seems identical to one I saw on a 88253 at a wreckers last week. Dunno really...
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Location:
Adelaide
Registered:
June 2003
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Re: Tricky's RA23
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Sat, 17 September 2005 12:59
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That dizzy that has the dodgy clamp thing holding it in place, if it has the same style of mechanical advance weights, is not an 88210. The case looks like it might be similar, but I just checked and the weights are different between 88210 and later models (I've not seen an 88231 of 88251 era model to advise on these).
The 18RGU dizzy has the built in mounting flange, as does the 18RGEU one. They also have a spring tensioned shaft so that it does has no end-end thrust movement (unlike early models)
18RGEU advance numbers are 11.5 and 13.5 (same as 18R-set to 13.5 by the book)
18RGU advance numbers are 15.5 and 17.5
18RGEU and 18RGU shaft bottoms and tops are interchangable with each other and 18R from what I can tell (disregarding timing differences).
88210 vacuum advance is a quite different beast to 18R models. The 88210 vacuum advance acts from 0-150mm/hg. 18R acts from 150-300mm/hg from memory.
I didn't check the 18RGU one, should have though, it would be easy enough, I can if you want me to. I can also check an 18RGEU one.
The part numbers are on a little shiny metallic plastic plate that is glued onto the dizzy housing on the outside. I'm sure many have fallen off, we're just lucky that all ours are still there.
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Location:
Canberra
Registered:
July 2005
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Re: Tricky's RA23
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Sun, 18 September 2005 00:23
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Well, the points dizzy housing has "18R" Written on it, and the numbers "19100 33014" then "0291004940" on the next line. As far as the weights are concerned, I haven't directly compared them, but it is of a similar style to the electronic dizzy. As I said, It looks very similar to a 253 dizzy I saw at a wreckers. The electronic dizzy hasn't got the part numbers listed on it, but I can see where it did. The caps are interchangable, and the vacuum advance are similar. The shafts are the same diameter. I dunno what's what really. I guess I'll see sometime when I compare them both to a dizzy that I can confirm came from a 210 and from a 270.
UPDATE: I spent more on the cooling system than I anticipate, so the carpets will have to wait a couple of weeks. I took her for the first long trip on Friday. Down to Bateman's Bay(the coast for non Canberrans). She absolutely loved it, and didn't miss a beat, although the ears start to notice the volume after about an hour at 110km/h.
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Location:
Canberra
Registered:
July 2005
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Re: Tricky's RA23
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Sat, 10 December 2005 14:00
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Well, I haven't done much for a while, but it's uni holidays, so I'll get cracking when I get some time off work. I gave it a wash a while ago, ad it came up much better than anticipated. So much so that my brother wanted to take it to his formal . I temporarily killed my electronic dizzy due to an ingress of coolant .That'll teach me to take shortcuts.
When I have a couple of weeks to spare, I'm rebuilding my engine to original spec. It'll be a pretty budget rebuild, 'cos I can't afford machining, new pistons or cams at the moment. From the low compression on piston three, it seems that a ring is broken, so hopefully the bores will be fine and I'll just be able to reuse to 9.7:1 pistons and freshen up the bearings and rings.
I have a set of silvertop 20v quads, so I'll make up a manifold sometime and install a megasquirt, but there's no hurry there. I gave the DCOE's a tune and pumped up the timing a bit, and it's running great. I've been giving some thought to the final specs of the car, and these are as follows:
Body and Aesthetics:
-painted with a shiny white
-longchamp xr4 or panasport rims
Engine:
I'll keep the 18RG. It's ironic that the original engine has become a rare fixture. The 1G doesn't please me, and it'll be a while before I put a 3SGE in.
-bore to 92mm
-10.5:1 forged pistons
-balance
-port and polish head
-shotpeen rods + ARP studs
-custom headstuds (from Jason's group buy)
-TRD 304/288 cams
-quads
-MSII with sequential spark capability (custom... Yes, I'm crazy)
Diff, suspension and handling
-S13 IRS and discs... eventually. For $330 from Rolin imports, who wouldn't pick one up?
-R&P conversion. Probably TA23 x-member, so need to change sump. If I get bored, I'll fab up an alloy sump.
-FC RX7 calipers over as yet undecided rotors. 285mm+
-probably get a 1/2 cage put in.
-RCA's
In the meantime, I'll put RT141 rear discs on and RT132 front struts for improved stopping. I might consider a JDM AE86 LSD.
A bit of stuff above is unnecessary for street use, and the handling will probably outperform the 18RG, but that just gives me a solid platform for an engine conversion when I get to that stage.
But I don't really give a shit. It's not just about the driving, it's also about building an awesome toy that looks good and does what I want it too.
I'll get some nice pics up of the exterior shortly. It really does look better with a wash!
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