BUYER BEWARE BUYING 18RG's USED.

[RT104GT]

A picture is worth a thousand words besides I am a gentlemen.

I guess one persons Treasure becomes some elses trash.

In 1980's there were hundreds of these lined up at API Springvale.

Now an estimate for a rebuild is about $2000

And thats basic form.

If you can get all the missing parts needed.







Rings chip in 1 and 3 combustion chamber.




debris in bore.



Worn/Stuffed top gears.




Sucking air in front pot due disconnected hose.





Slipper and curved guide almost destroyed by overtightening tensioner.



Lower chain really stretched


USED BY A LITTLE OLD LADY TO GO TO CHURCH ON SUNDAYS

[Starfire]

At the end of they day you are buying a 30 year old engine. Thats a long time for things to go wrong.

Just think - When you get it rebuilt it will be nice, clean, strong and fresh and may well last you another 30 years.

The price you pay for being in to old cars I suppose.

[oldcorollas]

umm.. you buy an old engine, you EXPECT it to look like that??

nice pictures, but should this be moved to general car talk?

[RT104GT]

Umm after 30 years in this hobby, was a bit surprised that someone from these pages with a REPUTATION, would try this sort o scam on. If you believe all the little elves they NEVER EVER drive their cars fast or hard, at least thats the theme I see repeated over and over on these pages. Just a bit dissapointed thats all, the reality is most of us would not have a clue about the engines we are buyng in good faith, that people claim are in good condition and we trust people we hardly know. Its only money,

[jeffro ra28]

fair dinkum, what is this all about?

Its a 30 year old engine for fuck sake, who knows the history of the dam thing.

Oh btw, if your going to buy a secondhand engine a compression test and a leakdown is wise. If your not willing to do these things then your probably as out of line as the seller.

[oldcorollas]

i have about 10 K series engines that look almost all like that... from normal wear and tear
some better (look nice inside) some worse (chocolate fudge and all pistons broken)

but all from normal wear.

if you have a problem with someone on the forum, you should PM them directly instead of making threads like this.

as for chain.. looks normal. you would replace it as a matter of course (for what? $20-30?)
the slipper guides wear.. thats what they are there for.
disconnected hose? so?

all timing gears wear. they are consumables. just buy new ones

overall, it doesn't look bad
pistons, rebore, clean it up, replace consumables... as long as block and head are able to be reco'd, all good

[RT104GT]

At the end of they day you are buying a 30 year old engine. Thats a long time for things to go wrong.

Just think - When you get it rebuilt it will be nice, clean, strong and fresh and may well last you another 30 years.

The price you pay for being in to old cars I suppose.

Yes I would rebuild it if I could find a complete set of parts I require, but like many things they are just not available at any price. e.g. slippers, curved chain guide top cam gears. to name but three items n/a. Or a part number for some after market or Chinese 18RG 9.7 pistons.

My engineer says commercially avaailable 18RG spares are just not availabel at any rational price. It would be cheaper to fly to Hawaii and back than buy a top overhaul kit at AUS/NZ prices. JETSTAR AIRFAIRE to HAWAII, + US PISTON PRICES=AUS/NZ PRICES.

[oldcorollas]

i wonder where your engineer was looking?

the price of guides for 18RG and 2TG from toyota are similar to that of Toysport.. fairly expensive ($100ish a guide?) because no-one makes aftermarket guides.
chains should be cheap and relatively generic.

pistons? you could get them posted from hawaii if that is where they are
EMS postage = cheaper than airfare.

look to the US for R series pistons perhaps. i'm not sure if they had the 18RG, but they had the other R series motors (eww, 22R truck motor )

pistons should be relatively easy to get hold of. just go through the catalogues of the makers.
does ACL do them?

[oldcorollas]

teh internet is a wondeful thing.. maybe try and contact this guy?
http://www.techmasters.com.au/forum/...f6a58270d8ff6f

http://page2.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/b70515637

wow, even a BRAND NEW crank not cheap tho, but what do you expect (it was probably more expensive when new)
http://page9.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/jp/auction/k30430206

[RT104GT]

WOW 10K

My 2000 GT broke rings at 105,000 wore out the gearbox and diff at 145000 and we put rings in and bearings a new head it now has 239,800 km still on original pistons and only used 1 new timing kit in that distance and no main bearings just rings and big ends, and it can't be said that the Corona had an easy life.

[YLD-16L]

does ACL do them?

They definitely did (do?) do them, I had a set of 18RG and 2TG pistons from them a while back.

[RT104GT]

i wonder where your engineer was looking?

the price of guides for 18RG and 2TG from toyota are similar to that of Toysport.. fairly expensive ($100ish a guide?) because no-one makes aftermarket guides.
chains should be cheap and relatively generic.

pistons? you could get them posted from hawaii if that is where they are
EMS postage = cheaper than airfare.

look to the US for R series pistons perhaps. i'm not sure if they had the 18RG, but they had the other R series motors (eww, 22R truck motor )

pistons should be relatively easy to get hold of. just go through the catalogues of the makers.
does ACL do them?

EMS $100 US.


No you cant just put R pistons in a hemi head as cutouts on both sides of piston not just one side.
RG pistons, thats why they stamp the genuine 18RG engine number upside down so they dont put wrong head and pistons in on the engine assembly line.

[RT104GT]

They definitely did (do?) do them, I had a set of 18RG and 2TG pistons from them a while back.

Thanks appreciated.

So whats MAX bore size for an 18R realistically? And how do you work out how to hold down the c/ratio given our crap fuel these days?

[RT104GT]

i wonder where your engineer was looking?

the price of guides for 18RG and 2TG from toyota are similar to that of Toysport.. fairly expensive ($100ish a guide?) because no-one makes aftermarket guides.
chains should be cheap and relatively generic.

pistons? you could get them posted from hawaii if that is where they are
EMS postage = cheaper than airfare.

look to the US for R series pistons perhaps. i'm not sure if they had the 18RG, but they had the other R series motors (eww, 22R truck motor )

pistons should be relatively easy to get hold of. just go through the catalogues of the makers.
does ACL do them?

Engineer was looking in some Computer programs for engine rebuilding. Going down later on.

[oldcorollas]

EMS $100 US.

No you cant just put R pistons in a hemi head as cutouts on both sides of piston not just one side.
RG pistons, thats why they stamp the genuine 18RG engine number upside down so they dont put wrong head and pistons in on the engine assembly line.

wow, thats cheap! the last things i sent by EMS were over US$200 got to Aus in 3 days tho
surely jetstar tickets are more than that?

that crank is about AUD$1200. divide yen by about 85ish. then add $200-300 for shipping

as for crap fuel, i had 10.5:1 in a 4K with warm cam. with 18RG, being hemi, you should still be able to go to between 10 and 11:1, and if worrried, dial in a bit more overlap to reduce dynamic compression.

arguably, the fuel we have nowadays is actually better than in recent years. leaded was never 98 was it?

ninja edit: you need a new engineer