For the love of a tractor engine: The life and times of the 18R-G

[lilcrash]

Yer it's a stock 18r flywheel from a 75 corona.

[o_man_ra23]

Replace with either a good condition factory flywheel, or better yet, look at what options you have for a nice lightweight aftermarket flywheel. If you intend to race, or you have turbocharged/supercharged/NOs, I would strongly suggest (although River will disagree) to get an aftermarket unit that is designed for performance/race applications.

[lilcrash]

With a 10second 0-60 time. I don't think a lightened flywheel is gonna help much. But depending on cost maybe.

[o_man_ra23]

Actually, it will help remove a lot off that 0-60 time...

As for cost, it was well under $500 delivered for a Fidanza flywheel (4.3kg as opposed to the factory 12+kg) with a new excedy clutch and a spigot bearing. Please note that I did get the 22R flywheel which required me to ream out the flywheel bolt threads to the larger 11x1.25mm 22R thread and use 22R ARP flywheel bolts. But that was worth doing as the flywheel bolt threads on my crank were a bit here and there due to corrosion.

[7t5-27]

Take the fly wheel to a machine shop have it cleaned surfaced and magnafluxed and checked for cracks, cracked? replace no cracks should be ok, however they are your legs and it is your car do you trust your machine shop? Good Luck Be safe
Greg

[lilcrash]

Hmmm that's not too bad considering the last exedy clutch I bought was $1200. If I was gonna get my rusty one machined I would do it myself at work. I dont normally pay to get stuff done if I can help it.

[river]

Hi,

I would strongly suggest (although River will disagree) to get an aftermarket unit that is designed for performance/race applications.

Oh contraire my northern friend. I do agree that if you want more sprightly performance in the lower gears then a lightened fly wheel is a good purchase. I just don't agree that you need to get a lightened flywheel because the stock wheel is prone to explode.

seeyuzz
river

[o_man_ra23]

I wasn't implying you would disagree with the performance benefits.

Lilcrash, I have heard that machining a flywheel on a lathe isn't a good idea, so I hope you have a surface grinder if you are going to attempt that sort of thing.

Oh, and the Excedy clutch (made by Daikin) was just a standard series with firmer pressure plate. Not a sports tuff or the like.

[lilcrash]

I was considering putting it on the mill. But yer I think il look for a replacement if I can't find one in a few weeks il just use it and see what happens. The clutch I bought wasn't anything special. Only rated to 500hp and it slips like a bitch. Definitely not worth the money.

[Shifty]

Guys, what's the general consensus on the standard ignition setup? Are there different setups between different variants of the 18RG?

I'm going to ITBs with a fuel-only ECU and was planning to run the stock ignition, but a few people are pressuring me to go the next step as well. Is this unnecessary hassle/expense? Power-wise I'm only chasing whatever it will make with some mid-spec'd cams and 2.2lt bottom end.

[o_man_ra23]

If you are going to ITBs I assume you will be running high RPM?? The stock dizzy signal will jump all over the shop due to the accumulated wear of the dizzy drive gears and the interaction between the half shafts of the dizzy. I found this to be a bit of an issue with my 18R-GTE, and others have found it to completely prevent proper operations.

To my mind you would be better off going a full fuel/spark ECU and using a trigger wheel off the front pulley (check out www.triggerwheels.com)

[Shifty]

Yes and no, depends what you class as high RPM really! Intended cams run out to 7000rpm:

In 289 (adv) 238 (.050) 10.9mm
Ex 289 (adv) 238 (.050) 10.9mm
RPM 3000-7000

So I'd probably have redline about 7200 depending on how the power curve looks around that area. I assume based on how popular these engines are, a fresh but fairly standard engine can handle this kind of RPM without major reworking of the internals?

Any info on converting to standalone ignition? I know little/nothing about it other than that I'll need to add a trigger point and buy an appropriate ECU.

[7t5-27]

Hmmm that's not too bad considering the last exedy clutch I bought was $1200. If I was gonna get my rusty one machined I would do it myself at work. I dont normally pay to get stuff done if I can help it.

All the better do the work magnaflux the part and see if it has cracks if not you are set. Don't know what the topography is like where you live but when I put the light flywheel in my TG (steel HKS) it worked great until I went up long hills then I would find myself downshifting as the mass of the car would cause the rpms to drop in 5th until I was almost a hazard to traffic. Good Luck on whatever you end up with there are trade offs with and without. Be Safe
Greg

[o_man_ra23]

Don't know what the topography is like where you live but when I put the light flywheel in my TG (steel HKS) it worked great until I went up long hills then I would find myself downshifting as the mass of the car would cause the rpms to drop in 5th until I was almost a hazard to traffic.

Greg,

The 20+kg flywheel in my diesel Hilux doesn't help going up hills. The RPM dies off in any gear as soon as I start going up the hill. Only time it helps me is when pulling stumps out (which the Hilux does regularly). If you want to go up hills without downshifting... get more torque.

Shifty,

Stock motors have a redline of 7000rpm and will happily sit at that all day. I have heard of 7800 reliably from a stock motor. With a bit of balancing, 9000rpm isn't hard to acheive. As the standard cams are good for well over 7000rpm, I would say mild cams should be good for 8000rpm (or they aren't worth going to).

As far as the ignition signal jumping around, it was noticeable at 3000rpm, and since the timing events for your injectors relies on this signal, it wouldn't be a bad idea to upgrade just for that purpose, let alone the improvements in ignition.

[Shifty]

Ok so it seems like ditching the distributor is the way to go.

So not having done this before how does one set up a distributorless system? Obviously you need a crank or cam trigger which sends a signal to the ecu, which in turn processes & sends signal to ignitor which powers the coil which hits the plugs?

And alongside all that crap I'm adding, how much can I ditch? Just the dizzy and a block-off plate? Balance shaft(s) or anything?